Connect to a database
To connect to a database, enter the details of the database connection in the New Connection screen.
For this example we'll use the Microsoft Northwind database. Please see Creating an ODBC System Data Source Name (DSN) to connect to the Northwind database.
The connection fields should be completed as follows:
Name: northwind
Driver: JDBC:ODBC Bridge
URL: jdbc:odbc:northwind
Username and Password can be left blank for the Northwind database.
Note: If you were to use a different database type, the url is formatted differently for each driver, eg:
Sun JDBC-ODBC Bridge
Driver: sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver (already supplied in driver settings and the one used for Northwind database)
URL Format: JDBC:ODBC:[Data Source Name]
eg: JDBC:ODBC:Northwind
MySQL
Driver: org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver (already supplied in driver settings)
URL Format: jdbc:mysql://[host]:[port]/[database]
eg: jdbc:mysql://192.168.1.189:3306/business
For other databases, please see the driver documentation or the MDN faq's - How to connect to databases.
After entering the database connection details, click the Save button.
After saving the connection, the database tree shows the database name in the tree. In the main work area a list of tables and fields in that database is shown. These details are only to show the database details and are not able to be edited.
Expand the tree by clicking on the + expander
This now shows Connection and Views. Click on the tree expander next to Views.
Click on Add View
Creating a View
Views are a subset of a database. When a database has many tables and fields, it's helpful to create a View so you only deal with a small part of the total data. See How do Views work, for more information on using Views.
Lets create a View of the data which contains details about customers
Enter the View Name as 'Customers' and write a short description.
Tick the tick boxes for each table or field to include in this view, in this case we'll tick the Customers table, although we could only tick the fields we want to use.
The Field View shows details of each field. You can enter a description of each field if you choose and change the display name of the field to something more user friendly if the field name might not be easily understood by end users.
Click Save View to save the view.
Add other Views for different data if you want.