Change Source

Changing data sources of a query in a Web Intelligence document means replacing data objects from a data source with data objects from another data source. This replacement is computed according to a set of rules called strategies, which define how target data objects should match the data objects to be replaced.

Use Cases

The "change source" functionality addresses two main use cases:

  • Linking a document to a universe that has been converted from UNV to UNX
  • Linking a document uploaded to the CMS repository to a data source actually stored in the CMS repository
Supported Data Sources

The following table describes the source and target data sources supported by the "change source" functionality.

  Target UNV Target UNX Target BEx Query
Source UNV OK OK OK
Source UNX Not supported OK OK
Source BEx Query Not supported Not supported OK
Note The "change source" functionality does not support text files and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets as data sources.
"Change Source" Worflow
Before 4.1 SP4
  1. GET: getting the suggested data object mappings for the selected data providers based on a given target data source.

    The default strategy applies.

  2. POST: updating the document with the selected data objects of the target data source mapped to the data objects to be replaced.

    The object mapping used can be the one suggested by the first call or can have been edited.

Since 4.1 SP4 Patch 4 and 4.1 SP5 Patch 1

It is possible to apply the suggested mapping (POST call) without getting it (GET call). This means the mapping is considered to be valid.

In the POST call:

  • If the request body is empty, then the object mapping used is the one found by the default strategies.

  • If the request body contains an incomplete object mapping, then the default mapping is used to replace the missing objects.

Since 4.1 SP6
  1. Getting the suggested data object mappings using either the default strategies (GET) or the given strategies (PUT).

    In the GET call, the default strategies are the ones used in previous releases. In the PUT call, you specify the order of the strategies, which apply one after the other for each data object only when the mapping status is "not found" and until a match is found.

  2. POST: updating the document with the selected data objects of the target data source mapped to the data objects to be replaced.

    The object mapping used in the POST call can be the one suggested either by the GET call (default mapping) or by the PUT call (mapping found by the given stragtegies). A custom mapping can also be specified in the request body.

    In the POST call:

    • If the request body is empty, then the object mapping used is the default mapping.

    • If the request body contains an incomplete object mapping, then the default mapping is used to replace the missing objects.

    • If the request body contains an empty or incomplete object mapping but with strategies, then the mapping used is overloaded by the one found with the strategies.
Note For custom mappings, you can change only the target ID of a given mapping, but must keep all the source IDs. If the target ID is null, then the data source object will be removed.