Associating assets with blueprint elements

You can associate glossary assets, files, parts of Microsoft Office documents, IBM® Cognos® Framework Manager models, and web addresses with your blueprint elements. These associations provide business meaning to blueprint elements and integrate IT with your information project.

Before you begin

To associate local terms with blueprint elements, configure the download schedule to your local business glossary.
To associate other types of assets such as jobs and mapping projects with blueprint elements, create a server connection to IBM InfoSphere Information Server.
To associate Cognos models with blueprint elements, you must have Cognos Framework Manager installed.

About this task

You can associate assets by using the Add Asset Link pane, or by dragging the asset from the Glossary Explorer or the Asset Browser pane to the blueprint element.

Table 1. Where to find assets
You can find this asset type	In the Add Asset Link pane	In the Asset Browser pane
Terms	X	X
Cognos models	X
IBM InfoSphere DataStage® jobs	X	X
IBM InfoSphere FastTrack mapping projects	X	X
IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog information assets	X	X
General files	X
Web addresses	X
Sections of Microsoft Office documents	X
All other assets	X

By default, the name of an association is the same as the asset name. A blueprint element can have more than one association. You can list the assets that are associated with a blueprint element and view the details of the associated asset.

A Cognos model from Cognos Framework Manager includes all of the folders, queries, reports, views, shortcuts, web addresses, and job definitions associated with that model.

Procedure

In the InfoSphere Blueprint Director client, do the following steps, depending on the asset type:

To associate this type of asset with a blueprint element	Do these steps
Cognos models InfoSphere DataStage jobs InfoSphere FastTrack mapping projects InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog assets Sections of Microsoft Office documents Entire files Web addresses	Right-click the blueprint element that you want to associate with and then click Add Asset Link. From the Asset Link Type list, select the asset type and complete the steps that are required for that asset type. To associate a section of text in a Microsoft Office document, select Word/Excel Section and do these steps: In the Microsoft Office document, select some text and then press Ctrl+C. In the InfoSphere Blueprint Director client, click Paste Word/Excel Link. A bookmark to the blueprint element is inserted in the Microsoft Office document. Save and then close the Microsoft Office document. If you do not save the document before you close it, the bookmark is not inserted and no association with the blueprint element is made. Click Finish.
Terms	Go to the Glossary Explorer pane. Right-click the term and drag it to the blueprint element that you want to associate it with.
All other assets such as databases, database tables, and BI reports	Go to the Asset Browser pane. Right-click the asset and drag it to the blueprint element that you want to associate it with.

Example

Associate a requirement specification document with a database blueprint element

Suppose that you want to associate a requirement specification document with a database blueprint element. The document is written in Microsoft Office Word and is stored in a local directory.

To associate the entire document with the database blueprint element, you do the following steps:

Right-click the database blueprint element to open the Add Asset Link pane.
In the Add Asset Link window, select File in the Asset Link Type list, because you want to associate the entire specification document with the blueprint element.
In the blueprint subdiagram, right-click the Linked Asset icon of the database blueprint element and select the document from the list of associated assets.

The document opens in Microsoft Office Word.

Associate a mapping project with a database blueprint element

As another example, you want to associate a mapping project that was generated by InfoSphere FastTrack with a database blueprint element. The mapping project asset is stored in the catalog of InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog.

To associate the mapping project asset to the database blueprint element, you do the following steps:

Drag the mapping project asset from the Asset Browser pane to the database blueprint element.
Right-click the Linked Asset icon of the database blueprint element and select the mapping project from the list.
Alternatively, right-click the database blueprint element to open the Add Asset Link pane. In the Add Asset Link window, select FastTrack Mapping Project and follow the instructions.

The mapping project details are displayed in a new tab in the InfoSphere Blueprint Director client.