Schedule Lumira documents with Microsoft Excel and Text files as data source in BI Platform
Lumira as an enterprise tool is built for instant visualization of data in four easy steps. Being self-service, it can work well with ad-hoc data sources like Microsoft excel and Text files such as CSV, TSV and flat files. You can publish those storyboards in BI Platform that can refresh from the actual file when the files change with new data by following the steps below.
Adding the Data source
The data source that we will be using is a CSV with some data about the players. The step is same for other sources like Excel, TSV and flat files. We will be placing the data source in a shared folder and access it from within the client tool instead of the traditional approach of absolute local path.
Creating share folder
Create a folder in any shared server (or local server on same network), the folder should be in the same network as the BI Platform or should be accessible from the BI Platform server. Select the share properties and add the user of the service in which the BI Platform is running on.
Give the service user Read permission to the share folder. Make sure he has right permissions in the security as well so that the folder is fully readable.
Please the data source file inside the folder. The file is now ready to be consumed by SAP Lumira.
Finding the service user
The above step is usually done by the Administrator. You can find the service user on which the BI Platform is running from the CCM.
Create the document for Lumira to fetch the file through the UNC path. The document is ready to be published after the story board is developed.
Publishing to BI Platform
Publish the Storyboard to the BI Platform. You can do operations in BI Launchpad with the same way you do with other reports like WebI or Design Studio. Follow Working with Lumira Document in BI Launchpad to know more.
Now when you open the Lumira document and refresh the data source, it would fetch through the network path using the service user and refresh the latest data.
Note:
- You cannot use a local mounted network drive as the file is accessed from BI Platform server. It should always be full UNC path or domain shares.
- If you are getting error during refresh, make sure the UNC path is correct and the service user has access to that share from the BI Platform. Login to BI platform server as the service user and try to access the UNC path manually.
Great post!
You said: “Now when you open the Lumira document and refresh the data source,”
Does this mean the user has to refresh (click refresh icon) manually? Document does not refresh on open, even when “Show Latest Data” option is set to on in the client?
Hi Gabriel
The Show Latest Data option should also work, In that case user need not press refresh everytime.
Regards
Shankar
Hi Shankar, what if your BI platform is on non-windows OS ? windows UNC path may not work right ? any suggestions for this?
Hi Thangaraj,
For the Linux system, you would use similar path using SAMBA if your file server is in Windows and map the path to a location using symlink.
Regards
Hi Shankar,
We have a BI Platform server on Linux box and we have managed to create a shared folder on the server itself(not on any file server).My question is how will I get the user of the service in which the BI Platform is running on exactly?Will I get it from CMC?Also the windows machine of lumira desktop will need the symlink(to the shared folder) to connect to the shared folder right?
Hi Alfred
If you are using BI Platform in Linux, you can do the following operation
One disadvantages here is, user should give the path of the Linux (mounted) and run the Reports on the server for execution.
For finding the service account there are various methods
Hope this helps
Regards
Hi Shankar,
This is the approach I am following.Please confirm if its correct:
1.Created shared folder on BO server.Mapped this path as a drive on my personal windows machine.
2.I am able to access the path on my personal windows machine(through windows explorer)
3.In Lumira Desktop->Create new file-> Access the path through the mapped drive.Save the file to Bi Platform.I am able to refresh the file on Lumira Desktop successfully.
4.In the BI Portal,open the lumira document and refresh it.
Error:Dataset refresh failed.
Can you tell me where am I going wrong?
Also what does "run the Reports on the server for execution" mean exactly?Can I not run the report on Lumira Desktop?
Hi Alfred,
This would not ask as the Path in your local machine is not same as in the Server (you may mount in a drive whereas in server it would be in another path). Please follow the steps i gave above and when you publish, change the path to the one in the server (absolute).
Regards
Hi Shankar, We have XLS files on Sharepoint and when we run the Lumira dashboard from desktop, it all works good but we can't refresh the reports when Lumira dashboards are refreshed from BIP.
Can we use the proposed solution for Sharepoint also? Could you explain how?
Hi Santhosh,
You can mount the SharePoint folders as a Network Drive for both Desktop and in BI Platform and the above solution would work.
Regards