Business intelligence assets

Business intelligence (BI) assets are used by BI tools to organize reports and models that provide a business view of data. These assets include BI reports, BI models, BI collections, and cubes.

You can use bridges to import BI assets from tools such as IBM® Cognos® and SAP BusinessObjects.

It is good practice when importing BI assets to simultaneously import the database tables that BI reports are based on. You can then use InfoSphere® Information Governance Catalog to create data lineage reports that show the relationship between the database tables, the jobs that use the database tables, and the BI reports that are based on the tables.

You can use InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager to browse and delete BI assets and manage duplicate BI assets.

Asset types

The following table lists and defines the types of BI assets that are stored in the metadata repository of InfoSphere Information Server.

Table 1. BI assets
Asset type	Definition	Components of the identity of the asset	Contained asset types
BI server	When a BI tool supports multiple servers on a single host computer, the BI server value is the name of the source tool server. When a BI tool supports a single server per host computer, the BI server value is the name or IP address of the host system. BI servers are displayed in InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog and on the Import tab of InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager.	BI server name	BI folder
BI folder	The folder structure that contains BI models, or BI reports, or both in the source tool. BI folders can also contain other BI folders. BI folders are displayed in InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog and on the Import tab of InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager.	BI folder name Identity of the BI server, or, for subfolders, the identity of the containing BI folder	BI folder, BI model, and BI report
BI model	A grouping of BI data collection views that are relevant to a BI application.	BI model name Identity of BI folder	Cube, BI collection, BI join, BI hierarchy, and BI filter
BI collection	A data structure that provides a view of data that is stored in databases and files. In dimensional modeling, these structures are known as dimensions and fact tables. BI collections are the data sources of BI reports.	BI collection name BI collection namespace Identity of the BI model that contains the collection, or, for subcollections, the identity of the BI collection that contains the subcollection	BI collection member, BI level, BI hierarchy, and BI filter. BI collections can contain other BI collections.
BI collection member	The basic abstraction of a data value that is projected from a database column. BI collection members define the structure of the collection that owns them. There are two types of members: regular and measure. Regular members are dimension attributes that describe the characteristics and semantics of the owner collection. Measures represent analytic values that define a measurement entity in a fact collection.	BI collection member name Identity of the BI collection
BI level	An asset that defines a logical step in the order of a BI hierarchy. A BI level consists of one or more BI collection members of the same BI collection that are related and function as a logical unit.	BI level name Identity of the BI collection	BI level element
BI level element	An associative class that assigns a BI collection member to a specific level within the collection.	Identity of the BI collection member Identity of the BI level
Cube	A subset of a BI model that consists of a set of related analytic values that share the same dimensionality.	Cube name Cube namespace Identity of the BI model	Cube dimension and cube measure
Cube dimension	An associative class that connects a cube to dimensions in the BI collection that are relevant to the analytic values of the cube. A cube dimension references the BI collection from which the dimension is derived and the relevant dimension hierarchy of the cube.	Identity of the cube Identity of the BI collection
Cube measure	An associative class that connects a cube to BI collection members that are measures.	Identity of the cube Identity of the BI collection member
BI filter	A filtering constraint on the source data that is viewed through a BI collection. Filters are either local or global. A local filter is owned by a single BI collection. A global filter is owned by the BI model and by one or more collections.	BI filter name BI filter namespace Either the identity of the containing BI model or the containing BI collection
BI hierarchy	An organizational structure that defines an ordering or relationship of data within a BI collection.	BI hierarchy name BI hierarchy namespace Either the identity of the containing BI model or the containing BI collection	BI hierarchy member
BI hierarchy member	An asset that orders BI levels within a hierarchy structure.	Identity of the BI hierarchy Identity of the BI level
BI join	An asset that joins two database tables (a physical join) or two BI collections (a logical join). The physical join defines the data source of a BI collection and the logical join is used in a star schema between fact and dimension collections.	BI join name BI join condition Identity of the BI model	BI report query
BI report	A business intelligence report that is based on information in a database or a BI model.	BI report name Identity of the BI folder	BI report query
BI report query	A query on a database or a BI model.	BI report query name BI report query namespace Identity of the BI report	BI report query item
BI report query item	An asset that defines a column in a BI report query.	BI report query item name Identity of the BI report query