In many organizations, database specialists maintain the database. If this is true in your organization, you might not need to create and maintain tables within the database. However, to take full advantage of PocketBuilder, you should know how to work with databases.
Defining a data source Using the ODBC administrator or other database connection utilities, you can define a database as a data source for your application. You can access the ODBC Administrator from the Database Profiles dialog box. The definitions of ODBC data sources are stored in the odbc.ini registry key.
Using database profiles to connect Once you define a data source, you can create a database profile for it in the PocketBuilder Database painter. A database profile is a named set of parameters that specifies a connection to a particular data source or database. Database profiles provide an easy way for you to manage database connections that you use frequently. When you are developing an application, you can change database profiles to connect to a different data source.
When database connections occur PocketBuilder can establish a connection to the database in either the design-time or runtime environment. PocketBuilder connects to a database when you open certain painters, when you compile or save a PocketBuilder script that contains embedded SQL statements, or when you run a PocketBuilder application that accesses the database.
To maintain database definitions with PocketBuilder, you do most of your work using the Database painter. The Database painter allows you to:
Create, alter, and drop tables
Create, alter, and drop primary and foreign keys
Create and drop indexes
Define and modify extended attributes for columns
Drop views
In this exercise you:
