Common Settings

Many view settings are the same regardless of the data source plug-in used to manage the view.

• Data Source - This read only option displays the name of the associated data source provider.
• Product Name - The product license the view is grouped under.
• View Description - An optional description that will be displayed to the users when they select the view on the main screen in the Remote Client.
• Query/Insert/Update/Delete Permission - Controls whether or not the user is permitted to perform the corresponding action within the view. Query Permission is available by default and the modification permissions are not.

View Attributes

Several options are available that control how the view options. Some of the more commonly used settings are:

• Auto Commit Changes - In online scenarios this causes any record modifications to be committed automatically when the user leaves the record. This has no effect in offline mode.
• Cache Timeout - Specifies the time, in seconds, that queries for data within the view will be cached. Increasing this value can improve performance in some cases, but increases the possibility of viewing stale results.
  
• Hidden View - If this attribute evaluates to true it prevents the view from showing up on the main view selection screen on the Remote Client. This is useful for support views that the user does not need to access directly.
• Record Description - The results of this attribute are displayed in the navigation bar when the record is being displayed. This can be used to provide the user with instructions or help about what steps need to be performed.
• Text Style - Controls the base color and text style for data displayed in this view. Details are available in the Text Style Reference section.

Custom Attributes

Any number of view-specific custom attributes can be created in this section.

ADO.NET Data Source Options

This data source defines several options needed to create views that access existing databases.

• Connection Profile Name - The name of the back-end database to access for the view. These are specified in the main options section for the ADO.NET Data Source Plug-in.
• Base SQL Statement - This setting is used to specify the underlying database query that returns the data for this view. Entering a SQL statement and clicking the Save button will update the view with the server and rebuild the list of fields displayed in the grid.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind about the SQL statements used here:

• Certain providers have difficulty with complex query statements involving function calls, sub queries, etc. Often these statements can be compiled as database views which can then be queried simply.
• Attributes are not processed within the SQL statement.
• WHERE clauses in the SQL statement should be restricted to join statements and other clauses that should always be evaluated. Queries supplied by the Remote Client will be logically ANDed with this WHERE clause. Using ANSI join syntax is often clearer, because it separates schema statements from restrictive clauses.
  

View Field Name Mapping

This section lets the administrator change details about the names of the fields within the view. It is possible to use column aliases in the SQL statement to control the names of the fields, but it is typically clearer and easier to leave the aliases out of the statement and simply modify the DataSplice Name setting.

It is recommended to rename the fields to use Mixed Case because this results in names that take up less space on handheld devices and other space-limited displays.

The following settings are available for each field in this section:

• Database Name:  The name of the underlying column in the source database table. This setting is read-only.
• DataSplice Name: The name that should be displayed when this field is displayed, allowing the administrator to alter the names the mobile user sees when using DataSplice. We recommend using a consistent naming scheme for the display. In addition, Mixed Case (as opposed to UPPER CASE) field names take up less room on the screen and allow more data to be displayed.
• Override Filter Expression: This is an advanced setting that rarely needs to be specified. The server uses this setting when creating a SQL statement when querying the view. For each field specified in the query the server add something like (<filter expression> <operator> ?) to the WHERE clause. For most fields, it will automatically use the appropriate field name for the filter expression based on the field name in the underlying table. However, if the field is a complex expression such as a function call or subquery, you might need to explicitly tell the plug-in the expression to use if the field needs to be searchable by the user.
• Current Filter Expression: Displays the current expression used to filter on this field. If this is empty, the field will not be searchable. This setting is read-only.

Simple Table Source Options

Simple data source views cause tables to be created to match the fields defined in the view. 

Each table is automatically created with an ID primary key column that is a GUID (16 byte Globally Unique Identifier). This allows records to be uniquely referred to throughout the system. Another advantage of using GUID primary keys is that clients can generate keys offline without fear of colliding with records created by other users.

The keys are also used by the relationships to associate records with each other. Note that the GUID values typically will never be useful to display to end users, so they default to being invisible.

Fields and Relationships

Use the fields and relationships sections to define the data that is available in the view. Each field must specify a unique name and the underlying data type to be used. For Text fields the Width setting specifies the maximum number of characters that can be stored.

Each entry in the Relationships section creates a GUID field with the corresponding Relationship Name in the view. The Relationship Type describes how the views relate to each other:

• Parent - Creates a parent/child relationship between two views. The child record must reference a valid parent.
• Dependency - Required association between records. This is similar to a parent/child relationship, except that deleting the parent record won't cascade and delete related children.
• Association - Optional association between records, so the relationship field is allowed to be null.