The Database Specification dialog allows you to select an ODBC Data Source from the currently defined set of ODBC Data Sources on your computer and provide DPL with further information about the database connected to the Data Source.
Data Source
If the database associated with the data source requires a login and/or password, specify these first in the edit boxes at the top of the dialog.
Select the Data Source from the Source drop-down list.
If the database is configured to track revisions, indicate that by checking the Database configured for revision tracking box.
A schema defines the structure of the database. You need to specify a schema with some database systems in order to have access to the tables and other database objects within the database. If necessary, specify the Schema in the edit box provided.
Lastly, you must specify the type of driver (i.e., Access, MySQL, Oracle, etc.) for the Data Source using the Driver Type drop-down list.
Contact your database administrator if you are unsure about your ODBC Data Source, schema, login or password.
Field Names
The dialog allows you to change any of the field names for the required fields for a DPL-linked database. Enter the field names you would like to use, or click the Default field names button at the bottom of the dialog to use the defaults. See the Database Linking Overview for details about the required fields. Note that either a Model ID or a Project ID field is required (but not both, although you may need both), and that the Node ID, Dimensions, Rows, Columns, and Data prefix fields are all required.
Data Export (DPL Portfolio)
This section of the dialog applies only to DPL Portfolio. When you run a Portfolio Analysis, you can choose to export expected values and other information to the database.
When exporting results to the database, you must specify a few additional field names. First you must specify the record ID field (a field that has a unique value for each record) and how to determine the field value. Specify the field in the Record ID field box or click Default field names to use the default.
Use the radio buttons to indicate that the Record ID field type is an Auto-increment/identity field or that an Oracle sequence will provide the field value. If you are unsure about how to append rows or set up the Record ID field, contact your database administrator.
Second specify the name of the field which stores the date when the results were generated.
If your portfolio includes categories, specify the prefix for the fields that will store the category information when exporting data (default or your own) within the Category fields prefix box.
The portfolio export table is intended to store results that are common across the entire portfolio, e.g., the expected value of the objective function and other attributes. This table is intended to store scalar values and is structured like a typical database table. To export data common across the portfolio to table, select the appropriate table from the Portfolio export table drop-down list.
Note if you don't see the table you want in the drop down list, it may have been added to the database since the last time the database structure was loaded. Click the Get Tables button to update the tables list in the drop down.
When exporting data, you can either append rows so that each set of results is stored in a new set of rows in the database or you can over-write the previous results. If you choose to append rows to the table for each run, specify whether to only append rows for new revisions.
If you indicated that the record ID field is populated using an Orace sequence, specify the name of the sequence in the Portfolio export table record ID sequence edit box.
Group-specific export tables allow you to export information to different tables for different Portfolio Groups. These tables are structured in the same way as tables that store non-scalar information (see Database Linking Overview) and as such can be used to export non-scalar information.
Clicking the Group-Specific Export Tables button launches a dialog which allows you to specify these tables and provide configuration information similar to the information you provided for the portfolio export table. Note the name of the record ID field, how it is populated, the name of the run date field and the category fields prefix must be the same between the portfolio export table and any group-specific export tables.
See Exporting Portfolio Analysis Results for more information on how to export DPL portfolio results.
Projects Table (DPL Portfolio)
If appropriate, specify the table which stores project information that may be used in Project Categorization or to filter projects in a portfolio analysis run.
Review Index (DPL Portfolio)
If the database is configured with a review index DPL will allow you to conduct analyses or do reporting on revisions marked as a specific review index. For the review index options to be available both the Database configured for revision tracking and Configured with review index boxes must be checked at the top of the dialog. A review index is comprised of two unique identifiers: a Review Tag and a Review Period. DPL will allow you to select a specific dataset to analyze using this combination.
Enter the field names you would like to use, or click the Default field names button at at the bottom of the dialog to use the defaults. You may only specify a review index table if you have indicated that revision ID's are at the project level. If you have a separate review index table, use the Table drop down list to specify the name.
Once you've made these specifications you must provide further information about what the specific review period and review tags are in the database and which integer codes are used for each. For more, see the help topic for the Review Index Information dialog.
Click OK to save the Database Specification changes when you are done.
Versions: DPL Enterprise, DPL Portfolio
See Also