Is it possible to create a OData connection from C# code.

[Ronald Brill]

We like to simplify the connection to our OData sources for our users. For this i like to present a different dialog to let the user choose the souce in a more friendly way. Behind the scenes i will than figure out the correct odata url from the user input and establish the connection.

[Jose Leviaguirre]

I would start exploring the Spotfire SDK available from edelivery.tibco.com

[Ronald Brill]

Thanks Jose for you answer - of course I did that alrady before asking here. But i found no solution or even no hint about how to set up a datasource from c#. Can you please add some more hints where i have to search in the sdk.

[Jose Leviaguirre]

Hello Ronald,

There are many examples on the community. In case you missed them, I would start by checking out the article on Extending TIBCO Spotfire. There are many ways. Here the author has links and examples depending on what is the best way to extend. If you think C# is the best way to go, then check out the TIBCO Spotfire C# Extensions overview post. There Is an entry on how to create a custom tool in TIBCO Spotfire and many C# Examples here, where one of the examples is about creating a custom data source in TIBCO Spotfire

Hope this helps,

Jose

[Ronald Brill]

Hi Jose,

maybe there is a small missunderstanding here - I will try to make my problem a bit more clear.

• I know how to write c# code and I also know how to write Spotfire extensions
• I have already written a Spotfire extension that implements a Custom DataSouce and this extension works
• But if you write your own Datasource you have to write the whole request sending, response receiving and response transformation your own (as far as i know)

What I have is a bunch of OData Services.

Our users like to have a dialog that show's some kind of a seletion list of the various available services and nothing more (not the standart url/authentication dialog from the spotfire odata source connect dialog) to consume data from one of these services.

And they do not like to have a button in there analysis that starts this - the like to have a new entry in the 'connet to' list that simply opens the selection dialog.

My idea was to write a DataSource (to be part of the 'connect to' list) and implement a dialog that presents the list of available services. (This works so far). But i do not like to write the whole OData processing again - i like to use the stuff already available from Spotfire. How can i reuse this stuff?

[Jose Leviaguirre]

Hello Ronald

I checked and there is no OData processing available in the Spotfire API, but I am sure there there are some third party C# library that can be used. Maybe a work around is to use ODBC wrapper for OData

[Ronald Brill]

Hi Jose,

• I'm already know that there is no OData support in the Spotfire API
• I'm aware of the usual OData support libraries and I'm able to write a Custom DataSource using these libs

Here comes another try to say what I'm looking for....

Scenario 1 (this is not what i like to have)

• the user starts spotfire
• the use click + and 'connect to' and chooses OData
• now the user has to type in the URL of the OData source (and maybe the credentials)
• the user has to choose the tables and columns
• and finally the user ends up with a analysis file that can be saved locally
• the user can reopen the file later and refresh the data from the datasource

Scenario 2 - this is what we like to have

• the user starts spotfire
• the users clicks on something we have provided (from the our module)
• a dialog opens up with a list of OData services
• the user selects one service from the list and clicks ok
• the user has to choose the tables and columns
• and finally the user ends up with an analysis file that can be saved locally
• the user can reopen the file later and refresh the data from the (OData) datasource

The bold steps in scenario 2 should be identical to scenario 1 - means, the user should end up with an analysis file that is NOT different from the one from scenario 1.

Or the other way around - i can open the analysis file from scenario 2 also with a Spotfire installation without our custom plugin (because the analysis uses a plain Spotfire ODataSource connetion).

Hope that makes my problem a bit more clear.

If this is only possible using some IronPhyton or R script this might also help.

[Neil Kanungo 2]

Please email us at dr@spotfire.com so we can find a time to discuss options with you.