Common Data

One of the wizard questions is: Do you want to use the Common Data Dataset Type?

This question is accompanied by the following text:

SC Navigator has one dataset type (Common Data) that contains many attributes that are common to multiple applications. These are attributes like “Descriptions”, “Active” (for subgrouping), “Available”, “Available (DC)”.

If you are using multiple applications and you want to get these attributes from this dataset type (and therefore have this data in one place), please set check to true. Data Navigator will ask you to select a “Common Data” dataset before you can import the data. The data of the “Common Data” and imported data will be saved in one dataset.

The rest of this section explains how and when to use this.

When to use?

It is a good idea to use the Common Data dataset when you have multiple applications, and you want to use the same data for some of the attributes.

The data in the Common Data dataset consists of data that can be used and shared between multiple applications, typical attributes are:

  • Description

  • Available

  • Available (DC)

  • Available (Production)

  • Latitude

  • Longitude

  • Street

  • City

  • State

  • Country

  • Postal Code

  • Distance

  • Duration

So, you can use the “Common Data” dataset if you want to provide that data only once and use this in multiple applications.

How to use?

Of course, the first step is that you need to check the wizard for question “Do you want to use the Common Data Dataset Type?”. Once you have done that, you need to export two templates. One for the Common Data dataset and one for the rest of the attributes, see Generate Template. By default, the attributes for the Common Data dataset are not included in the template, because you do not need to provide them as part of that file. However, if you want to include them, you can accomplish that by checking Include Common Attribute on that page.

The next step is that you need to upload a “Common Data” dataset. This works in the same way as before, see Import Dataset, but before you upload the Excel file, you need to set the Dataset Type selection (This is the box, next to the upload button.) to Common Data. Once you have saved that dataset, it will be set as the selected “Common Data” dataset on the status bar, as you can see here:

../_images/commondata_statusbar.png

If you click on the area marked with the red box, you can select a different dataset.

After you have created a Common Data dataset, you can upload an Excel file with the rest of the data, in the same way as you normally do. However, you need to set Dataset Type selection to the default dataset. As part of loading this Excel file, the model will also load the selected Common Data Dataset. This means that data validation is taking place over the complete dataset, including the data from the selected Common Data dataset, and that the complete dataset is saved in the database.

If you have already created a Common Data dataset and you load a configuration that has Common Data enabled, you will get a dialog where you can select a Common Data dataset, like this:

../_images/commondata_selectiondialog.png

In here you need to select the dataset that you want and click on “Select”. At that point, you will see that dataset in the status bar again.