Creating an Extensible Table in Biotics A Brief Demo by Carol Fogelsong April 3, 2007

Analyze your requirements What data do you want to capture? –How many tables? How many columns? –Repeat after me: One tab per table, one table per tab! Where do you want to put it? –Which window? –Species or communities? Or both? Which table do you want to extend? Multi-valued or 1 to 1? How can I make this more flexible to meet future needs?

Design your tables and tabs How many tabs/tables do you need? In what order should the tabs appear? What fields should be on which tabs? Who is allowed to see and edit this tab? What do you want to call them? –Tables, columns, tabs, and fields need names –Aim for clarity and consistency What kind of data is it? –Numeric? Date? Character? Variable Character? –Big field? Little field? How about a few domain tables?

Analysis and design resources Biotics 4.0 Installation and Configuration Guide ExtensibilityWorksheet.xls Visio, Powerpoint, or any other halfway decent diagramming tool KnowledgeBase Biotics listserv Hint: Document your design as you go!

Create your tables Create the Oracle SQL script to create tables ExampleOracleScript.sql Note constraints, inserts, and system table updates When script is complete, run in SQL+ logged on as the biotics_user. Check for errors, make sure that your tables were created properly.

Create your tabs Administrator tool, Dynamic Tabs window Create tabs in order that you want them to appear on the screen If you change your tables after the tab is created, you will need to drop the tab and start over. Each column in table must be accounted for Open up Tracker and check your work.

Make your tab accessible to users In Administrator tool, open Function window Create a new function or Add to an existing function? Depends. Look for all controls –Grids –Picture Box –Labels –Text Box –Combo Box

Other considerations Tables can be queried just as any other table Tables can be batch loaded just as any other table Tables can be referenced in any views you may need Currently, we do not exchange data in extensible tables, but…. No audit tracking for extensible tables –But you can write your own triggers!

Any Questions?