VDB Explorer

Components

Dimension Designer allows you to operate and focus on one VDB at a time. (see Virtual Database Summary ). The primary view of the VDB contents is provided by the VDB Explorer.

The VDB Explorer (shown below) is comprised of a toolbar and a tree view.

The toolbar consists of nine common actions:

- Create VDB -This creates a new file with a .vdb extension on your file system.
- Open VDB - Opens an existing VDB from the file system
- New Model - Launches the New Model wizard for creating new Sources, Views, XML Schema files, or Web Service models.
- Delete - Deletes the selected model from the VDB or the selected object(s) from within models.
- Import Metadata - Launches the Import wizard. This reads structural information from a physical source and cretaes a new source model in your VDB. (see Import Relational Data, Import XSD Files and Import WSDL )
- Validate Changes - Validates all the models in the VDB.
- Edit Connector Bindings - Launches the Connector Bindings editor.
- Test Sources and Views - Runs the VDB in the SQL Explorer perspective.
- Additional Actions

The additional actions are shown in the following figure:

Tree View Layout Options

The tree view has three layout options available via the additional actions menu . They include: View Models by Type, View Web Services and View Contents.

The default view layout, View Models by Type, shown previously, organizes models into five model categories, Sources, Views, XML Schemas, Web Services and Extensions.

VIew Web Services, shown below, constains only Web Service components (i.e. Interfaces, Operations, etc.) independent of the parent model.

View Contents option shows the basic flat contents of the VDB.

If Show Model Imports is checked, the imports will be displayed directly under a model resource as shown below.

Selection-Based Action Menus

Selecting specific objects in the VDB Explorer provides a context from which the Designer presents a customized menu of available actions.

Selecting the VDB, for instance, results in a number of high-level options to manage VDB's, manage VDB content, perform Web Service operations (i.e preview WSDL & create Web Service WAR file) and provides quick access to other import views available in Dimension Designer.

Selecting any of the model type folders presents a customized set of available actions which are illustrated below.

> Source Models folder menu:

> - New Source Model - launches the New Model Wizard with Relational Source model type values already set.
> - Import JDBC Source - launches the Import Wizard by auto-selecting this import option and proceeding to the first page of this wizard.
> - Edit Connector Bindings - opens the Connector Bindings Panel if not open.

> View Models folder menu:

> - New View Model - launches the New Model Wizard with Relational View model type values already set.

> XML Schema Models folder menu:

> - New XML Schema Model - launches the New Model Wizard with XML Schema model type values already set.
> - Import XSD - launches the Import XSD Wizard.

> Web Service Models folder menu:\

> - New Web Service Model - launches the New Model Wizard with Web Service model type values already set.

> Extension Models folder menu:

> - New Extension Model - launches the New Model Wizard with Model Extension model type values already set.

Menu options for Models provide basic modeling capabilities, including specialized actions based on model type.

Related Topics

- Create a New VDB
- Web Service Advisor View
- Getting Started with Metamatrix Dimension

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