Toad Data Point 6.2.3 - Installation Guide

Automate Refreshing Snapshots in Intelligence Central

In this tutorial you will build a script that refreshes a snapshot stored in Toad Intelligence Central.

Note: This feature is available in the Toad Data Point Professional edition only and requires access to a Toad Intelligence Central server.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to publish a snapshot to Intelligence Central
• How to use the Refresh Snapshot activity in Automation to refresh a snapshot

You will need:

• A sample database
• One of the following:
  • A Toad Intelligence Central server containing a published snapshot
  • A Toad Intelligence Central server to which you can publish a snapshot

Introduction

Toad Data Point allows you to publish data to Toad Intelligence Central in order to store and share data from remote data sources. You can publish data as a view, snapshot, or dataset. If you use Automation to publish data, the data is published as a dataset. For more information, see Automate Publishing Data to Intelligence Central.

A snapshot in Intelligence Central consists of a result set and the stored query. In Toad you can connect to Intelligence Central and manually refresh a published snapshot or schedule the refresh. In this tutorial you will learn how to use an Automation script to refresh the snapshot.

Publish a Snapshot

If you do not have access to a published snapshot, follow these steps to publish a snapshot. If you have access to a published snapshot, skip ahead to the instructions for creating the script.

1. Connect to the Intelligence Central server to which you want to publish the snapshot. See Create a Connection to Intelligence Central for more information.

   Ensure that the connection password is saved in the Connection Properties. For a scheduled Automation script to run successfully, the connection password must be saved with the connection.

2. Connect to your sample database. Select data to publish using the method of your choice. For example:
   • In the Object Explorer, right-click a table or view and select Publish.
   • In a data grid, right-click the grid and select Send To | Publish Data.

   • In the Editor or Query Builder, right-click a SQL statement and select Publish.

   The Publish to Intelligence Central dialog opens.

3. In the Publishing dialog, specify publishing options.
   1. In the Destination Folder field, select an existing folder or click the drop-down arrow to create a new folder.
   2. In the Publish Type field, select Snapshot.
   3. See Publish to Toad Intelligence Central for more information about specifying the remaining options.
4. Click Publish to publish the snapshot. The dialog closes and the publishing process runs in the background.
5. After the snapshot is published successfully, a confirmation window displays. Click the link in the confirmation message to view the snapshot in the Database Explorer (Viewer).

Create the Script

1. Select Tools | Automation to open the Automation window.
2. Click the Refresh a Snapshot activity to add it to the script design pane, or drag the activity from the Toolbox to the design pane
3. In the Activity Input tab, select Intelligence Central.
4. Select the Intelligence Central connection containing the snapshot to refresh.
5. Use the Datasource field to select the folder or database where the snapshot is located. In most cases, your object is located in a folder. Select the folder (or database) containing the snapshot to refresh.

6. In the Snapshot field, select the name of the snapshot to refresh.

   

7. Click Save to save your script.
8. When you are ready to refresh the snapshot, click Run to run the Automation script.
9. To confirm that the snapshot refreshed successfully, review the Automation script log.
10. To view the last refresh date and time, locate the snapshot using the Object Explorer. Right-click the snapshot and select View Details to open the snapshot in the Database Explorer (Viewer). Then select the Information tab. If necessary, select View | Refresh All to refresh the information.

Schedule A Script

See Schedule Your Script to learn how to schedule the Automation script in Toad Data Point.

Related Topics

Getting Started with Automation