Defining & Configuring an FDT

1. Click on the configure fdt icon available in the toolbar or click Operation?????Config FDT. You see the following screen:

   

   Figure 300:Defining & Configuring an FDT

2. You see a root node with the name Untitled. Right-click the root node and then click Add Select Group on the pop-up menu. You see the following screen:

   

   Figure 301:Adding a select group to an FDT

3. A select group with name SELECT_GROUP1 will be added to the root node. To change the default name of the select group, double click the select group and modify the name as desired. Otherwise, select the select group, and then press the F2 key on the keyboard. Now you can modify the select group name.
4. From the FDT module, you can connect to any database (for which connections have been initiated) and view the details of the database.
5. Choose a connection from the list of connections that appear in the Connections list. Note that only those connections that have already been initiated will appear in this list.
6. Click Show Tables to see a list of tables in the selected database.

   

   Figure 302:A dialog box showing list of tables in the connected database

7. Select the tables from which you need to select the data. You see the selected tables in the text area under the Table Info column.
8. To see columns in a table, select the table, and then click the Column Info tab. You see columns as shown in figure below.

   

   Figure 303:Selecting columns from a table

9. Select the columns from the available list, and then click on the button (>) directed toward the Added Columns pane. (Press and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple columns at once).

   Field Names: The column name will be taken as field name by default. Typically, the names that are understandable to users are given as field names. To change the default field name, double click the field name and modify it as desired.

   Edit Query: To edit the SQL query, click EditQuery. You see the following query dialog box.

   

   Figure 304:A dialog box displaying the SQL query for LOV

10. Edit the SQL query as per your requirement.

    Note: The FDT application gives alias name to each table associated with a Select_Group. The alias name for a table is a combination of select group name and a number starting from 10. For example, consider the select group 'abc' with three tables T1, T2, and T3. The alias names for tables will be: abc10 for T1, abc11 for T2, abc12 for T3. For the second select group in an FDT, the number (suffix) will start from 20.

11. Click Test on the SQL query dialog to test the SQL query that you have written. Click OK after testing the query.

    Run Time Info: Click this tab to specify the run time information for a select group. You can specify run time information for User Entry, Data Entry, and Warning Flag.

    User Entry: Specify whether the data entered by user should be accepted or validated. Click the corresponding radio button.

    Data Entry: Specify whether the data should be entered in horizontal sheet or vertical sheet.

    Warning Flag: Select this checkbox to display a warning message to the user. You can enter / modify the warning message in the text area below the checkbox.

12. After specifying all these properties for the select group, click Apply. You see the following table on the lower side of the screen:

    

    Figure 305

13. You see all the names of the columns (parameters) that you have selected for the select group. Now you need to specify properties for the parameters.

    Mandatory	Select this checkbox if the user must specify a value to this parameter.
    Field Type	Specify whether a parameter is a field or constant. All the parameters that are selected from a database are fields. On the other hand, the custom parameters that you add must be specified as Constant type.
    Constant Type	Specify data type of the custom parameters that you add.
    Default Value	Enter a value that needs to be taken as the default value for the parameter. If you don't select a value from the list, by default, this value will be taken as the value of the parameter.
    Field Name	The field names that you have entered while selecting the columns appear in this column.
    Display	Select this checkbox to display this parameter in the Parameter View dialog. Typically, you display only those parameters for which users need to specify values.
    Application Alias	Enter the application name in which the FDT is going to be used.

14. When you click the Table Info tab, you see two checkboxes-Return Select Group, and Dynamic Where Clause.

    Return Select Group: Select this checkbox when you need the FDT to return all the results of the selected Select Group. This checkbox should be selected only for the last select group in an FDT. If this checkbox is selected for the last select group, it displays all the parameter values corresponding to the parameter values chosen by user for the preceding select groups.

    Dynamic Where Clause: Select this checkbox to be able to add 'where clause' dynamically in the SQL statement for the selected Select Group.