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Data Source Types and Usages

A data source In File Access Manager is a table containing data from various sources, including internal File Access Manager reports, for use in various system locations. An Administrator can join data sources to form a superset of data, which follows the same logic as a “left join” in an RDBMS database.

Caution

For some data source types, the files should be located on the same server where the IIS is running. To run reports on these data types, the Reporting service has to be installed on the same server as well. Please check in the description of the relevant type below.

Available Data Sources

Refer to Data Source Properties for more information about available data sources.

Data Source Description
SQL Server Database Access to SQL server database
Flat File Query a delimited file
Excel Read data from an MS Excel document
User Exit Run a user script to return data
Active Directory Access to the Active Directory
LDAP Query LDAP for object types and properties
ODBC Access to any ODBC source (such as, DB2 and AS400)
Oracle Database Access to an Oracle database
Static Table Define an ad-hoc source by creating and populating a table on screen
XML Analyze and import data from XML. The files should be located on the same server as the IIS. In order to run reports, the Reporting service should be installed on the same server as well.

Viewing and Editing Data Sources

The Data Source page displays a list of data sourced defined in File Access Manager.

To create a data source, select New Data Source.

See Creating Data Sources

Actions available on data sources

  • Edit

  • Delete

  • Generate Report - opens a scheduling panel to run a report once, or create a scheduled report from this data.

Join Data Sources

The Join Data Source works like a "left join" in an RDBMS, where the configured data source is the left table, and the joined data source is the right table.
The join will produce a complete set of records by matching data from the configured Data Source, with data in the joined Data Source (if available). If there is no matching data, the right columns will be empty (null values).

A joined data source depends on a match between the Local Key (in the configured Data Source column) and the Remote Key (in the joined Data Source column).

In the following example, Data Source A (configured) has the following columns:

Note

A User Name is a unique entity, while a User Display Name may have more than one associated user.

Data Source A

User Name             User Display Name                        
John John Doe
Mike Mike Miller
Lisa Lisa B

Data Source B

Data Source B (the joined data source) has the following columns:

User Name Joined Department                                    
John Engineering
Mike Product
Other User Finance

The joined data source below results from joining Data Source A and Data Source B, Local Key = User Name and Remote Key = User Name Joined:

Joined Data Source

User Name User Display Name Department              
John John Doe Engineering
Mike Mike Miller Product
Lisa Lisa B  

The Department value for Lisa is null in Data Source B. Other User is not in Data Source A, and is therefore, not in the joined Data Source.

Creating Data Sources

To create a new Data Source:

  1. Go to Admin > Data Sources > New Data Source to open the New Data Source wizard.
  2. Select the data source type from the dropdown list, and enter a name and description.

  3. Select Next to open the configuration page.

    The parameters Data Source Wizard screen displays. This screen is different for each data source type.

    For a detailed description of the fields for each data source type, see the next sections.
    Active Directory Data Source LDAP Data Source SQL Server Database Data Source
    Excel Data Source ODBC Data Source Static Table Data Source
    Flat File Data Source Oracle Database Data Source User Exit Data Source
    XML Data Source    

  4. Fill in the configuration fields for the data source.

  5. Select Test.

    If the configuration is correct, the Test will run the data source with the values entered in the configuration fields, and display the first ten results.

    If there is an error the test will fail.

  6. Joining with additional data sources (Optional)

    The Join Data Source works like a Left Join in an RDBMS, where the configured data source is the left table, and the joined data source is the right table. See Join Data Sources for further details.

    Select the box Do you want to join this data source with another one? to configure joining this data source with other predefined data sources.

    Select the data source, and the key to link by from the dropdown lists. Press the + to add additional data sources.

  7. Select Done to create the data source.