Integration Planning

 

Visokio applications are designed to be part of data integration, management, reporting, presentation and publishing solutions. Omniscope/DataPlayer Studio and /FeatureFinder Web can connect to and refresh from internal proprietary data repositories, data warehouses and 'marts' and link to (and display in the case of Omniscope) related, external, web-based content, including 'dashboards'.

Below we discuss direct connection and refresh options for integrating with proprietary applications and database systems. Web integration options are discussed here. Omniscope Professional also supports an outside browser option that allows menus of multiple files to be browsed and selected from within Omniscope before any .IOK file is opened.

Data Import Options

Visokio applications import data from files in supported formats, via direct connections to view(s)/table(s) in relational databases using standard protocols such as ODBC and JDBC, and via Connectors which can be developed for specific applications that wish to use Visokio reporting.

Data Files

Create a source data dump file, containing records and fields of the linked source flat-file data, in a supported format:

• Comma separated value (.CSV) flat files, in the flavour exported by Excel (without 65,000 record limit).
• XML data files, in the Visokio XML data schema intended for flat file data transmission in XML. If you already have a different XML output schema implemented, it is easy to apply XSL transforms on import. More on XSL
• More information on supported file formats.

Refreshed source data files can be provided either as files on a local disk or network share, or as HTTP or FTP URLs to intra-/extranet servers or public websites (the latter requiring any necessary proxy servers to be configured in Omniscope). For more information see Proxy Settings.

Direct Database Connections using ODBC/JDBC

Omniscope can import from any ODBC or JDBC data source. This typically means a database, although it is possible to implement an ODBC or JDBC interface to a spreadsheet, or a proprietary system. It is also possible to develop bespoke Connectors to optimise the update/refresh cycle and deal with other limitations of ODBC and JDBC-based connections.

Data Refresh Options

Refreshing the data between a proprietary system and one or more Omniscopes running on always-on servers and client desktops can be accomplished in several increasingly continuous and efficient ways:

1. Frequent 'dump and refresh': Your proprietary application produces a full data dump file in .XML or .CSV format, as frequently as necessary. Omniscope is configured to refresh data from this file automatically.
2. Frequent 'refresh on demand': You provide a full data dump on demand at a URL via HTTP (using a Java servlet in a web server dumping XML/CSV, for example). Omniscope is configured to refresh data from the URL according to a frequency.
3. Enterprise XML Actions You provide an XML "script" of actions, executed by Omniscope Enterprise, which updates an Omniscope IOK file from a flat file or database. You trigger execution of this script from within your proprietary system as and when the data changes. You can also use the Scheduler to refresh at short intervals.
4. Client-side Automatic Refresh- (new in version 2.3) Using one of the other options to populate and periodically refresh an .IOK Source file derived from a Template file on a server, Auto-Refresh will update the data displayed on one or more Professionals according to a client refresh frequency you specify. Auto-refresh can be implemented over LAN/WAN or the open web. Omniscope ships with an example of a file that refreshes over the open web from our server to your desktop. Try it from File > Demo files....Live data refresh demo. More detail on Using Auto-Refresh.
5. Proprietary Connector- If necessary, we can work with you to define a Connector API for retrieving just the updated data from your proprietary system at appropriate times. This will be highly specific to the nature of your own systems, the installation environment, the data structure and degree of data "liveness". Once your users' needs are defined, we will develop a Connector specifically for your API that efficiently retrieves just the updated data, only when necessary, from your system. Using custom Connector, rather than standard protocols like ODBC/JDBC, the refresh can get very very close to real time*. This option involves chargeable consultancy and development work.

A given solution can employ more than one of these options for refreshing Omniscope files on both always-on servers and local or remote client installations. For example, a leading asset manager uses the Enterprise Edition Scheduler to refresh a server-based Omniscope Source file every 30 seconds. About 15 Omniscope Professionals use the Automatic Refresh option to keep an open connection to the Source file, and refresh the data continuously...effectively a real-time update solution. In addition, using the Outside Browser option, users can change from one Omniscope Source file to another (and other web-based applications) by selecting from a menu of files displayed on an internal web page (see below).

Using .IOK files as linked data sources-

Q: How can I refresh .IOK files that users have configured in ways different to my Source .IOK file, and in personalised ways unknown to me?

A: You can configure your Source .IOK file as a linked data source for Users .IOK files, which users can then customise and re-configure over time as they adapt to their Omniscope working/reporting files.  Whenever they open their file, only the data will be refreshed, leaving their individually personalised  view configurations, filter settings and Report Pages unchanged.

Presenting File Menus

In addition to opening files accessible to the local machine via the File > Open File dialog, Omniscope can also open displaying a menu of available source/reporting files displayed in the external Outside Browser view. This view is available with no specific .IOK file selected, and is intended to provide a web-page based menu of files for users to select from while in Omniscope. More detail on using the Outside Browser.

Integration with Proprietary Systems

Visokio applications are standalone installed applications. Visokio does not currently provide API type integration options for embedding Omniscope as a visual module within a larger application. DataPlayer Studio and FeatureFinder Web share the same data import and refresh code base as Omniscope. To integrate with a proprietary data system, you must consider Omniscope/ DataPlayer or FeatureFinder Web to be standalone clients with various options for refreshing the data in batches (even at 1 second intervals) as discussed below.

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*Genuinely real-time data, updating continuously, is not directly possible in Omniscope, for usability and architectural reasons. Instead, data updates are received and displayed in batches when the application is idle or the user explicitly requests. This can be done as often as every second, depending on bandwidth, dataset size & update efficiency. For all but the very strictest real-time requirements, this near-real time live approximation is more than 'live' enough.

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