Scheduled updates to analyses

For analyses that contain links to large amounts of data, downloading fresh data can take a significant amount of time. Scheduled updates save time by downloading the latest data before users need it.

Based on settings in Spotfire Server, or on messages that the server receives from an external source, selected analyses can be preloaded with fresh data, stored on specific Spotfire Web Player instances, and then made available to users as needed.

For example, in the case of sales data that is tallied at the end of the day, you could schedule the update to occur overnight so that users can quickly access the analysis first thing in the morning, when they log in. Or, in the case of a large analysis that users tend to refer to several times during the day, you could schedule an update every 20 minutes.

You can trigger updates in two ways:
When scheduling an update in Spotfire Server, you can configure the following options:
  • The days of the week that the update runs.
  • The times of day between which the updated analysis is available to end users.
  • How often the server checks for new data.
  • The resource pool on which to preload the analysis, and the number of Spotfire Web Player instances that should be available for users opening the analysis.
  • Whether the updated data is automatically displayed in the user's copy of the analysis, or the user decides when to refresh the information.
  • Whether to allow cached and pre-computed data when the analysis is reopened.

On the Overview page, the "Scheduled updates" pane gives you the basic status of your scheduled updates.

In the Rules list you can identify scheduled updates (as opposed to routing rules) by their Type (File) and the fact that a schedule is displayed under Schedule in the list.

You can also view the Activity and Notifications pages in Scheduling & Routing to monitor job status.

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