How to 'Enable' Connector Content Within Digital Hive

How to 'Enable' Connector Content Within Digital Hive

Question

Once the connector parameters for a content system have been successfully applied, how do I select the desired content from the source to appear within Digital Hive? 

Answer

As part of the connector creation process, once the required connection properties have been assigned, it is critical that the underlying content from the source system be 'added' to the Digital Hive folder structure. The desired source content can be added to a single location, or can be split across different folders within a custom folder structure. Other than not being able to add content from System A into a folder that comes from System B (for example, trying to add a Tableau project into a PowerBI Workspace folder), there are no defined limitations on how the source content can be added to the Digital Hive experience.

Although there are 'no rules' for organizing source system content within the Digital Hive folder structure, there are some best practices that should be followed. These best practices are not mandatory, but will make future downstream tasks easier to perform.

Almost all of these best practices can be performed before the connectors are defined, using the Explore Content tool, they can also be performed during the connector creation process from the Content tab.

Introduce a top level content folder  - In a brand new Digital Hive installation, the top level folder in the folder structure is called Shared Files. This folder can be renamed, but it is not good practice to just start adding content to this folder. The reason for this, is that when objects like the Catalog page are utilized, having all content as part of the root folder makes it difficult to create limited, or specialized, views. For example, if a Catalog page were desired that ONLY showed content coming from BI systems, and not the images, graphics, and icons, that were used as part of the branding of the Hives, having all of the content at the root folder would be problematic for meeting the requirement. 

To remediate these types of scenarios, it is a best practice to create some folders within the Shared Files folder that will server as top level content folders. For example, create two folders called Content Systems and Visual Assets that will contain the content coming from the source systems in the former, and all of the artwork required to personalize the Digital Hive user interface in the latter. You can choose to organize the contents within each folder in a manner that suites your needs (by content system type, by Hive, by business unit, etc), but having these top level folders will make life easier for authors, and users, in the future.



Don't add the same content more than once - Although the Digital Hive interface allows you to do this, it is not advisable to add the same content into multiple folder locations. The reason for this is that content is secured based on user access (as specified in the underlying content system) and when searches are performed, the search results will needlessly show duplicates. Adding the same content in multiple places also has an impact on the indexing by creating duplicate indexes which consumes extra resources. What has proven to be the most effective across a lot of deployments, is that within the top level Content Systems folder (see previous best practice), a folder is created for each content system. This is advisable not only for the same benefits as the previous best practice, but also helps organize the content in a logical way that makes it easier to manage and maintain content in the future. 

Shown below is a Digital Hive deployment that brings together content from 10 different content systems. A top level folder is created for each content system.



Within the individual folders for each content system, the respective source content would be added. The following examples show a folder where individual Tableau projects (not all Tableau projects, just a subset) have been added to a Tableau folder, and an IBM Cognos Analytics folder where everything that appears in Cognos is available within Digital Hive.

 



If there is a business justification for adding the same BI content to different Digital Hive folders, then proceed to repeat the content, but be aware that users will receive duplicate results when searching for that content.


Adding the source content to Digital Hive  - As part of the Connector creation process, you will be required to specify which BI content will be added into the Digital Hive experience. This content could range from the entire content catalog available to users, or could be limited to a subset of the content based. Whether it's the entire content catalog or a subset, the process for adding the content remains the same.

From within the New Connector creation wizard, you will be on the Add Content step.  
There are two ways to 'enable' content. The first, and recommended way, is to locate the desired content from within the Choose content to be searchable frame on the left, and then to drag it into the correct folder location on the right hand Drag your content where you want to show it panel.  For example, if I wanted to enable all of the IBM Cognos Analytics content to a Digital Hive folder called IBM Cognos Analytics, which follows a previous best practice and is located in a sub-folder called Content Systems, here are the steps:

  1. Within the right-hand Drag your content where you want to show it frame, navigate to the IBM Cognos Analytics folder by clicking on the folder names to drill into the required folder path
  2. You will know when you have the right folder selected when the desired folder name appears in the header of the frame 
  3. Ensuring that the Browse folder option is selected in the Choose content to be searchable left-hand frame, click on the Team Content folder name and drag it (and the drop it) to the open area on the right hand side. Please allow a few seconds for the operation to complete. The result should look like this: 
You will notice that in the left-hand panel, the icon beside Team Content changed from a  to  . This indicates to administrators that the Team Content folder (and all of it's content and sub folders) has been added to Digital Hive and is available for searching.  Once all of the required folders have been added, press Done to complete the add a new Connector wizard.

What if a subset of Team Content, folders called Audit and Sales, was required within Digital Hive? This is a common scenario when Development folders, or other non-essential content needs to be excluded from end users. To accomplish adding a subset of the BI content:
  1. Within the right-hand Drag your content where you want to show it frame, navigate to the IBM Cognos Analytics folder by clicking on the folder names to drill into the required folder path
  2. You will know when you have the right folder selected when the desired folder name appears in the header of the frame 
  3. Ensuring that the Browse folder option is selected in the Choose content to be searchable left-hand frame, navigate to the parent folder of the desired content. For example, a folder called Sales is desired and the Sales folder is located in the root of the Team Content folder, so clicking on the Team Content folder in the left hand panel will drill into the folder and expose the Sales folder. Please allow a few seconds for the operation to complete 
  4. Click on the Sales folder label and drag and drop it into the open right hand panel
  5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 for the Audit content folder with the final result looking like this: 


Beyond dragging and dropping content into the Digital Hive folder hierarchy, there is a second way to 'enable' content within Digital Hive. This technique, which is not commonly used, makes content available for searching, but does not allow for users browsing to the content. To enable Audit and Sales to be searchable but not appear as part of the Digital Hive folder structure:

  1. Ensuring that the Browse folder option is selected in the Choose content to be searchable left-hand frame, navigate to the parent folder of the desired content
  2. Beside the folder called Sales click on the   icon which will eventually transform it into this icon   
  3. Locate the folder called Audit and click on the   and wait for the   to appear
  4. Once all of the required folders have been added, press Done to complete the add a new Connector wizard



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