Business Intelligence Tutorial

Starting a program

The Information Catalog Manager makes it easy to start a program that can retrieve the actual data that an object describes. For example, if you have objects describing graphic charts, you can set up a graphic program, such as CorelDRAW!, so that you can retrieve the actual charts for editing, copying, or printing.

The Information Catalog Manager can start any program that runs on the Windows platform you are using, or that can be started from an MS-DOS command prompt. The program must be installed on the client workstation.

A single object type can start more than one program (for example, the object type Spreadsheet can have both Lotus 1-2-3(R) and Microsoft Excel associated with it).

To enable an object to start a program, you create an association between a Programs object and any object type not categorized as Program. In this exercise, you will define a Programs object for Microsoft Notepad. You will create an association between the Notepad Programs object and the Files object type.

Creating a Programs object

To create a Programs object, you will define the properties of the object and specify the properties to be used as program parameters.

In this exercise, you will create a Programs object.

  1. Click Start --> Programs --> IBM DB2 --> Information Catalog Manager -->TBC_MD Administrator.
  2. In the Open Information Catalog window, type the user ID that you used to create the information catalog in the User ID field.
  3. In the Password field, type the password for the user ID. The password is case-sensitive.
  4. Click Open
  5. From the Information Catalog window, right-click the Object types icon.
  6. Click Open as --> Icon list.
  7. Right-click the icon of the Files object type.
  8. Click Associate programs.

    The Programs window displays a list of programs currently associated with the selected object type.

  9. Click Add.

    The Files-Add Program window opens. The Name property is selected.

  10. In the Enter value for selected property field, type a description of the program:
    View files using Microsoft Notepad
    
  11. Click on the Enter push button to move the value to the Value column in the Properties/Values list box.

    If you want to erase what you entered in the Enter value for selected property field, click on the Clear push button.

  12. From the Properties/Values list box, click the Class property.
  13. In the Enter value for selected property field, type a classification for the program:
    Word processor
    
  14. Click on the Enter push button to move the value to the Value column in the Properties/Values list box.
  15. From the Properties/Values list box, click the Qualifier 1 property.
  16. In the Enter value for selected property field, type a qualifier for the program:
    Notepad
    
  17. Click on the Enter push button to move the value to the Value column in the Properties/Values list box.
  18. From the Properties/Values list box, click the Qualifier 2 property.
  19. In the Enter value for selected property field, type a qualifier for the program:
    Windows
    
  20. Click on the Enter push button to move the value to the Value column in the Properties/Values list box.
  21. From the Properties/Values list box, click the Qualifier 3 property.
  22. In the Enter value for selected property field, type a qualifier for the program:
    -
    
    A hyphen is the default not-applicable symbol.
  23. Click on the Enter push button to move the value to the Value column in the Properties/Values list box.
  24. From the Properties/Values list box, click the Identifier property.
  25. In the Enter value for selected property field, type an identifier for the program:
    notepad.exe
    
  26. Click on the Enter push button to move the value to the Value column in the Properties/Values list box.

    The Files object is already defined for the Object type that this program handles property.

  27. From the Properties/Values list box, click the Start by invoking property.
  28. In the Enter value for selected property field, type the command to start the program:
    START X:\path\notepad.exe
    
    where X:\path is the path in which Microsoft Notepad is installed, such as c:\Winnt\System32.
Tip:The combination of the Class, Qualifiers 1, 2, and 3, and the Identifier properties must be unique across all objects in the information catalog. Each instance of an object type must be different.


Figure db2tu055 not displayed.

In this exercise, you will specify the properties whose values you want to be used as program parameters.

  1. From the Files-Add Program window, click on the Parameters push button. The Files-Invocation Parameters window opens, listing the properties of the File object type.
  2. From the Property list box, click Name.
  3. Click Append.

    %NAME% appears in the Enter program invocation parameters list box.
    Figure db2tu056 not displayed.

  4. Click OK.
  5. From the Files-Add Program window, click the Add push button.
  6. Close the Files-Programs window.
  7. A message box opens in the Information Catalog Manager. Click OK.
  8. Close the Object Types window.

Starting the program from a Files object

In this exercise, you will start Microsoft Notepad from the Files object for the demographics file. You will search for the object and then start the program.

To start the program from the Files object:

  1. Double-click the New search icon in the Information Catalog window.

    The Define Search window opens.

  2. Scroll through the Available object types list. This list displays all of the object types that are defined in your information catalog.
  3. Select the Files object type.
  4. Click > to add the selected object type to the Search for object types list.
  5. From the Properties/Values list, click Name.
  6. In the Enter value for selected property field, type the following value:
     demographics.txt
    
  7. Click Enter. The value is displayed in the Value column of the Properties/Values list.
  8. Select the Ignore case check box to search all occurrences of the value, regardless of case.
  9. Verify that anywhere in is selected in the Search options list.

    The Information Catalog Manager will search for objects that contain the value that you specified in the Value column.

  10. Click Search. The Information Catalog Manager searches for objects of the type that you specified and displays the results in the Search Results window.
  11. From the Search Results window, right-click the X:\sqllib\samples\db2sampl\dwc\demographics.txt object, where X is the drive on which you installed the sample.
  12. Select Start program.

    The Microsoft Notepad program is launched. You see the same data that you viewed with Microsoft Notepad in Lesson 3, Browsing the source data.

  13. Close all of the Information Catalog windows that are still open.


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