Spotfire Ideas Portal
our custom data source has some additional properties that could readily be applied to the resulting data table - such as primary key, tweaks to data types (numbers of decimal places, etc), and the like. this would enable our custom data source to be more bullet proof to the end users who may not know this kind of detail.
An overridable empty implementation of hypothedical CustomDataSource method "UpdateDataTableThatWasJustContructedFromThisDataSource(DataTable dataTable)" would be FANTASTIC for us!
Let me know what questions you have.
update: i noted in a prior comment that "Custom tools" were not available in the WebPlayer. This was not an accurate statement. ("Custom panels are not creatable in the WebPlayer would have been the accurate statement that I was confused with.") Sorry for the error.
a couple of notes on this workaround of adding an option to the Tools menu:
1) We cannot create a document without choosing a data source - so this workaround requires us to workaround that limitation by creating a temporary disposable data source. Obviously not ideal.
2) Custom tools are not available in the WebPlayer. Or at least that's what I was told after many failed attempts at getting them to show up. Again, not ideal since that means our workaround will only support the thick client.
Thank you for your responses. They are helpful.
Yes, that's what I meant.
i don't understand. does you mean have an option in the Tools menu and have it add the dataSource, dataTable, and set up the dataTable properties?
Since data sources can be used for add rows, in combination with other data sources and data functions, our general recommendation for this kind of scenario is to implement a custom tool that uses the custom data source for the data loading part but takes care of the rest.