Create an SAP BusinessObjects Universe on the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino

This article shows how to create and publish an SAP BusinessObjects universe on the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino. You will connect to HCL Domino data from the Information Design Tool as well as the Web Intelligence tool.

Connect to HCL Domino as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Prerequisites

The connector requires the Proton component to be installed. Normally, Proton is distributed as part of the AppDev pack. See the HCL documentation for instructions on acquiring and installing Proton or the AppDev pack.

Once the Proton service is installed and running, you will also need to create a user account and download its Internet certificate. This certificate can be used to set the connector certificate connection properties.

Authenticating to Domino

• Server: The name or IP address of the server running Domino with the Proton service.
• Port: The port number that the Proton service is listening on.
• Database: The name of the database file, including the .nsf extension.
• SSLClientCertType: This must match the format of the certificate file. Typically this will be either PEMKEY_FILE for .pem certificates or PFXFILE for .pfx certificates.
• SSLClientCert: The path to the certificate file.
• SSLServerCert: This can be set to (*) if you trust the server. This is usually the case, but if you want to perform SSL validation, you may provide a certificate or thumbprint instead. See the documentation for SSLServerCert for details.

Additional Server Configuration

The connector supports querying Domino views if any are defined. Before views can be queried by the connector they must be registered with the design catalog.

Please refer to the Catalog Administration section of the AppDev pack documentation for details on how to do this.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Create an ODBC Connection to HCL Domino Data

This section shows how to create a connection to the HCL Domino ODBC data source in the Information Design Tool. After you create a connection, you can analyze data or create a BusinessObjects universe.

1. Right-click your project and click New -> New Relational Connection.

2. In the wizard that is displayed, enter a name for the connection.

3. Select Generic -> Generic ODBC datasource -> ODBC Drivers and select the DSN.

4. Finish the wizard with the default values for connection pooling and custom parameters.

Analyze HCL Domino Data in the Information Design Tool

In the Information Design Tool, you can use both published and local ODBC connections to browse and query data.

1. In the Local Projects view, double-click the connection (the .cnx file) to open the HCL Domino data source.

2. On the Show Values tab, you can load table data and enter SQL queries. To view table data, expand the node for the table, right-click the table, and click Show Values. Values will be displayed in the Raw Data tab.

3. On the Analysis tab, you can drag and drop columns onto the axes of a chart.

Publish the Local Connection

To publish the universe to the CMS, you additionally need to publish the connection.

1. In the Local Projects view, right-click the connection and click Publish Connection to a Repository.

2. Enter the host and port of the repository and connection credentials.

3. Select the folder where the connection will be published.

4. In the success dialog that results, click Yes to create a connection shortcut.

Create a Universe on the ODBC Driver for HCL Domino

You can follow the steps below to create a universe on the ODBC driver for HCL Domino. The universe in this example will be published to a repository, so it uses the published connection created in the previous step.

1. In the Information Design Tool, click File->New Universe.

2. Select your project.

3. Select the option to create the universe on a relational data source.

4. Select the shortcut to the published connection.

5. Enter a name for the Data Foundation.

6. Import tables and columns that you want to access as objects.

7. Enter a name for the Business Layer.

Publish the Universe

You can follow the steps below to publish the universe to the CMS.

1. In the Local Projects view, right-click the business layer and click Publish -> To a Repository.

2. In the Publish Universe dialog, enter any integrity checks before importing.

3. Select or create a folder on the repository where the universe will be published.

Query HCL Domino Data in Web Intelligence

You can use the published universe to connect to HCL Domino in Web Intelligence.

1. Open Web Intelligence from the BusinessObjects launchpad and create a new document.

2. Select the Universe option for the data source.

3. Select the HCL Domino universe. This opens a Query Panel. Drag objects to the Result Objects pane to use them in the query.