Lesson 8: Saving and Loading Cockpit Sessions

DiscoveryPro Attention: Saving and loading analysis sessions is only available in Visplore Discovery and Visplore Professional, but not in Visplore Free.


Preparation

If not the case yet, load the demo dataset and start the 'Trends and Distributions' Cockpit, as described in the beginning of lesson 01.


At any point during the use of a cockpit, the state of the current analysis session ca be saved as a whole - to be restored at a later time, along with all computations, filters, visualizations, etc.

Click the button for saving a cockpit session, which opens a dialog:

In the dialog, you can choose whether and how the underlying data should be referenced, as well as the location and name of the stored session file.

For now, check only "Keep link to data source" in the "Data" box (leave "Embed data" unchecked - see a description below). Then define where the file should be stored and confirm by clicking "OK".

Keeping a link to the data source makes the file memorize how the data was imported. In our case of the imported Demo CSV file, the absolute path to the file is stored in the session. When loading the session later, the CSV is imported from that link. This is useful for applying the same 'template' configuration to new data. For example, when new records have been added to the file. For other data sources (e.g. databases), the import parameters are also memorized, and can even be adjusted when loading the session.

Embedding the data makes the current data table part of the .visplore file. This is useful for passing a complete package to a co-worker who does not need access to the original data source. Also, when you edited the loaded data by cleansing operations in Visplore, embedding is the only option that contains the cleansed data. Note that visplore files with embedded data have larger file size, of course.

Now load the previously stored cockpit session via the corresponding "Load" button in the Visplore toolbar:

Note: when starting Visplore next time, you can also load Visplore sessions directly from the Welcome Dialog. There, you also find a "Recent files" button, which is handy if you forgot where you saved a file.

When loading the cockpit session, you are asked which data the configurations should be applied to:

Note that Visplore sessions can also be started by a double click in the file explorer, if Visplore was installed by an installer.

Well done! You are now able to store sessions for continuing your analysis later, collaborating with colleagues, and re-applying analysis templates for new data at later points. :)


License Statement for the Photovoltaic and Weather dataset used for Screenshots:
"Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."
Source of Dataset (in its original form): https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/photovoltaic--pv--solar-panel-energy-generation-data
License: UK Open Government Licence OGL 3: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Dataset was modified (e.g. columns renamed) for easier communication of Visplore USPs.