Business Analyst Server uses Repository as its storage structure. The Repository supports persistent storage of analyses and reports, and stores data in a hierarchical structure:
- At the top level of the Repository are workspaces. At least one workspace, namely "Default Workspace", is contained in the Repository.
- A workspace is used to group projects. At least one project, namely "Default Project", is contained in a workspace.
- A project forms the next level of hierarchy and contains folders.
- A folder can contain a number of items such as analyses, store layers, customer layers, trade areas, reports, etc.
Two types of repository are supported:
- The file-based repository. Repository items are mapped to folders and files of an underlying file system.
- The ArcSDE-based repository. Repository items are accessed through the ArcGIS Spatial Database Engine.
The figure below shows the Repository structure.
Every project contains 15 folders to store folder items. Three of them—Models Calibrations, Modeling Results, and Project Subsets—are not used in the current version of the Business Analyst Server.
The Repository contains items of the following types:
- A layer item provides access to a Business Analyst feature layer. This layer can be retrieved with the OpenFeatureLayer method. A layer can be uploaded with the UploadShapefile or UploadFeatureSet method.
- A report item provides access to a Business Analyst report. This report can be retrieved with the GetReport method.
- A profile item provides access to a Business Analyst segmentation profile. This profile can be retrieved with the OpenSegProfile method.
- A target group item provides access to a Business Analyst segmentation target group. This target group can be retrieved with the OpenSegTargetGroup method.
- Custom Data folder contains table items uploaded by a user with the UploadTable method. The whole contents of this folder can be downloaded with the DownloadData method and uploaded with the UploadData method.
Repository items are usually created as an output from a Business Analyst Server task. To create an item in the repository, you should specify in the parameters of task a esriFolderItem parameter providing information on the workspace, project, folder type, and folder item name. To create a report item, you should also specify the GetReport value in the TaskOutputType[] parameter of the task.
If a folder item to create already exists, it will be overwritten in the case of the file-based repository. For the ArcSDE-based repository, an attempt to overwrite an existing item leads to error.
You need not retrieve an item from the Repository in order to use it in input parameters of a Business Analyst Server task. Simply specify the esriFolderItem value for the Item property of the DataLayer, PointLayer, ProfileData, TableData, or TargetGroupData type instance.