In previous tips we have discussed how to use the Web Player APIs to define what data to load into TIBCO Spotfire. In this tip, we will show how you can take interactions from a given analysis file (like marking) in the Web Player and send related information to an external web page.
In this scenario, let’s assume you are using Spotfire to analyze data on mutual fund’s historical performance.
You may have an analysis page which includes a Scatter Plot that compares the returns of each of the funds over the past decade and the past year to give you an idea of its consistency on returns.
Suppose as part of your analysis session that you want to mark a fund or funds of interest and then pass the symbols for those funds to an external web site for further analysis or information. In our case, maybe we want to link to Yahoo Finance so we can see news on the funds or links to other pertinent information. Whatever the specific requirements may be, we need outside information other than just raw data to complete our analysis.
Rather than forcing the consumer to manually go to a web page and type in the necessary information, the Spotfire Web Player APIs make it straightforward to automate this workflow.
We can create a web page that has two panes. The Spotfire Analysis file displayed in the Web Player on the left pane and then Yahoo Finance in the second. We can also create navigation controls that will allow the user to maximize and resize either pane.
Then, using the Web Player APIs, we can listen for when records in the analysis file are marked. When they are, we get the value associated with the Symbol column and pass it as a query parameter to the Yahoo finance site and then refresh the page. The yahoo finance site takes in a query parameter with the name s which stands for symbol, so if we are passing in the symbol EQPGX , the URL would be http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=EQPGX.
You can see the final solution at http://bit.ly/stockMashup
If you are interested in learning more about how to use the Web Player APIs, please consider taking our SP211 Web Player API online training course.
