SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services : Working with the Monitoring API - Custom Objects and Editors

• Creating a custom tabular data source and having the data source used in KPIs, scorecards, and filters
  
  
• Creating a custom report type and linking it on a dashboard with a filter
  
  
• Creating a custom filter that does not depend on a data source like native PPS filters do
  
  

Creating a Custom Tabular Data Source

You can create custom tabular data sources for data sources to be used in PPS filters, KPIs, and scorecards. The three steps to creating and using a custom tabular data source are as follows:

After you complete these steps, the custom tabular data source shows up as an available data source within Dashboard Designer and is usable just like tabular data sources that ship with PPS, such as SQL tables and SharePoint lists.

Creating a Class Library for the Custom Tabular Data Source Provider

Custom tabular data source providers must implement the Microsoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.DataSourceProviders.TabularDataSourceProvider abstract class. The first step to create a custom tabular data source provider is to create a new class library project in Visual Studio. In this example, we create a simple example custom tabular data source that reads files from a directory.

You can have multiple custom tabular data sources or other custom objects defined in this one assembly. Create a new CS class file with these using statements at the top.

using Microsoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards;
using Microsoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.DataSourceProviders;

A friendly name set in the web.config file controls what the end user sees, so you can call your class name whatever you would like. Ensure it inherits from the TabularDataSourceProvider class:

public class FileSystemDataSource : TabularDataSourceProvider

Several methods need to be overridden. The order they appear in the class does not matter:

• GetId method

• IsConnectionStringSecure property

• Validate method

• SetDataSource method

• GetDataSet method

• GetDatabaseNames method

• GetCubeNames method

• GetCubeNameInfos method

• GetCubeMetadata method

GetId Method

The GetId method contains the unique identifier in a string format. The string value that this method returns is used later when modifying the web.config file. In most cases, it is sufficient to return a hardcoded string like this:

public override string GetId()
{
    return "FileSystemDataSource";
}

SetDataSource Method

The SetDataSource method defines the Dimensions and Fact columns available in this data source. This is roughly equivalent to the column definition user interface (UI) available when editing a PPS-supplied data source, such as a SQL table or SharePoint list, as the same options are available for each column. In this example, we define three columns: two dimension columns named Name and Type, which contain the filename and file extension, respectively, and a fact column that contains the file size:

public override void SetDataSource(DataSource dataSource)
{
    base.SetDataSource(dataSource);

    // We only want to define column mappings if they haven't already been defined
    if (dataSource.DataTableMapping.ColumnMappings.Count <= 0)
    {
        dataSource.DataTableMapping.ColumnMappings.Add(new DataColumnMapping
        {
            SourceColumnName = "Name",
            FriendlyColumnName = "Name",
            UniqueName = "Name",
            ColumnType = MappedColumnTypes.Dimension,
            FactAggregation = FactAggregations.None,
            ColumnDataType = MappedColumnDataTypes.String
        });

        dataSource.DataTableMapping.ColumnMappings.Add(new DataColumnMapping
        {
            SourceColumnName = "Type",
            FriendlyColumnName = "Type",
            UniqueName = "Type",
            ColumnType = MappedColumnTypes.Dimension,
            FactAggregation = FactAggregations.None,
            ColumnDataType = MappedColumnDataTypes.String
        });

        dataSource.DataTableMapping.ColumnMappings.Add(new DataColumnMapping
        {
            SourceColumnName = "FileSize",
            FriendlyColumnName = "FileSize",
            UniqueName = "FileSize",
            ColumnType = MappedColumnTypes.Fact,
            FactAggregation = FactAggregations.Sum,
            ColumnDataType = MappedColumnDataTypes.Number
        });
    }
}

					  

GetDataSet Method

The GetDataSet method is the method that actually does the work. We need to create a DataSet that matches the column schema that SetDataSource defines. After that DataSet object is created, it is necessary to fill the rows in the table with the correct data before finally returning the DataSet object:

public override DataSet GetDataSet()
{
    DataSet myDataSet = new DataSet();
    DataTable myTable = myDataSet.Tables.Add();

    myTable.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));
    myTable.Columns.Add("Type", typeof(string));
    myTable.Columns.Add("FileSize", typeof(int));

    foreach (string filePath in Directory.GetFiles(DataSource.CustomData))
    {
        FileInfo oneFile = new FileInfo(filePath);
        DataRow oneRow = myTable.NewRow();
        oneRow["Name"] = oneFile.Name;
        oneRow["Type"] = oneFile.Extension;
        oneRow["FileSize"] = oneFile.Length;
        myTable.Rows.Add(oneRow);
    }

    return myDataSet;
}

Several other methods also need to be implemented to allow successful compilation. These methods are all not used in any fashion in PPS, so they can all throw NotImplementedExceptions:

public override bool IsConnectionStringSecure
{
    get { return false; }
}
public override void Validate()
{
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

public override string[] GetDatabaseNames()
{
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

public override string[] GetCubeNames()
{

    throw new NotImplementedException();

}

public override NameInfoCollection GetCubeNameInfos()
{
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

public override Cube GetCubeMetaData(bool extendedMetadata)
{
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

					  

Signing the Assembly

If you use Visual Studio 2010, you can easily assign the assembly. View the properties of the Class Library project, and in the Signing tab create a new strong name key file or select an existing one from the list. Figure 1 shows what this looks like.

Figure 1. A strong name key file is selected in the project properties for the assembly example.