Now that you are connected to the tutorial database, you can look at the definitions for the tables in that database. This exercise helps you become familiar with the Database painter and the tables you will use in the next tutorial lesson.
Click the Database button in the PowerBar.
PocketBuilder connects to the database and the Database painter opens. The Database painter title bar identifies the active database profile. There is also a green check mark in the icon for the active database profile in the Objects view of the painter.
The Objects view of the Database painter displays all existing database profiles in a tree view under the Installed Database Interfaces heading. The SA Demo database profile is visible under the ODB ODBC node in the tree view.
Expand the SA Demo database node in the Objects view.
Notice the folders under the SA Demo database node.
Expand the Tables folder.
You see the list of tables in the database.
Right-click the customer table and select Add To Layout from the pop-up menu
or
Drag the customer table from the Objects view to the Object Layout view.
Dragging an object from one view to another
When you start dragging an object from the Objects view to
another view, the pointer changes to a barred circle. If you continue
moving the cursor to a view that can accept the object, the barred
circle changes back to a pointer with an additional arrow symbol
in a small box. When you see this symbol, you can release the object.
Repeat step 4 for the product table.
Widening the Object Layout view
You can widen the Object Layout view by dragging its separator
bars toward the painter frame. If the Object Layout view is part
of a stack, you might find it easier to separate it from the stack
before you change its size.
The Object Layout view shows the two tables you selected.
Viewing table data types, comments, keys, and indexes
In the Object Layout view, you can see a description for each
column, as well as icons for keys and indexes. If you do not see
this, right-click a blank area inside the view and select Show Referential
Integrity and Show Index Keys from the pop-up menu. If you select
Show Datatypes, you also see the datatype for each column in the
selected tables.
Right-click the title bar of the customer table in the Object Layout view and select Alter Table from the pop-up menu
or
Right-click the customer table in the Objects tree view and select Alter Table from the pop-up menu.
The Columns view displays the column definitions for the table.
Right-click a column in the customer table in the Object Layout view.
Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
The Properties view for a column has five tabs, one for general database properties and the others for column extended attributes.
About extended attributes
PocketBuilder stores extended attribute information in system
tables of the database. Extended attributes include headers and
labels for columns, initial values for columns, validation rules,
and display formats.
You can define new extended attributes or change the definitions of existing extended attributes from the pop-up menus of items in the Extended Attributes view of the Database painter.
Close the Database painter.
