Text file as a Datasource in obiee12c

Rajagopal R-Oracle

Hi,

Can we have text file as a data source in OBIEE12c ?

if its possible , how this will work in case of incremental load.

Thanks

Raj

Joel

This was just asked earlier today - Data as subject area?

Rajagopal R-Oracle

Thanks for your response,yes i read it already i was not clear about refreshing part of the data source,

1.do we have only option to reload the data source from Va

2. where the file will be stored, can't we just replace the file in the filepath, and will it get refreshed.?

3.cant' the data refresh be automated ?

Gianni Ceresa

If you load the data in such a way you can't replace the file, if you need to use a new version of the file you need to upload it again (it will replace the existing one).

Everything can be automated in a way or another, the question is more to know if you aren't looking at the wrong solution for your need ...

Files based analysis are more for users provided extra data extending the main dataset available. So you maybe want to consider just using the "standard" way by ETL and loading the file in a DB?

Rajagopal R-Oracle

thanks for the response.,

as the txt file size is in GBs, instead of storing that in DB, we wanted to use the file as data source.

Thanks

Gianni Ceresa

The file being big (GBs) is an additional reason to load it into a database.

OBIEE is not a database server, its performance when accessing data is definitely not as good as a database, which is developed for that reason while OBIEE has many other targets and accessing data files directly is just an extra feature they added on top.

Robert Angel

Hi,

even with databases 'external tables' are not a panacea for all ills.

You still get rejected records.

It will not perform as well as a true database table.

There will be database functionality that you cannot use with an external table.

Best, as @Gianni Ceresa rightly says is to load it.

Joel

+1 to @Gianni Ceresa. It might look like a shortcut now but it will end up being a massive issue going forward and lots of time to rectify this. This will cause you performance issues, maintenance issues, data loading to name but a few...

Christian Berg-0racle

3357027 wrote:thanks for the response., as the txt file size is in GBs, instead of storing that in DB, we wanted to use the file as data source.Thanks

That's simply the single most important reason to LOAD it into the database!

Rajagopal R-Oracle

Hi all thanks for your response and clarification,

but I just wanted to know , can the text file be directly used to create the report and can it be refreshed ?

where the file will be stored, can't we just replace the file in the filepath, and will it get refreshed.?

Christian Berg-0racle

XSAs. Extended Subject Areas and the data is stored in the DSS - Data Set Service.

https://www.rittmanmead.com/blog/2016/06/obiee-12c-extended-subject-areas-xsa-data-set-service/