How VisualRep Works - Data
Set Definitions
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VisualRep can handle multiple data sets.
A set of directory mappings
is called a Data Set. It has a set of folders to support the reports and
queries. Each data set can have
its own specific files. Each data set can represent a division or a
department and if you have a set of data per each division then VisualRep
can work with it very easily. All it takes is to create a data set in
VisualRep and let it know where are folders. It is all done via the project
form where you select each folder via the folder picker as shown in figure A
below.
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A data set must consist of
the following folders. |
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Figure
A: |
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Application Root
– Is the root of the application,
which is calling VisualRep. It could be called from anywhere within the
application. It also could be called from the Desktop computer. If you use
Visual FoxPro it could be simply called from the command window. |
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In some cases you may not
have access into the application root and just have access to the database.
If you use MS Access or a client/server database, you may access the
database without the need for the actual application root. In this case just
select a folder to represent the top most folder of the data set. |
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Application Data
– Is where
an application’s specific data is stored. It also could be from any database
that does belong to any application. |
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Data Dictionary
– Are all the necessary files that
maintain any data about the reports queries and relations between the
Application’s Data or any available database. The files within this folder
are generated when the data set is created by VisualRep. |
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Reports
–
Any report created by VisualRep will be saved in
this folder. |
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Report output
– Where the output of the report is
saved. That could be a PDF or a MS Word file or any other file format
selected by the user. |
The Data Set Structure:
In one
application or a database there could be more then one data set. |
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In figure B below, a data
set has separate Reports and VrepData folders. But the two data sets could
easily share all the folders beside the VrepData folder. In this case the
VrepData folder contains the VisualRep data dictionary files that are
required to support the current data set. It is not possible to share the
same data dictionary folder with another data set. In reality you can even
have three data sets that may share the necessary folders for a data set
BESIDEs the VrepData folder. The below structure can be found in the sample
application. |
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Figure B: |
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Here is
an example of 3 data sets sharing four folders. While VrepData1 has the Data
Dictionary of first data set and VrepData2 has the Data Dictionary of the
second Data Set and so on.
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Company_XYZ
\DATA
\DATA\VrepData1
\DATA\VrepData2
\DATA\VrepData3
\Reports
\Output |
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