On-Demand Data Tables allow virtually unlimited amounts of data to be analyzed in a single Spotfire session. The key to this mechanism is that end user interaction with a Spotfire Analytic Application triggers a database to be re-queried based on the newly generated criteria and the returned table replaces an existing in-memory data set. The result is a seamless navigation experience.

Prior to Spotfire 3.1 the only user interaction that could be used as input was a single visualization marking and the resulting table had many limitations on how it could be transformed and worked with.

With Spotfire 3.1 almost all of those limitation have been removed, including:

• Data Source
• Parameterized and Stored Procedure Information Links can be used as data sources
• An On-Demand Data Table can be the 1st (only) data table in an analysis
• A new data format between the client and Spotfire Server decreases transfer time
• Inputs
• Multiple Markings can be used as input parameters, allowing for support of navigating independent star schema dimension tables and drilling into the fact table
• Filterings can be used as input parameters, so no needless data is returned from the server
• Custom Expressions (including Document, Data Table and Column Properties) can be used to define inputs
• When combined with the new user input Property Controls this means that no input values have to be hardcoded or per session any more
• The value passed to the query no longer has to actually be in the currently loaded data set
• Input criteria can be specified as a range rather than a fixed list of items, so for example your query could return all values in the database between the minimum and maximum date that are marked in the “time dimension” regardless of whether those dates are marked or even in the data set
• The number of categories per input can be restricted to limited to any given number, for example you could limit the number of “Countries” that can be selected by the end user to 3
• Information Link prompts are optional
• The definition of the input parameters and values can be edited at any time, without having to replace the entire data table
• Transformation
• Transformations, like pivot and normalization, can be applied to the resulting data table Rows, Columns, and calculations can be added to On-Demand Tables
• Table Relations are not required so there does not have to be a join compliant relationship between the Information Link and the end data table

For more information, the online user manual has a complete description and set of examples for adding on-demand data tables and configuring where the input parameters come from and when they are triggered: http://stn.spotfire.com/stn/UserDoc.aspx?UserDoc=spotfire_client_help%2fadd%2fadd_loading_data_on_demand.htm