Mapping Assignments between Database Fields and UDR Fields

Assignments

The Database agents are designed to either collect data from a database column and assign it to a UDR field, or vice versa. In their configuration they share the Assignment tab, where these mappings are configured. Due to the resemblance this configuration is described here.

Database collection agent configuration dialog - Assignment tab

Item

Description

Item

Description

Refresh

Updates the table with all the columns or parameters from the selected table or stored procedure (Database forwarding agent, only).

Note!

Potential changes in the database table will not be visible until Refresh for the database in the Source tab, has been selected.

If rows already exist in the table, the refresh operation preserves the configuration for all rows with a corresponding column or parameter name. Thus, if a table has been extended with a new column, the old column configurations are left untouched and the new column appears when  Refresh is selected.

The value type on each new column that appears in the table is automatically set to UDR Field.

Auto assignment:

All rows with no value assigned and with a value type of UDR Field will be targeted for auto assignment in the end of the refresh process. If the selected UDR type contains a field whose name matches the column name, the field will be automatically assigned in the Value column. Matching is not case-sensitive and is done after stripping both the column and field names from any characters, except a-z and 0-9.

Column Name

Displays a list of all columns or stored procedure parameters (Database forwarding agent, only) for the selected table or stored procedure, except the Transaction ID column.

Column Type

Displays the data type for each column as declared in the database table. If the column does not accept NULL this is displayed as: (NOT NULL).

Note!

If using Oracle and assigning a value of type  bigint , the column type  VARCHAR should be used. Setting a full range of the  bigint value type could otherwise lead to a wrong value being inserted, due to a limitation in the JDBC interface.

Value Type

Allows the user to select what type of value to be assigned to the column, or vice versa. For further information, see the section below, Value Types.

Value

The value to be assigned to the column, or vice versa. The technique of selecting a value depends on the selected Value Type.

Note!

It is important that the data type of the selected value corresponds to the data type of the column. Most incompatibilities will automatically be detected, however, there are situations where validation is not possible.

Value Types

The Database agents offer six different types of values that may be assigned to a column, or vice versa. Depending on the agent, not all value types are applicable and will therefore not be available in the list.

Both Database Agents

Both Database Agents

Value Type

Description

UDR Field

If selected, a UDR browser will be launched when the corresponding Value cell is selected. When a UDR field has been selected in the browser it will appear in the Value cell.

Whether data types of the selected UDR and the database column are compatible or not, is validated when the configuration dialog is confirmed.

NULL

If selected, no value may be entered. In Database collection agents, NULL must be selected for all columns whose values are not mapped into a UDR Field. In Database forwarding agents, NULL must be selected for columns populated with a NULL value or columns that, when inserted, will be populated by internal database triggers.

Database Collection Agent Only

Value Type

Description

To UDR

It is supposed to be selected if a complete UDR has been stored in a binary column by a Database forwarding agent and that UDR will be recollected by the Database collection agent. The Database forwarding agent must have been populating the column from the special field Storable, available in all UDR types. If this value type is selected no other assignments are allowed. If other columns exist their value types must be set to NULL. An evaluation to ensure the column type is actually a RAW, LONG RAW or BLOB, is carried out.

Database Forwarding Agent Only

Value Type

Description

MIM Entry

If selected, a MIM browser will be launched when the corresponding Value cell is clicked. When a MIM resource has been selected in the browser it will appear in the Value cell. The previous Note for the UDR Field applies to this browser as well.

Whether data types of the selected UDR and the database column are compatible or not, is validated when the configuration dialog is confirmed.

Constant

If selected, a text entry field will be available in the Value cell where any constant to be assigned to the column may be entered. The agent automatically appends possible quotes needed in the SQL statement, based on the data type of the column.

From UDR

It is selected if a complete UDR is to be stored in a binary column to later be collected by a Database collection agent. The Database forwarding agent must populate the column from the special field Storable, available in all UDR types. This is only applicable for column types RAW, LONG RAW or BLOB.

Function

If selected, a text entry field will be available in the Value cell where any database related function to be called may be entered. If the function takes parameters, these must be marked as question marks. Selecting a cell containing question marks will display the Function Editor dialog where each question mark is represented by a row.

Function Editor dialog

The selection of parameter values follows the same procedures as for the assignment of column values however Constant, UDR Field and MIM Entry are the only available value types.