Overview of InfoSphere Information Analyzer thin client

InfoSphere® Information Analyzer thin client is a lightweight browser-based alternative to several of the functions available in InfoSphere Information Analyzer workbench.

InfoSphere Information Analyzer thin client lets you analyze data sets, view and edit the analysis results, and view data rules, rule sets, and quality rules that have been bound to columns in a data set or workspace. You can also add data rules and quality rules to a data set by binding rule definitions to columns.

Data sets in the thin client

A data set in InfoSphere Information Analyzer can represent any of the following:

A data file in a delimited format that is imported by using the File connector from a Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) or from a local directory on the engine tier.
Any database table or file that is imported by InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager that is currently supported in InfoSphere Information Analyzer.

In the thin client, you analyze data sets, and use your understanding of the data to modify or enrich the analysis results in a workspace.

Workspaces in the thin client

A workspace in InfoSphere Information Analyzer thin client works in the same general way as a project within the InfoSphere Information Analyzer workbench. Projects that are created in the workbench will be displayed as workspaces in the thin client. Conversely, workspaces created in the thin client will also appear as projects in the workbench. Analysis settings that you apply in the workbench will affect the analysis in the thin client. However, you must use the workbench if you need to apply advanced configuration to a project, such as modifying analysis settings, modifying the settings of the information analysis database, or authorizing user access to a project or workspace.

Features of the thin client

The thin client allows users to perform many of the column analysis and profiling tasks that they perform in the workbench, with several advantages:

Simplified access to data analysis results for users across the organization
Ability to import data files in a delimited format from HDFS
Analysis with a data quality score and detailed information about the data quality dimensions that contribute to the score
At-a-glance analysis metrics for workspaces, data sets, and columns
Ability to quickly check for specific conditions in your data with new quality rules
Ability to view, create and run data rules
Ability to automatically find all primary key and foreign key relationships in a group of data sets

The following table outlines the tasks that you can perform in InfoSphere Information Analyzer workbench and/or thin client.

Table 1. Tasks in InfoSphere Information Analyzer workbench and thin client
Tasks	Thin client	Workbench
Create and configure data connections for HDFS sources	X
Work with existing InfoSphere Information Analyzer projects	X	X
Run column analysis	X (Available as part of overall analysis)	X
Find primary keys	X (Available as part of relationship analysis, but will only identify primary keys that are part of a PK-FK relationship)	X
Find foreign keys	X (Identified during the relationship analysis)	X
Run relationship analysis (Automatically identifies all PK-FK relationships in a group of tables in a single task)	X
Identify multiple column primary keys	X (Identified during the relationship analysis)	X
Run cross-domain analysis		X
Run data quality analysis and view data quality score	X
Edit analysis results	X	X
Associate InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog terms	X	X
Add notes	X	X
View analysis results	X	X
View data rules, rules sets, and quality rules bound to columns, as well as details about status and execution results	X	X
Publish analysis results to InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog	X	X
Create quality rules	X
Create data rule definitions		X
Create, edit, and run data rules	X	X
Configure data connections for non-HDFS sources		X
Schedule jobs		X
Run data quality analysis on a data sample	X
Run column analysis on a data sample		X