Universe Data Sources

[ADB1]

Is it possible to place flat files, such as excel csv's or text files into a universe and join them to the database tables within the universe. The reason behind the question is that surely if you have data within your database that never changes i.e. country names or month names. Surely it would be quicker to query a flat csv file joined to the data in your database table that changes, than going to your database every time for all of the information?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,

Adam.

 

[nimmy99]

Yes you can create an universe on Excel, csv file. For that you have to select the ODBC generic as a DB engine while creating connection. I donot know about linking.

 

[skrandel]

2 things:

1) You cannot have a universe that reads from multiple sources. It will read from the database OR the file.

2) I think your assumption that it would be faster is incorrect. Indexes are added to the database to make them fast. Static descriptions belong in the database. Performance will NOT be impacted, if the database is modelled correctly.


Steve Krandel
BASE Consulting Group

http://www.baseconsulting.com

 

[ADB1]

Believe me, hitting flat files will definately speed up data retrieveal for us! The reason behind the question, is in Cognos software, you can hit data sources which they call hotfiles, these'hotfiles' can be sourced from totally different data sources.

I didn't think BO could do it but was worth the try.

Thanks for your responses.

Adam.