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How to connect to a file

Overview

Data is often found in local files in various computer systems. When the need arises to analyze this data with Birst, it must be imported first. Data can be imported from a file into Birst using 2 methods.

This tutorial goes through both methods.

Components

Requirements

  • Access to Birst Enterprise
  • Right to create spaces to connect to data
    • If you are using an Infor Cloudsuite, you can find the corresponding IFS roles in the CloudSuite Analytics documentation. For example, in M3 Analytics you need the ‘M3A Administration‘ role for Admin access.
  • Active Birst Cloud Agent

Tutorial

Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Completion Time: 10 minutes

A video walkthrough of the below tutorial

1. Create a new space

Once you are successfully logged into your Birst account, create a new space, if none have been created already. To do so, click the ‘Create New Space’ hyperlink located in the middle of the Infor Birst welcome page. Otherwise, you can select an existing space.

From the ‘Create New Space’ menu, go to the ‘Create New Space’ menu and choose to create an Enterprise, Professional, or Usage Tracking space. Make sure to name your space appropriately and save by clicking the green check button when finished. In this tutorial, a Professional space will be utilized for the Infor Birst Essentials Guide and the associated data files are most compatible with this space. Of course, using files as a data source is compatible with the other spaces as well.

  • Enterprise: The most advanced and comprehensive edition, which offers support for complex data transformations, advanced scheduling, and robust governance and security controls. This is most suitable for large organizations with complex data integration requirements and a demand for a high level of governance and security.
  • Professional: The mid-tier edition offers a balanced set of features for data integration but has limitations to its capabilities compared to the Enterprise edition. This is most suitable for medium-sized organizations with moderate data integration.
  • Usage Tracking: A specialized edition that focuses on tracking and monitoring data usage and access patterns. This edition provides analytics and reporting capabilities to gain insights into how the data is being used within Birst. You are able to monitor user activity, track report usage, and analyze data consumption patterns. This is most suitable for organizations that want to understand user engagement and optimize their data analytic processes.

To open an existing space, go to the ‘Global Navigation Menu’ and your current space is displayed at the top of the menu. Click on the ‘Switch Space’ button next to the name of your space and select your desired space.

2. Create a connection to a data source

When the space is created, go to the ‘Modeler Connect’ page to create a connection to a data source. In the top left of the welcome page is the ‘Global Navigation Menu’ button, symbolized by 3 horizontal lines. Click the button to expand the menu, expand the ‘Modeler’ section, and then select ‘Connect’ tab.

3. Choose how to connect to your file

There are two ways to connect to a file:

  • With the Quick Upload (does not need an Agent and can only upload up to 20MB)
  • Using the Agent
    • It’s the Files option on the Modeler Connect page
    • Files to be uploaded need to be in the Files folder
    • Files can be bigger than 20MB
    • Needs an agent

4. Quick Upload method

At the top of the ‘Modeler Connect’ page is the ‘Quick upload‘ feature that allows you to upload your files to Birst. Click on the ‘Browse Files’ button and select the files you want to upload from your computer. In this tutorial, the ‘Movie Titles.xlsx‘ file will be uploaded. This feature supports the following file extensions: ‘.xls‘, ‘.xlsx‘, ‘.csv‘, ‘.txt‘, and ‘.zip‘. The maximum file size that can be uploaded is 20 MB.

Once the files have been successfully uploaded, you can preview the contents of the file. In the preview window, you can choose not to import certain columns of the file’s data tables by unchecking the box next to the column name. When the column is unselected, the entire column will be unhighlighted. Otherwise, the entire data table is highlighted in blue by default.

At the bottom of the window are shortcuts (only available for files and not databases) to the different steps in the Birst data preparation process that you can skip to. The available shortcuts include: ‘Connect‘, ‘Prepare‘, ‘Relate‘, ‘Visualizer‘, and ‘Dashboards‘. The ‘Prepare‘ shortcut will be selected for this tutorial, but feel free to explore the other shortcuts.

  • Connect: Establish a connection to your data sources within the Birst platform and configure the appropriate parameters to connect Birst with the correct data sources.
  • Prepare: Transform the extracted data for analysis and report by cleaning, calculating, integrating, validating, modeling, enhancing with additional information, and safeguarding the data.
  • Relate: Establish relationships between the different data sources by identifying and mapping key fields, defining relationships and hierarchies, and verifying the relationships to ensure accuracy.
  • Visualizer: Once you have created your model and processed the data once, you can update your data by uploading a new file and have Birst process it, and then take you directly to Visualizer to continue working on visualizations and reports.
  • Dashboards: Once you have created your model and processed the data once, you can update your data by uploading a new file and have Birst process it, and then take you directly to Dashboards to continue your work.

After being taken to the ‘Modeler Prepare’ page, imported files are shown in the ‘Sources’ menu.

5. Using Birst Cloud Agent ie the Files Connector option

The Files Connector enables you to:

  • Connect and upload local files larger than 20 MB. The File Connector currently supports .xls, .xlsx, .txt, .csv, and .zip files.
  • Schedule data refreshes from Modeler Prepare to keep data in Birst in sync with the changes happening in your files.

You can choose the Files Connector either by going to the Connections on the left side of the screen:

Or by click the Files icon on the Connect page:

6. Move the files to the right location

Additionally, make sure the data is in the correct place, so that the agent can access them. In order to do so, move your file(s) into the ‘files‘ folder inside the Birst Cloud Agent installation folder.

7. Fill in the connection information (for Files Connector)

Fill in the following information and click the green ‘Save’ button when finished:

  • Connection Name: Decide on a meaningful and descriptive name that helps you identify this particular connection from others in your Birst environment. In this case, name this connection, ‘My Files‘.
  • Assign Agent: Choose and assign a specific Birst Cloud Agent to perform tasks within the platform. Click the ‘Select agent’ button and choose an active agent from the agent selection menu by clicking on the ‘Show online agents only’ button. Select the desired agent by checking the box next to that agent’s name. When finished, select the ‘Back’ option.
  • File path: This field serves as a reminder for you to place any files that you want to import in the ‘files‘ folder of the Birst Cloud Agent installation folder.

8. Choose the files to import (for Files Connector)

From the ‘Select files for _(Connection Name)_’ menu, a list of imported files is displayed and you can select the files that you want uploaded by checking the box next to the file’s name. Click on the blue ‘Upload’ button when finished.

8. Preview the data

When the selected files have been successfully uploaded, we can preview the data. You can choose not to import certain columns of the file’s data tables by unchecking the box next to the column name. When the column is unselected, the entire column will be unhighlighted. Otherwise, the entire data table is highlighted in blue by default. Click on the blue ‘Done’ button when finished.

As you import and upload these files, you are actually copying the data from the data source, so that it can be stored within the Birst platform. This allows for faster and more efficient data access and analysis.

9. Review the imported data

Go to the ‘Modeler Prepare’ page by going to the ‘Modeler’ toolbar, selecting the ‘Connect’ tab, and then select the ‘Prepare’ option. Now, you can see all of the files that were imported and uploaded to the Birst platform.