How to Use the Bridge Wizard

Before using this wizard, make sure that the classpath environment variable for your system contains the path to the JDBC driver you intend to use:

•For Oracle, include Classes12.zip

•For Microsoft SQL Server, include sqljdbc.jar

For example, the path to the JDBC driver for a standard Oracle 10.2 installation would be:

C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\jdbc\lib\classes12.zip

You can set this environment variable either from a DOS command line using the "set" command, or from the Advanced tab of the System Properties feature. System Properties can be accessed by right-clicking on the My Computer item, and selecting Properties.

Note that the USoft Binder and Definer must be restarted if this environment variable is set or changed while they are running. If they are not restarted, the changes will have no effect.

Starting the Wizard

To start the Bridge Wizard, choose Tools, Data Model Tools, Bridge Wizard form the Definer menu bar. The first page of the Bridge Wizard will then appear.

Bridge Wizard Page 1

The fields available on the first Bridge Wizard page are described below. In general, it is recommended that you use the TAB key to navigate between fields.

•RDBMS User:
This is the user name of the database account that is to be accessed using JDBC. The wizard will automatically fill a number of other fields if you supply a user name that has previously been used.

•RDBMS Connection:
This is the connection string that identifies the database you want to access. Examples of JDBC connection strings can be found in the dropdown list.

•RDBMS password:
This is the password associated with the RDBMS user. Upon leaving the password field the Bridge wizard will attempt to connect to the database to query the list of available schemas. If a password is not supplied, or is invalid, error messages are displayed to call attention to the password error, and to the failure to collect schema information.

•RDBMS Schema:
Once a connection has been made to the database, the dropdown list associated with this field is filled with a list of available schemas. You can then select a schema from this dropdown list. If the request for schema information from the database fails, it is also possible to enter a schema name manually. If a particular database does not support schemas, you can enter any string in this field.

•Name Filter:
The name filter allows sets of table names to be filtered using a regular expression. E.g. A.*|B.* will not show any tables starting with A or B. Note that all \ characters have to be doubled to take account of the escape character (\) used internally. A filter which is always present is BIN\\$.*|\\/.*

•Tables File:
This is the name of the XML file that will be used to store your retrieved tables/columns/relations. This is the file that is imported into the Definer when the wizard completes its tasks.

•Read Tables button:
If you press this button, all tables will be read from the JDBC data source, and the contents of the Tables file will be overwritten. If you do not press this button (to save time, for example) the current contents of the tables file will be used in the next wizard step.

Once you have completed all the fields, press the Next button to go to the second page of the Bridge Wizard.

Bridge Wizard Page 2

On this Bridge Wizard page, you can select the tables that you want to import. If you only want to import certain columns from a table, you should also check the box for the table containing those columns. The next wizard step gives you the option of (de-)selecting particular columns.

When you press Next to go to the third page of the Bridge Wizard, the selected tables and their columns are added to the XML file used for the import step.

Bridge Wizard Page 3

On this Bridge Wizard page, you can select or deselect columns from the tables selected on the previous wizard page, to obtain a list of those columns that you actually want to import into the repository.

NOTE: If you deselect (uncheck) mandatory columns (marked with !) the USoft application is prevented from inserting data into that table. If you deselect primary keys, this will prevent a manual commit following the import.

Press the Next button to go to the fourth and final page of the Bridge Wizard.

Bridge Wizard Page 4

The Bridge wizard is now ready to import the selected tables and columns into your repository. Press Back to check, and if necessary correct the information you provided, or Finish to start the import.

If errors are detected, you can manually correct them before committing the changes.

A Batch log file containing details of the import will be created in the standard logging folder.

The Bridge Wizard stores many settings from previous runs. These settings are stored in an XML file which is located in the standard USoft temp folder, and is named USOFT_BRIDGE_SETTINGS.xml.