Introduction
Using the Comments Management page
IBM Alphablox can be used to manage user
comments that can be attached to data cells in multidimensional grids or displayed
within
a web
page. The
following
help sections describe how to use the Comments Management page,
available under the IBM Alphablox Administration tab to configure a
comments collection for
use with
a particular
data source.
DB2 for z/OS users: For comments collections that will be stored in DB2 for z/OS, you must use the "IBM DB2 JDBC Type 4 Driver for z/OS" data adapter.
Microsoft SQL Server users: Comments collections requires additional configuration steps to work
with Microsoft's JDBC Driver for SQL Server, which is an option included
on WebSphere. Contact IBM Customer Support for assistance.
Accessing the Comments Management page
To access the Comments
Management page, which opens in a new window, follow these steps:
- Open the IBM Alphablox home page.
- Click the Administration tab.
- Under Runtime Management in the navigation menu on the left, click
the Comments
link.
- The Comments Management dialog should appear in
a new browser window.
Note: To use the Comments Management Dialog, you need to have rights for creating and dropping relational tables. For using the CommentsBlox API in developing custom commentary applications, you may need rights for selecting, inserting, updating, deleting, creating, and dropping tables.
Defining and accessing data sources
To define a data source to be available for storing your comments collections,
follow these steps:
- Under the Datasource heading, click on the Name selection
list and select the defined IBM Alphablox data source where you want
your comments collections to be stored. [Note: To learn more about defining
data sources
in IBM Alphablox, see Understanding
Data Source Definitions and Default Values.]
- In the Username and Password entry fields,
enter a login and password for a user authorized to create tables in the
data source. [Note: If these fields are blank, the default datasource
username and password, if defined in the IBM Alphablox data source
definition, will
automatically be submitted upon connecting.]
- Press the Connect button. If the defined data source and
user information are valid, a connection to your data source should occur
and the Collection section
on the Comments Management dialog will become enabled.
Defining comments collections
Before users can begin adding comments to data cells in a grid, you must first
create a comments collection to store related comments.
Note: Dimensions in your comments collection may be added or removed, as long
as no comments exist in the collection.
To create a new comments collection, follow these steps:
- Click the Create button below the Collection list
box.
- On the right side of the browser window, three new sections will appear.
- In the Name section, enter the name of your comments collection.
[Note: Names must not include spaces and must conform to any naming requirements
for tables
in the database being used to store comments.]
- In the Fields section, you can add or delete fields
in your comment collection. By default, three required fields
are
included:
the Author, Timestamp, and CommentText fields.
You can add additional fields, defining their names, and if desired, descriptions
for each field you define. An optional CellValue field can also be added.
The CellValue field will result in the current cell value for the selected
cell to be automatically added to the comment associated with that cell.
- In the Dimensions section, you must select a multidimensional
data source from the list of defined Alphablox data sources. A list of dimensions
available in the selected cube should appear in the text box below the listed
data source.
- Select which dimensions you want users to be able to add comments to. To
select more than one dimension, you must press the Control key and click
on each additional dimension.
Important: For comments collections databases created using IBM DB2 servers, limit the number of dimensions selected to 10 or less.
Dimensions selected affect the scope
of the added comments by your users, as shown in the following two examples:
Example 1: If you have a cube with three dimensions (Year, Product, and Region),
and select only two of the dimensions (Product and Year) in the Dimensions
list, then comments added to any member of the Region dimension (unselected
in the Dimensions list) will be displayed in all other Region members.
Example 2:
If you have a cube with three dimensions (Year, Product, and Region), and
select all three dimensions in the Dimensions list, then comments will
appear only in the cell to which the comments were added.
- Press the Save button. At this point, the name of the
newly defined collection should appear in the Collection listing.
Displaying comments collection definitions
To display the definition of an existing collection, follow these steps:
- When you are connected to a defined data source, a list of predefined
comments collections appears in the Collection text box
and the Create, Display, and Delete buttons are enabled. If you are not
connected, first follow the steps above under Defining and Accessing
a Data Source
to connect
to
a data
source.
- Click on one of the comments collections listed in the Collection
text box, then press the Display button. The collection definition should
appear in the right half of the window.
Deleting comments collections
To remove a defined comments collection, follow these steps:
- Connect to a defined data source (see Defining and Accessing Data Sources
above).
- In the Collection text box, click on the name of the comments collection
you want to remove.
- Press the Delete button. The collection name should be removed from the
listing.
Adding and displaying comments
After a comments collection has been defined, users can add comments to the
data cells of grids that have been enabled for comments. When a user right-clicks
on a data cell that is comment enabled, a menu appears. In the Comments submenu,
users can choose to either Add Comments or Display Comments.
Related topics: