External Report Auto Synchronization Overview

Metric Insights includes the ability to Auto Synchronize content with BI tools. This functionality automates creation of External Reports from the BI tool's objects and simplifies the process of updating existing External Reports.

This article describes how to:

PREREQUISITES:

The following Plugins are supported for External Reports Auto Sync:

The example below shows how to use Auto Sync with Tableau, but all the plugins follow the same steps.

Pulling Additional Metadata Upon External Reports Autos Sync

  • For Tableau, the system pulls Workbook Names, Descriptions, Tags, and Owners.

NOTE: To be able to pull this data, Include metadata under Optional Tableau Parameters in Data Source Editor must be set to "true".

  • For MicroStrategy, Metric Insights can pull Description and Technical Owner.

NOTE: A user with the same name as used in MicroStrategy must exist in Metric Insights.

  • For TIBCO Spotfire, the system pulls information about folders and sub-folders.

1. Enable Auto Synchronization

Access Admin > Collection & Storage > Data Source

To create External Reports from the BI tool system:

  1. [Enable Content Auto Synchronization] to display the next two fields
  2. Choose Parent Category where External Reports are synced
  3. Choose External Report Template
  4. [Save]

1.1. Mirror Hierarchy Option

This function is only implemented for the following BI tools:

  • Cognos
  • MicroStrategy
  • Qlik Sense
  • QlikView
  • TIBCO Spotfire
  • SAP Analytics Cloud
  • Microsoft SharePoint
Plugin Data Source Editor - Google Chrome
  1. Enabling Mirror Folder Hierarchy on will automatically create Subcategories to mirror the structure in the selected BI tool
  2. Example of Cognos categories hierarchy in Metric Insights

Special characters listed below are handled as an underscore “_” in the system upon "Mirror folder hierarchy":

  • Double quote "
  • Single quote '
  • Less than <
  • Greater than >
  • Caret ^
  • Grave accent (backtick) `

2. Synchronize Content

In Objects tab:

  • [Refresh List & Sync Content] updates the Objects list and creates new External Reports placing them into the Category selected in Info tab
  • [Run History] provides data on all previous sync runs

Each new automatically created External Report is named after the object of its origin.

3. View Synced External Reports

Category Editor - Google Chrome

Once synchronization completes:

  1. Synced External Reports are available in their assigned Category under Content > Categories