You can use the auto-join feature to automatically join topics based not only on the best guess of Interactive Reporting Studio, but also on primary and foreign key information stored in an alternative table of joins. Join strategies include:
The Joins tab uses SQL instructions to employ a custom join strategy stored in metadata. Once Interactive Reporting Studio is directed to the metadata source, all data models using the connection apply specified join logic between topics.
To automatically join topics using metadata join information:
On the Joins tab, select Custom.
The SQL entry fields activate. (There are no system defaults for the Joins tab.) Click Clear to clear the entry fields if you make a mistake and want to start over
In the Select fields, enter the appropriate column names as they are displayed in the alternate table of joins. Interactive Reporting Studio requires data in the Primary Table and Primary Column fields to find the primary keys.
Primary Database Name—Sets the name of the column of databases for primary key tables in the alternate table of joins.
Primary Owner—Sets the name of the column of owners belonging to primary key tables in the table of joins.
Primary Table—Sets the name of the column of primary key tables in the table of joins.
Primary Column—Sets the name of the column of primary key items in the table of joins.
Foreign Database Name—Sets the name of the column of databases for foreign key tables in the alternate table of joins.
Foreign Owner—Sets the name of the column of owners belonging to foreign key tables in the table of joins.
Foreign Table—Sets the name of the column of foreign key tables in the table of joins.
Foreign Column—Sets the name of the column of foreign key items in the table of joins.
If you use more than one table in the From field, enter the full column name preceded by a table name in the Select fields.
table_name.column_name
In the From field, enter the physical name of the alternate table of joins.
Use the Where field to tell Interactive Reporting Studio which topics to auto-join.
Use the following syntax in the Where field (do not include brackets):
<owners column>=’:OWNER’ and <tables column>=’:TABLE’
If Auto-Join is enabled, Interactive Reporting Studio automatically joins topics added to the Content frame when it finds rows in the alternate table of joins that match the names temporarily stored in :TABLE and :OWNER. You can also use the variables :TABALIAS and :COLALIAS to specify table and column aliases in the SQL.