multiple databases without using Hotfiles

[elisha]

1.Is it possible without using Hotfiles to use more than one database in an Impromptu catalog ?Ã,  If possible how to achieve this?Ã, 
2. why we need Hotfiles?,Ã,  while we are gettingÃ,  data from multiple databases?.
Please clarify my doubts.

[cognosfreelancer]

Hello Elisha

1.Is it possible without using Hotfiles to use more than one database in an Impromptu catalog ?Ã,  If possible how to achieve this?Ã, 

Yes you can. You will need to rely on ODBC. Here are the steps.

- create an Access database.
- create links to interested tables in multiple databases (You will need to set up ODBC connections to these databases before you can set up the link)
- create an ODBC connection to the Access database

Beware that ODBC is not fast when compared to native gateway connections. Also depending on who the provider is of the ODBC driver you could lose out on some functionality.

why we need Hotfiles

You answered it yourself. it is for integrating data from different databases.

Hotfiles are also useful in complex calculations. I used hotfiles extensively even while querying against the same database because of the complexity of the reports.

Again keep in mind that usage of hotfiles are detrimental to your reporting performance.

An Impromptu report that queries against a hotfile and a database table will pull in all data from the database table before joining to the hotfile

HTH

NKT

[Blue]

Another option is to create views or table aliases in database A that reference tables/views in database B.  When the Impromptu catalog reads the metadata of database A it will also have available to it the views/aliases.