This tutorial covers a common scenario in which a company has all the data it needs to analyze a problem, but the information required is spread among disparate application systems. Furthermore, these applications have not been designed to interact with each other, and key fields required for matching the data are either missing in some of the data sources or are not in the same format.
The example mashup in this tutorial uses IBM Mashup Center to demonstrate how companies can overcome inconsistencies in data and combine and manipulate data without requiring any changes to the native data sources. Additionally, this tutorial shows how you can achieve all this with little or no programming experience.
In this tutorial, you will use InfoSphere MashupHub to combine, filter, and manipulate some different external data sources to create feeds that we will then mash together in Lotus Mashups.
Audience
The tutorial is aimed at users who are already familiar with the features and functions of IBM Mashup Center, including how to create simple feeds and feed mashups within InfoSphere MashupHub and wire together widgets and feeds within Lotus Mashups.
If you are not familiar with IBM Mashup Center, we recommend that you watch the demos and complete the beginner-level tutorials located in this IBM Mashup Center wiki.
Prerequisites
The tutorial requires the following prerequisites:
Installed IBM Mashup Center V1.1.
The required sample Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, available for download in the Attachments section below (deptbudgets.xls). During the tutorial, you will need to specify the location of the spreadsheet on your local machine.
A IBM Lotus Domino server. If you do not have a Domino server, you can download a trial version at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/ls/lsds/. You can install the Domino server, the DB2 server, and IBM Mashup Center all on one machine, if desired.
The required sample Domino database, available for download in the Attachments section below (training.nsf)
A DB2 server. If you do not have a DB2 server, you can download a trial version at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/im/udb/index.html. You can install the Domino server, the DB2 server, and IBM Mashup Center all on one machine, if desired.
Note: Alternatively – if you have installed Lotus Widget Factory after installing IBM Mashup Center, a Derby Embedded SAMPLE database of exactly the same structure will have been deployed into the \AppServer\derby\databases directory. If you do not have DB2 and do not want to install the trial version you can create your feeds from this database instead.
Getting started
To get started, open the PDF file that is attached to this article and start the tutorial.