You can include dynamic data source
elements to be defined at run time. The Data Source Configuration
element allows you to reconfigure a data source.
Rational® Publishing Engine calculates
the URLs of static data sources when the document generation begins
and not at the time when the first query from the data source is accessed.
With data source configuration elements, you can control the evaluation
time of elements during document generation.
Data source configuration
elements are useful when you do not know the connection information
while starting to design your document. For example, if you linked
artifacts from two products, A and B, the data source information
can be picked up from the B at run time. By reconfiguring a data source,
you change the properties such as URI, user name, password, and any
other data source-specific properties used by Rational Publishing Engine when
extracting data.
Before you begin
The Data Source Configuration element must be placed in the
document template before the element that contains the queries for
the configured data source.
About this task
Use the Data Source Configuration element to reconfigure
the data source. A data source configuration element must be connected
to a data source schema that is used in the template. Depending on
the data source configuration, the dynamic data source element includes
properties similar to the properties in document specification. At
the time of document generation, this element initializes or reinitialize
the data source. Use the Data Source Configuration element to define
only the properties that are not known at run time. Using this element
for all properties such as the user name, password, location of
exe files
make the templates less portable.
Although the Data Source Configuration
element properties are similar to the ones defined for data source
element in document specification, the properties from the document
specification have static values while the properties from the Data
Source Configuration element use values from another data source available
in their context.
Procedure
To reconfigure the data source:
- In the Palette view, drag the
Data Source Configuration element
onto the template.
- Select the data source configuration element.
- In the Properties view, select the Data tab.
- In the Target data source property,
enter the name of the data source schema. After a data source configuration
is connected to a data source schema, its formatting properties are
updated to reflect the run time properties of the data source schema
type.
- In the Inherited data configuration property,
enter the name of a data source schema used in the template. By default
this property does not contain a value. You can change this value
with the data source schema name that is used in the template. If
this property is used, the target data source is configured using
the settings taken from the inherited data source, along with the
properties defined in the data source configuration.
The
properties from the inherited data source are used when a value is
not specified for the target data source. For example, the URL of
the inherited data source is used for the target data source as long
as the URL property is not filled for the target data source. A common
use for the inherited data source property is to provide credentials
only once for data sources.
Other properties
can also be specified or they are taken from either the values provided
in the Document Specification or the data source defined under the
inherited
data source property.
Note: The target data source and
inherited data source can be the same data source. If inherited
data source is left empty, the target data source is
used.
Unless the data source configuration property
is empty, it takes precedence over the document specification property. Rational Publishing Engine combines
the properties defined in the Data Source Configuration element with
those defined in the Document Specification.