Preparing iBase and generating an i2 Analyze schema

In successful deployments of Analysis Studio that work with iBase, the data structures of i2 Analyze and iBase records are as closely aligned as possible. To enable the Export-to-iBase plug-in, you must also prepare the existing iBase database so that the plug-in can communicate with it.

First, make the following changes to the iBase database:

  1. If you haven't done so already, upsize the iBase database to SQL Server. The Export-to-iBase plug-in is not compatible with Microsoft Access databases.

  2. Use the charting scheme editor to modify at least the first charting scheme in the list so that Data Records: "All" is set as the option for all entity and link types.

    The Export-to-iBase plug-in requires iBase records on the chart surface to contain all possible fields, no matter if they contain values.

    Important: All Analyst's Notebook Premium desktop client users must use the same charting scheme to control how iBase records appear on charts.

Second, you must export the iBase schema in a form that i2 Analyze can use to define the structure of the records that it retrieves. Configure and run the command that creates an i2 Analyze schema from the iBase schema:

  1. Install i2 Analyze on the server that will host your i2 Analyze deployment. The installation includes the toolkit whose commands you will use in the rest of this procedure.

  2. The toolkit command that creates the i2 Analyze schema must be able to connect to the iBase database. Create and populate a file named iBaseConnection.properties in the toolkit/scripts directory of the i2 Analyze installation. The file provides information about the iBase database in the following form:

    DBUsername=[the name of a SQL Server user with permission to read the iBase database]
DBPassword=[the password of the above user]
DBName=[the name of the iBase database]
DBServer=[the fully qualified name of the server]
DBPort=[the port number on which SQL Server runs - for example, 1433]

  3. Before you can create the i2 Analyze schema, you need to start the i2 Analyze deployment process. You'll learn more later, but for now:

    1. Navigate to the toolkit\examples\configurations\daod-opal directory of the i2 Analyze installation.

    2. Copy the configuration directory that daod-opal contains to the root of the toolkit, so that it becomes toolkit\configuration.

  4. The toolkit needs to communicate with the iBase database:

    1. Download the Microsoft JDBC Driver 7.4 for SQL Server archive from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58505.

    2. Extract the contents of the download, and locate the sqljdbc_7.4\enu\mssql-jdbc-7.4.1.jre11.jar file.

    3. Copy the mssql-jdbc-7.4.1.jre11.jar to the toolkit\configuration\environment\common\jdbc-drivers directory.

  5. Run the generateAnalyzeSchemaFromIBase toolkit command to generate an i2 Analyze schema and charting scheme from the iBase schema. It supports the following parameters:

    • locale - The locale of the iBase deployment, which defaults to en_US.

    • outputPath - The absolute path to the output directory, which defaults to C:\i2\i2analyze\toolkit\scripts\output on Windows, or /opt/i2/i2analyze/toolkit/scripts/output on Linux.

    • connectionProperties - The absolute path to the connection properties file that you created earlier.

    • fileNamePrefix - The prefix that's given to all the generated schema and charting scheme files, which defaults to ibase.

    For example:

    setup -t generateAnalyzeSchemaFromIBase -p locale="en-US" -p outputPath="C:\i2\i2analyze\toolkit\scripts\output" -p connectionProperties="C:\i2\i2analyze\toolkit\scripts\iBaseConnection.properties" filenamePrefix="ibase"

For troubleshooting assistance, and for more details about the generated schema and its limitations, see the reference information.