The DataView System Data Model

DataView as a development tools is an application itself and is consequently created in the entity relationship model. Just as your application, the system data model consists of entities, relations, and links. The system objects are mapped in the database in the form of system tables and contain the meta data of your application. For creating and managing these meta data there are system forms and lists pointing to these system tables.

Note! You should know the system data model and the system objects of DataView very well if you port complete applications or parts of it using the table loader ( -> Porting Complete Applications). When you do that it is almost always necessary to export or import system tables. Knowing the data model simplifies the selection of these tables during export.


System Entities

Each system entity models a class of objects which you will create in your application. These are for instance entities, menus, masks, or fields. One data base table exists for each system entity.

Entity Name System Table
(Master Table)
Managed Meta Data (Objects of your application)
ENTITY T_ENTITY Entities
CONSTRAINT T_CONSTRAINT Links
TABLE T_TABLE Tables
MASK T_MASK Masks
FIELD T_FIELD Fields
MENU T_MENU Menus and Button Areas
SELECTION T_SELECTION Menu Items and Buttons
MESSAGE T_MESSAGE Messages
EVENT T_EVENT Events
DEFAULT T_DEFAULT Default Variables
REPORT T_REPORT Reports (for downward compatibility only)
GROUP T_GROUP Groups
USER T_USER Users
PROFILE T_PROFILE Profiles
CUSTOMER T_CUSTOMER Customer Messages
LOAD T_LOAD Loader Objects (for binary loader)
LANGUAGE T_LANGUAGE Language management
(for internal use only)


System Relations

The system entities are connected with each other via the following system relations. One data base table exists for each system relation. System relations are used to create and manage relations between application objects, such as relations between entities, mask-field relations or menu-item relations.

System
Entity 1
System
Entity 2
System Table (Relation Table) Managed Meta Data
ENTITY ENTITY T_ENT_REL Relations between entities (DataView Relations)
ENTITY ENTITY T_ENT_REL Relations between entities (DataView relation)
ENTITY NOENTITY T_ENT_TYP Type derivative of entities
MASK FIELD T_MAS_FLD Mask-Field relation
MENU SELECTION T_MEN_SEL Relation between menus and items
Relation between button areas and buttons
SELECTION PROFILE T_SEL_PRF Relation between menu-items and profiles
GROUP USER T_GRP_USR Group-User relation
LOAD NOENTITY T_LOA_TAB
T_LOA_QUE
T_LOA_TXT
Relations between binary loader objects and tables, selection criteria or text for pre-assignment of fields


System Links

System links connect application objects in the system tables without requiring system relation tables. This allows you for instance to link a mask with several context menus. the list of system links is omitted here, because they are only internally relevant.