Overview of CIC Data Sources and Contact Lists

Some components of CIC depend on data stored in a variety of repositories, such as SQL Server databases, Access databases, different Exchange or IBM Domino data sources, and so on.

Rather than tie CIC components directly to an external data source, these components reference a local CIC data source name, which points to a particular type of data repository. This allows CIC developers and administrators to change a data repository without having to change references to that repository.

For example, CIC report logs are currently stored in SQL Server databases and accessed via a CIC data source (called IC Report Logs in this case). This CIC data source points to a SQL Server database and the ODBC DSN to set up connections to the report logs. However, future versions of CIC may store report log data in databases other than SQL Server. Since the report logs and reports point to a CIC data source, they will not have to be reconfigured to support a new data source. Only the CIC data source must be reconfigured.

Contact List Sources in Interaction Administrator use CIC data sources and a particular CIC-specific driver to define contact lists that can appear as directory tabs in the CIC clients.

The default drivers provide access to and a formatted view of the contact data in the specified data source repository. You can create views for contact lists in other kinds of data sources not directly supported in CIC by creating a view into that repository that matches the format of the supported CIC data source repositories.

For example, you can set up a SQL table view as contacts list for a tab instead of a 'real' table, by setting TABLE=<tableOrViewName>; entry in the Additional Information field of the Data Manager Contact List Source (not the CIC data source).

The Contact Data Manager Configuration page controls how the CIC client users access the speed dial data source for a site. This page specifies how many simultaneous write operations can be performed, the name of the speed dial data source, and a control to refresh connections to the data source repository.