tables vs views

[ecklesweb]

I've downloaded the trial of strata all of about five minutes ago, and I already need some help. I've search these forums and the help system to no avail.

When I connect to a database via ODBC (can't figure out how to connect via SQL Server), I only see the tables in Strata. Is it not possible to see the views? Same is true if I try to import data instead of create a connection.

[Aaron]

Yes, this is correct.

Strata is designed to work directly with database tables, both internal and external, and doesn't show their views as separate items in the project. In fact, the way Strata handles tables is very similar to a view in that you can show/hide/move columns, create calculations, etc. However, I can see that if you connect to an existing database with a large number of views, you would want to interface to the database through those views.

Can you tell me more about how you want to use Strata? Do you have a particular application in mind?

[ejstrehl]

I'm not the original poster, but I have the same need from this kind of tool: we have 100's of custom views already built to help deliver specific datasets for a variety of business needs. A tool that doesn't interface with them is of little actual help for our infrastructure, where we have the entire spectrum from well-normalized to de-normalized data, OLAP, un-aggregated and aggregated data, etc. Any plans of adding this functionality?

Thanks,
Eric Strehl
Group Manager, Applications Development

[Aaron]

Any plans of adding this functionality?

Yes. Based on feedback we've received, we're planning to add support for accessing external database views. Most likely, this will be available in the next update release in June.

[Aaron]

Update: support for accessing external database views is available as of version 4.1.

[Hubbs]

My company asked me to download a trial of this software. I have version 4.3, so I should have no trouble seeing the views I am connected to, right? I can see the views listed, however, I get zero records showing when I open the views. Is the trouble possibly that there are more than 10,000 records in the view? I am able to see a full table with 7,500 records, but both views and tables with over 10,000 records open with 0 records in them. I could not find help on the limitations regarding # of records. Please advise.

Thanks,

Hubbs

[Hubbs]

Okay, I watched a few videos, and can see that the number of records should not be a limitation . . . what do you suggest my problem is?

[Aaron]

Are you importing these tables, or are you connecting to an external database and viewing them as linked tables? What format is the data in before being either imported or linked?

Thanks!
Aaron

[Hubbs]

I am connecting (not importing) to SQL 2005 databases.

[Aaron]

Ok, I don't believe the issue is related to the number of records. I suspect there's a difference in the table structure between the tables that open and those that don't open, so let's try to compare the tables where you see records with those where you don't see them.

For a table that doesn't seem to have any records, do fieldnames appear in the view when you open the table? If so, does this table contain any fieldtypes that aren't in one of the tables where you are able to see the records?

Best,
Aaron

[Hubbs]

Hi Aaron,

The difference as far as I can tell is that anything that is a "View" I see no records (but do see field names). I can also see the structure if I want. Tables that I created in SQL 2005 I CAN see records. But Tables that are replicated into the database, from which the views come, I see no records, but do see field names. The replicated tables DO have primary keys. I can also see the structure of these tables if I want.

There are no oddities regarding the field types.


Hubbs

[Ben]

I'm going to set up a test case here and see if I can duplicate the problem.

Ben