Charting iBase records

When working in Analyst's Notebook, you can chart iBase data provided that iBase is installed. If iBase is installed, then the Data menu will have an i2 iBase command.

When data is extracted from iBase and published on a chart, it is no longer under any form of iBase access control. It becomes your responsibility to ensure that access to any restricted or secret information is controlled in an appropriate way.

Starting Analyst's Notebook

There are two ways of starting Analyst's Notebook:
  • If iBase is open, from the Analysis menu, select Analyst's Notebook > Start. This will start Analyst's Notebook, and the current iBase database connection will be available to you in Analyst's Notebook.
  • If you do not want to open iBase, start Analyst's Notebook. Before you can start work, you will then need to Connect to iBase as a data source.

Adding new data to the chart and to the database

When you have connected to an iBase database, use the New Page of the Data Sources Task Pane, to add data to the chart. You can also create chart items from non-iBase palettes, however, you cannot update the iBase database with this data.

Note: You cannot add data if you have read-only permissions for the entity type.

See Searching iBase.

Adding the contents of a set, or the results of a query

You can add the records in a set, or the results of a query, to an Analyst's Notebook chart:

  1. Select either Query or Set.
  2. From the list, select a query or set, or browse the folders containing the queries or sets.

    Only queries or sets containing the selected entity type are displayed.

  3. Click OK to add the items to the chart. Analyst’s Notebook is started if necessary; if it is already started, then it may be behind the iBase window.

Creating queries or sets for charting

Click New to display the Query or Set dialog so you can create a new query or set. When you have finished, you are prompted to add the results of the query or the contents of the set to the current Analyst's Notebook chart.

Managing existing queries or sets

To manage the existing queries or sets, click the query or set and then click one of these buttons:

Menu command Description
Rename Displays a dialog for renaming the query or set.
Save As Displays a dialog for saving the query or set under a new name, in the same category folder.
Delete Deletes the query or set (you are prompted to confirm the deletion).
Categorize Displays the Categorize dialog so you can move the query or set to another category and specify the access control on it.

Updating iBase records and their chart items

If you want to make a change to an entity or link that will update both an iBase record and their chart items, you must open the iBase Show/Edit dialog in this way:

  1. Select the entity or link and click Show on the Selection page of the Data Sources Task Pane.
    Tip: Alternatively, right-click on one of the selected entities and select database > Show, where database is the name of the iBase database.
  2. In the iBase Show dialog, click Edit and make the required changes.
  3. Click Save to update the iBase record.
  4. Click Close to return to the Analyst's Notebook chart. The chart item is updated with the changes to the iBase record.

Updating chart items with data modified in iBase

When data is modified in iBase, it will not update any chart items (unless you follow the steps described above in Updating iBase records and their chart items).

To update the chart items with the changes made in iBase, you need to:

  1. In Analyst's Notebook, select all the items on the chart.
  2. Add the selected items to a set by clicking Add to Set on the Selection page of the Data Sources Task Pane .
    Tip: Alternatively, right-click on a selected entity or link, and from the shortcut menu, select database > Add to Set, where database is the name of the iBase database.
  3. Open a new chart.
  4. Add the set to the new chart.
Note: This will produce a chart with a different layout to the original chart.

Saving a chart

You can save Analyst's Notebook charts containing iBase data in the usual way.

Chart items containing iBase data, reference the database and these references are saved with the chart. The connection the iBase database, however, is not saved as part of the chart and will be lost when you close it (if you opened the database from Analyst's Notebook.)

Note: When distributing charts containing iBase data to users who do not have iBase, you may want to populate the cards for each chart item with the source record data from the iBase database. See Populating cards for details.

Closing an iBase database connection

When you exit from Analyst's Notebook, you are prompted to close any open iBase database connections (this will not close iBase itself). You can also close database connections directly.
Note: You might need to close an iBase database during an Analyst's Notebook session if you want to open an iBase database that uses a different security file.
To close an iBase database connection, in the Data Sources panel of the Data Sources Task Pane , click Close to the right of the database name,

Opening a chart and re-opening the associated database

To re-establish the connection between an Analyst's Notebook chart and an iBase database, re-open the appropriate database. To re-open a database, select it in the Data Sources panel and, if required enter your iBase username and password, and click OK.