Refresh data in Dundas BI

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1. Overview

When data is changing frequently, you might decide to set up visualizations to automatically update themselves at a regular interval so you can keep them open and monitor them. When using a data cube storage option, you may need the cube to update to include the latest changes from the original data source.

This article describes ways you can update and auto-refresh the data displayed in Dundas BI.

2. Refreshing a data cube

Data cubes and other data displayed in Dundas BI are not warehoused or stored in-memory by default, which means they retrieve data directly from the data source except for some temporary caching.

If the data cube's storage type has been set to warehouse or in-memory, it can be updated on-demand or on a schedule.

2.1. Change data caching

For data cubes that are not using warehouse or in-memory storage, data can still be temporarily cached, normally for a short time according to the application's result caching settings.

You can customize data caching for all metric sets and visualizations displaying data from a particular data cube. Alternatively, you can also bypass data caching on individual visualizations as shown later in this article.

Click Data Cube Settings in the toolbar when editing a data cube, then you can change the Cache Lifetime for the data retrieved from this cube. You can also choose the Disable Data Caching option.

Change data caching for a data cube
Change data caching for a data cube

Important
Use caution when disabling caching completely, as the data retrieval process can be slower depending on the data source and the data cube's transforms. It also means that scrolling tables or zoomed-in charts may result in querying the data source again rather than using data cached from when first loading.

2.2. Re-build manually

Data cubes using warehouse or in-memory storage can be re-built on-demand.

Find the data cube by choosing Open in the main menu, or in the Explore window.

Right-click the data cube and choose Build Warehouse or Build In-Memory.

Build from the context menu
Build from the context menu

2.3. Schedule warehouse and in-memory builds

A data cube that is stored in the warehouse or in-memory can be configured to refresh itself automatically. After the data cube is checked in, you can set up a schedule rule.

2.4. Rebuild using the API

If the data cube is warehoused or stored in-memory, you can trigger the data cube build using the API. For example, this script can be added to a button's click actions:

// Get the data cube service
var dataCubeService = this.getService("DataCubeService");

// Build the data cube with the specified ID
dataCubeService.buildStorage("4b22e502-6dac-4227-bc93-1cdb8491dec6");

See File and folder properties for details on finding the data cube's ID.

3. Refreshing a data visualization

A data visualization can be refreshed manually or automatically. To always retrieve 'live' data including the latest changes from the data source, you can also bypass or customize result caching.

Important
When the underlying data cube is using warehouse or in-memory storage, you can only refresh a visualization with data from the last cube build.

3.1. Bypass data cache

Data results are cached in Dundas BI by default when data is retrieved again a short time later for the same metric set, filtering, and other settings. To display live or real-time data with more frequent updates than the result cache, you can bypass the data cache for a visualization.

In the Data Analysis Panel, click the Edit icon.

Edit metric set settings
Edit metric set settings

In the Request Options section, select the Bypass Data Cache option.

Bypass data caching for a visualization
Bypass data caching for a visualization

Note
Caching may already have been disabled or customized in the data cube, which affects all visualizations displaying its data regardless of their bypass setting. Use this bypass option rather than disabling caching in the data cube to allow cached data to be retrieved when scrolling tables or charts.

3.2. Auto refresh interval

Every visualization has the property Data Auto Refresh Interval. When this is set, the visualization will automatically update its data regularly at the specified interval for as long as it's being viewed.

You can find this property in the Main tab of the visualization's properties.

Data Auto Refresh Interval property
Data Auto Refresh Interval property

3.3. Manual refresh

In View mode, the data visualization can be refreshed manually whenever you want to see the latest data.

To do this, right-click (or long-tap) on the visualization to bring up the context menu.

Select Data Tools and choose Refresh Data.

Refresh Data manually when viewing
Refresh Data manually when viewing

4. Result cache configuration

Rather than changing or bypassing caching as described above, you can choose to change the result caching for the entire application by changing the Result Cache Absolute Expiration configuration setting in administration.

This can be changed to a shorter length of time. It can also be set to zero to disable caching, however this is not recommended and should generally not be done in production environments.

Result cache configuration
Result cache configuration

5. See also

Dundas Data Visualization, Inc.
400-15 Gervais Drive
Toronto, ON, Canada
M3C 1Y8

North America: 1.800.463.1492
International: 1.416.467.5100

Dundas Support Hours:
Phone: 9am-6pm, ET, Mon-Fri
Email: 7am-6pm, ET, Mon-Fri