Shell Command Reference

The Analytica Shell provides ‘programmatic’ access to Analytica’s functionality. Instead of using a graphical user environment like the iPhone, browser or Excel, the Analytica Shell supports a typical shell behavior for users that need to quickly try out some analytics or simply are tuned to this type of command-line style interface.

Introduction

The shell is started up by launching an executable (usually called AnalyticaS or analyticaS.exe). Once the shell started up, it displays the following:

Welcome to ANALYTICA!
For help, type help.
-->

To see all possible commands the shell can execute, issue ‘help’:

Welcome to ANALYTICA!
For help, type help.
-->help
Commands:
    autoconnect <database host> <database port> <database login> <database password>
    autodiscover <database host> <database port> <database login> <database password>
    connect <database host> <database port> <database login> <database password> <database name> <database type>
    connectionstatus
    describe <collection path>
    directmode
    disconnect <database host> <database port> <database name> <database type>
    disconnectall
    executeXL <XL expression>
    executionsettings
    exit
    forget <collection path>
    forgetvc <virtual collection name> <database name>
    get <collection path>
    help
    list
    listvc
    parseXL <XL expression>
    update <collection path> = <XL expression>
    updatevc <virtual collection name> <database name> <database collection> <database query>
    restmode <hostname:port>
    runReport <report name>
    saveas <source database name> <source collection name> <target database name> <target collection name>
    set <collection path> = <XL expression>
    setvc <virtual collection name> <database name> <database collection> <database query>
    setEnforceTypeChecking <yes|no>
    setProcessingLimit <limit; -1 for complete result>
    setResultAnnotation <yes|no>
    setResultSetSize <limit; -1 for complete result>
    setSamplingSize <limit; -1 for complete result>
    setSamplingSizeDescribe <limit; -1 for complete result>
    setSamplingSizeTypeAnalysis <limit; -1 for complete result>
    setStrictExecution <yes|no>
    setStrictTyping <yes|no>
    sizingsettings
-->

The section www.analytica.com/technology/shell-client/ shows the shell in action.

Shell Command Overview

In the following, all shell commands are listed and explained.

autoconnect <database host> <database port> <database login> <database password>
  • Effect: connects automatically to all databases on the database host
  • The default password for MongoDB databases without authentication is “—” and “—” (three dashes each)
  • database host: hostname of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database port: port number of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database login: login of the database (if defined)
  • database password: password of the database (if defined)
autodiscover <database host> <database port> <database login> <database password>
  • Effect: discovers, but does not connect, to all databases on database host
  • The default password for MongoDB databases without authentication is “—” and “—”  (three dashes each)
  • database host: hostname of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database port: port number of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database login: login of the database (if defined)
  • database password: password of the database (if defined)
connect <database host> <database port> <database login> <database password> <database name> <database type>
  • Effect: connects to a single data source
  • The default password for MongoDB databases without authentication is “—” and “—”  (three dashes each)
  • database host: hostname of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database port: port number of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database login: login of the database (if defined)
  • database password: password of the database (if defined)
  • database name: name of the database
  • database type: “MongoDB” in case of MongoDB
connectionstatus
  • Effect: returns a list of all connected data sources
describe <collection path>
  • Effect: returns the list of property data types of the property
  • collection path: path to an existing property
directmode
  • Effect: executes all commands in the same process as the shell; the Analytica server in this case is not a separate process but inline with the shell itself
disconnect <database host> <database port> <database name> <database type>
  • Effect: disconnects from this particular data source
  • database host: hostname of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database port: port number of the server where the MongoDB is located
  • database name: name of the database
  • database type: “MongoDB” in case of MongoDB
disconnectall
  • Effect: disconnects from all connected data sources
executeXL <XL expression>
  • Effect: executes the XL expression and returns the result values
  • XL expression: an XL expression
executionsettings
  • Effect: retrieves all execution settings
exit
  • Effect: exists the shell
forget <collection path>
  • Effect: deletes an existing calculated property
  • collection path: path to the calculated property
forgetvc <virtual collection name> <database name>
  • Effect: removes an existing virtual collection
  • virtual collection name: name of existing virtual collection
  • database name: name of data source for which virtual collection is created
get <collection path>
  • Effect: gets the values of the property
  • collection path: path to an existing property
help
  • Effect: displays a list of all shell commands
list
  • Effect: Lists all calculated property definitions
listvc
  • Effect: lists all definitions of virtual collections
parseXL <XL expression>
  • Effect: parses the XL expression and returns either success or parse errors
  • XL expression: an XL expression
update <collection path> = <XL expression>
  • Effect: updates an existing calculated property
  • collection path: path to the existing calculated property
  • XL expression: XL Expression defining the computation for the new value of the existing calculated property
updatevc <virtual collection name> <database name> <database collection> <database query>
  • Effect: updates an existing virtual collection
  • virtual collection name: name of existing virtual collection
  • database name: name of data source for which virtual collection is created
  • database collection: name of collection in data source to which query is applied
  • database query: data source native query that selects documents from dataSourceCollectionName into virtualCollectionName
restmode <hostname:port>
  • Effect: configures the shell to connect to an Analytica server on a different machine
  • hostname: name or IP address of the machine that hosts the Analytica server
  • port: 8123
runReport <report name>
  • Effect: executes a defined report
  • report name: name of report
saveas <source database name> <source collection name> <target database name> <target collection name>
  • Effect: saves the document from source collection name in the source database name to the target collection name in the target database name (overwrite)
  • source database name: name of the source data source
  • source collection name: name of the source collection
  • target database name: name of the target data source
  • target collection name: name of the target collection
set <collection path> = <XL expression>
  • Effect: creates a new calculated property
  • collection path: path to the new calculated property
  • XL expression: XL Expression defining the computation for the value of the new calculated property
setvc <virtual collection name> <database name> <database collection> <database query>
  • Effect: creates a virtual collection
  • virtual collection name: name of new virtual collection
  • database name: name of data source for which virtual collection is created
  • database collection: name of collection in data source to which query is applied
  • database query: data source native query that selects documents from database collection into virtual collection name
setEnforceTypeChecking <yes|no>
  • Effect: enforces a semantic check of XL expressions against the inferred types
  • parameter: yes | no
setProcessingLimit <limit; -1 for complete result>
  • Effect: sets the maximum number of documents to be processed
  • parameter: new limit for the number of documents to be processed; -1 for all documents
setResultAnnotation <yes|no>
  • Effect: adds a property to the result document indicating if the documents are meta-data or instance data
  • parameter: yes | no
setResultSetSize <limit; -1 for complete result>
  • Effect: sets the maximum number of documents in the result set
  • parameter: new limit for the number of documents to be returned as result; -1 for all documents
setSamplingSize <limit; -1 for complete result>
  • Effect: sets the sampling size
  • parameter: new sampling size to take; -1 for all documents
setSamplingSizeDescribe <limit; -1 for complete result>
  • Effect: sets the sampling size for the describe
  • parameter: new sampling size to take for describe; -1 for all documents
setSamplingSizeTypeAnalysis <limit; -1 for complete result>
  • Effect: sets the sampling size for the type analysis
  • parameter: new sampling size to take for the type analysis; -1 for all documents
setStrictExecution <yes|no>
  • Effect: enforces that all properties that are asked for are present/best effort otherwise
  • parameter: yes | no
setStrictTyping <yes|no>
  • Effect: enforces strict typing or not. Strict typing takes the order of properties in documents into account
  • parameter: yes | no
sizingsettings
  •  Effect: retrieves all sizing settings