In my previous blog about the TIBCO Spotfire 7 new features, I had highlighted some of the key features that included customization options and improved user interactivity. The list does not end here but extends beyond to provide enhanced data connectivity capabilities to the user. Take a look at these new features from TIBCO Spotfire 7 on the data connectivity side.

OLAP cubes

There is a common misconception that Spotfire does not work well with OLAP data and the power of Spotfire is limited to relational data. Spotfire 7 now lets you import OLAP cubes and leverage Spotfire’s wide range of logical, mathematical and statistical functions on OLAP cubes. The best part is that it supports features like variable, selections, formulae and underlying hierarchies as well. There is improved support for SAP BW BEx query variables as well. Apart from the import option, there are other options too.

• Estimate Import size

This option returns the number of cells in your current selection. This lets you form an approximate idea of your data size for further analysis. Note that, if this step takes too long or fails, the data you have selected is too big for import and you ought to keep your data table external or select only the key figures and characteristics you need for your analysis.

• Limit Data

This option lets you filter the data in the initial step before loading into Spotfire. You can limit data as per your selection and only that portion of the data will be imported into Spotfire for further analysis. This saves you the trouble of filtering your data every time when you need only a subset of the data for your analysis.

• Import Data Table

Now you can import OLAP cubes into Spotfire and leverage its analytic features. You can use all of Spotfire’s charts and functions like marking, sorting, data limiting, transformations and many more unique features

SAP HANA

Spotfire has always provided a robust connectivity to SAP HANA. Both tables and SAP HANA specific views, known as Information Views, can be accessed from Spotfire. In this new version Kerberos SSO and SSL authentication methods, that are essential to connect to SAP HANA One instance, are supported. Previously, you had to check the box called ‘Include System Schemas’ to connect to SAP HANA views. Now this is not necessary and you can directly connect to the views. This has simplified the process of connecting to SAP HANA Information Views.

Other connectors

TIBCO Spotfire’s previous versions provided PostgreSQL connector. Now the connector supports SSL which is essential to connect to Amazon Redshift, a popular Cloud Data Warehouse solution. The other PostgreSQL connectivity enhancement is that Hortonworks now supports Kerberos, LDAP authentication and SSL. The OData connector has been added in this version and you can access OData links directly via the connector without any need for coding. Now you can access and control data through a URL and analyze it in Spotfire. This eliminates the need for a local database and extensive knowledge in database querying languages.