Call back from BI tool to Repository
Implementing the call back
Obviously, the way each of these external tools is able to invoke a call to another product, like Talend Data Catalog , will vary greatly from tool to tool. In general, though, any of these tools may include a Web URL which either allows one to open a web page for that URL that includes specifics about the location (report being viewed) within the BI environment or embed such a web page result within the reporting environment. Thus, the most common method for calling back to the repository is to use the generic glossary report URL.
Generic Glossary Report
One URL based result is the generic glossary report. Business intelligence metadata sources which are imported include the metadata about reports presented by the BI system. The reports then may have a hierarchical organization of “sub” reports and individual data elements.
The glossary report is a simple report of all elements and sub reports contained in a report and then all terms linked to those elements and sub reports and any terms linked to the report as a whole. It is designed to be invoked from a URL which can be called from within the BI solution itself, thus allowing one to customize the reports themselves to provide the terms and definitions associated with the report.
The URL signature is as follows:
http://localhost/MM/BusinessGlossaryReport
You may append any of the following to any UI URL:
URL Option text | Value |
&env | Environment as defined in MIRMetadataExplorer.xml |
&report | A unique report id or name |
The call back to the repository requires a license (Consumer type). Thus, you must authenticate to receive the report.
Example
In the demo/tutorial example with Tableau, one can obtain the &report option value by going to the object page of the workbook and opening the Parameters panel and then looking at the URL parameter. Thus, the URL would be:
http://localhost/MM/BusinessGlossaryReport?env=Env1&report=Finance1
Note, if you embed this link in Tableau, you should use the following URL which takes advantage of the workbook name substitution parameter:
http://localhost/MM/BusinessGlossaryReport?env=Env1&report=<Workbook Name>
Where this has been added to MetadataExplorer.xml in order to define where Env1 points to:
<Environment name="Env1" configPath="/Demo Enterprise Architecture/Published" contentPath="/Demo Enterprise Architecture/Business Intelligence (BI)/Tableau">
<URLParameter>noHeader=true</URLParameter>
<URLParameter>noTitle=true</URLParameter>
<URLParameter>noHyperlink=true</URLParameter>
<URLParameter>noContext=true</URLParameter>
<URLParameter>noIcon=true</URLParameter>
<URLParameter>noGrouping=true</URLParameter>
</Environment>
Here are all the possible options
URL Option text | Value |
noHeader=(true|false) | Hides the header of the report |
noTitle=(true|false) | Hides the title of the report |
noGridHeader=(true|false) | Hides the grid header |
noHyperlink =(true|false) | Makes hyperlinks non clickable |
noContext =(true|false) | Hides the context information |
noIcon =(true|false) | Hides all icons |
showDefinitionsOnly =(true|false) | Only show the list of distinct terms documenting the report |
modelDefinitionsOnly =(true|false) | - Only show the definitions of the model itself (not the report item ones) |
UI Customization
Located in the $MM_HOME/conf/template/resources folder within the installation on the application server machine, the MetadataExplorer.xml file contains complete XML providing definition of the behavior of the Metadata Explorer UI. This is where we will include the new Environment for calls via URL.
To cause Talend Data Catalog to leverage any changes to this file (so that the UI is controlled by your updates) you must copy the file from $MM_HOME/conf/template/resources to $MM_HOME/conf/resources. Only when the file is in this new location will it be picked up and parsed on startup of the Talend Data Catalog application server.
The customization of this file is covered in detail in the Metadata Management Tutorial - User Interface Customization Using Talend Data Catalog
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