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Here are a few tips and tricks to help you use DIG quickly and more efficiently.
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DIG allows the administrator to add custom date functions for database sources. For Oracle,
an administrator might choose to ensure that dates submitted to the database are in a local format.
This can be done by editing the database properties in the DIG Administrator.
Use the "Date Delimiter/Function" boxes (as shown in the graphic, below) to enter to_date
(' in the left box and ', 'mm/dd/yyyy')
in the box on the right.
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DIG allows you to define data fields that are searchable, but are not returned to the user in result sets.
During the creation of your "Query Group," select all the fields that you would like to make searchable in the
query builder. After verifying your query, you are turned to the Search Object mapping dialog. Map your fields
as you normally would. When you reach the item you want to be searchable, but not returned to users, simply
uncheck the box in front of the map definition.
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| Coming Soon
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DIG Alerts continue to be a high priority for future enhancements. Alerts will allow users to specify activities, events and/or conditions that trigger the generation of a notification - either by e-mail or instant message. Notifications can be automatically sent to any number of users or user groups.
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Server-to-Server functionality is also high on the list for future DIG enhancements. The Server-to-Server functionality will allow queries to be passed to multiple servers and multiple databases based on user-defined network routing information. This will significantly extend the reach of DIG to provide added levels of breadth and depth to its already powerful search capabilities.
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What's New?
DIG E-mail Connector IMAP Capability
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is a standard protocol for remotely accessing e-mail from your mail server.
IMAP (the latest version is IMAP4) is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your
Internet server. To retrieve your e-mail, you use an e-mail client (e.g., Outlook, Eudora, Evolution, etc.)
that initially displays only the headers (date, time, size, etc.) and the senders of the messages waiting in your mailbox.
Using your e-mail client, you choose which messages you want to view. Only these messages are downloaded from your mail
server to your mail client. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages, or
search for certain parts or an entire message. IMAP requires continual access to the mail server during the time that you
are working with your mail.
A less-sophisticated protocol is Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3). With POP3, mail is saved in your mailbox on the server.
When you read your mail, all of it is immediately downloaded to your computer and no longer maintained on the server.
IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service.
POP and IMAP receive e-mail from your mail server and are different from Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP),
which is a protocol for transferring e-mail between servers on the Internet. You send e-mail via SMTP and a mail
server receives it on your recipient's behalf. The mail is read by the recipient using either POP or IMAP.
The DIG E-mail connector is being enhanced so that e-mail stored in one or more IMAP folder(s) can be retrieved,
indexed and prepared for subsequent user queries. This feature, with the current POP3 functionality, will
significantly increase the flexibility of DIG's e-mail services.
IMAP support is currently being incorporated into the DIG E-mail connector and will be available to the DIG client
community in late June.
DIG Internationalization
DIG has added a powerful new option that will allow international user communities to use DIG's powerful processing
capabilities in their native languages. This option includes the data you are working with as well as the DIG
Administrator and Client interfaces.
This functionality will provide the international analysis community with a powerful search and retrieval tool that
is truly portable. It will allow diverse user communities to share concepts and practices without forcing conversion to,
or adoption of, any specific language.
Additionally, the DIG internationalization capability provides user communities with mixed language search values.
An initial search value in Spanish can be coupled with a second search value in Chinese and used by DIG to search
all requested data sources - all in a single search process. This is an extremely powerful capability for countries
that are multi-lingual, that support multiple national ethnicities or for multi-national task forces, law-enforcement
agencies and intelligence agencies.
The DIG approach to internationalization includes an integrated translation utility that translates words and
phrases and allows the user to choose the best-suited translation.
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Feature of the Month
DIG Logs
DIG is distributed with an activity/event/data logging process. The DIG logs store information about indexing,
user generated searches, search processing values, date and time stamps, e-mail downloads, and a great deal more.
The logs are stored in a Microsoft Access database and are available for a variety of uses. Organizations can use the log file to verify successful
` execution of processes, examine event timings, collect usage statistics, etc.
The DIG log database can also be used as a data source in the DIG application. DIG users can request searches for
any and all data available in the DIG application. An example of the DIG log is shown below.
The following example shows how you might set up the DIG log as a data source within the DIG application.
This sample configuration lets your users search on all the data stored in the DIG log database.
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