Enhancing Data Connectivity: Octopai's Universal Connector for Reporting Tools Guide

The Octopai Platform is dedicated to serving data teams who demand expansive analysis and visualization tools. As an enhancement to our current offerings, we've developed a Universal Connector for Reporting Tools that allows the integration of metadata from a diverse range of systems. This comprehensive integration brings about a more complete view of your data ecosystem with thorough data lineage, discovery, and an all-inclusive data catalog.

The connector allows for the integration of metadata from various types of systems into Octopai’s platform, thus offering a complete view of your data ecosystem, including full data lineage, discovery, and a comprehensive data catalog. This new connector adds to Octopai's capabilities, with native connectors provided for popular tools like Tableau, Power BI, Cognos, MicroStrategy, Qlik, Looker, SSRS, and more.

This guide will walk you through the steps to successfully utilize this enhancement, breaking down the necessary CSV input structure, detailed SQL queries for populating your database, and the overall workflow of the Universal Connector for Reporting Tools.

How it is done

Use the Octopai templates to ingest your metadata into the platform. The rest is fully automated.

What we do for you

This metadata, along with the metadata automatically ingested from out-of-the-box supported systems, is analyzed using machine learning. In turn Octopai provides you with end-to-end column-level lineage, inner system lineage, cross system lineage, data discovery and a data catalog of your entire data landscape accessible to all data users in the organization.

The Benefits

No blind spots - perform changes with confidence.
Get a clear picture of data transformations.
Increased visibility of the organization's complete data ecosystem.
Future proofing your expanding data landscape by providing access to unlimited data systems.
Add Link to our out-of-the-box technologies.

Process Description

Download the Template and fill in the required information from the bottom of this article.

• Universal Connector Reports.csv

Column Name	Description	Required
MODEL_NAME	The name of the model. This could be the name of the package in Cognos, the RPD name in OBIEE, or the Universe name in Business Object.	Yes
REPORT_PATH	The unique path of the report, per ConnectionID.	Yes
REPORT_NAME	The name of the report.	Yes
SOURCE_PROVIDER	The type of DB that the report connects to.	Yes
SOURCE_SERVER	The server name of the source object.	No
SOURCE_DB	The database name of the source object.	Yes
SOURCE_SCHEMA	The schema name of the source object.	Yes
SOURCE_OBJECT_TYPE	The type of source object, such as Table, View, or Stored Procedure (SP).	Yes
SOURCE_COLUMN	The column name in the source object.	Yes
SOURCE_TABLE	The table name in the source object.	Yes
SOURCE_DATA_TYPE	The data type of the column.	No
SOURCE_PRECISION	The precision of the column.	No
SOURCE_SCALE	The scale of the column.	No
TARGET_LAYER_NAME	The name of the component in the report, such as a table, cross-tab, chart, etc.	Yes
TARGET_SERVER	The server name of the target object.	No
TARGET_DB	The database name of the target object.	No
TARGET_SCHEMA	The schema name of the target object.	No
TARGET_OBJECT_TYPE	The type of target object, for example, Presentation. Default = 'PresentationTable'.	Yes
TARGET_TABLE	The table name in the target object.	No
TARGET_COLUMN	The column name in the target object.	Yes
TARGET_Data Type	The data type of the column.	No
TARGET_PRECISION	The precision of the column.	No
TARGET_SCALE	The scale of the column.	No
EXPRESSION	The formula or transformation between the source column and target column.	No
LINK_TYPE	Data Flow or Impact Analysis. Default = Data Flow.	No
LINK_DESCRIPTION	Documentation about the link. Default = Null.	No
UPDATED_DATE	The timestamp when a row was inserted. This field is automatically populated.	Yes

Note: All parameters are string values. Template structure should not be changed, all parameter’s names (Column Names) are case sensitive, all values are NOT case sensitive.

Example of a Report cross-systems lineage created as part of an upload of Universal Connector

How to set up the Universal Connector?

Read this Article