Introduction to Data Sources and Data Entities

Introduction to Data Sources and Data Entities


Prerequisites

User access to iData

Single, empty project

Access to the local server data ‘localhost\SQLEXPRESS’ database ‘AcmeData’


Video



Introduction

In this short article will be:

  1. Using an existing project
  1. Adding a data source for a SQL Server database
  1. Importing the tables from the SQL database as Data Entities, and defining how we will use them.


Steps

Logging In

This is the welcome screen.

To log in, we press the Login button taking us to the Login screen.

We enter our iData credentials and press Login.


Data Sources

From the Projects Screen, selecting an existing project we can access or create Source by clicking on the helper for a new project

Or selecting Data Entities from the left-hand project ribbon.

Or choosing Data Entities from this Project Summary screen.

Selecting ‘Data Sources’ displays the Data Source page.

As we have none defined, this only presents us with one option. ‘New Data Source’.

Clicking on ‘New Data Source’ we can chose from a number of options. 


As we are creating a SQL Database source, click on MSSql. We are now presented with the New Connection details pop up. 
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Complete these with the name you want to call the Data Source, the server instance the database resides on, and the database name.

If we keep ‘Integrated Security’ ticked then the iData service account needs to have access. If we untick ‘Integrated Security’ we can add SQL Server credentials to make the connection.

Click on ‘Save’ to save the Connection.

We can now see the new data source.


The hint at the bottom right is tells us that the next step is to create some Data Entities.

As we have defined a connection to a database, but we have not defined which tables we want to user from that Data Source. That is what we do with data entities.


Data Entities

We can access or create Data Entities from the Data Source detail screen hint for a newly created Data Source.

Or from the ‘Actions drop down button next to the Data Source on this screen:

From the left-hand Project ribbon

Or from the Project Detail Screen

From this screen, we will click on the Tool Tip.

As this is new Data Source Definition, we have one option, to create New Data Entity. 

Click on New Data Entity.

Select the Data Source we have just created and click Next. 

Here are the tables that are available in this Data Source.

We can use filters to just get particular tables and we can drag them across. But we will define them all by clicking on ‘Select All’ and press Next.

We can configure permissions and then we press Next.

Here are our data entities that we are going to get from our Data Source.

Press Save.

We are now shown the definition of the Data Entities we have just created.

The Hint is informing us that our next logical step is to create a processing stage.



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