Database Connections

A database connection lets you access database data sources. With a database connection, you can read data from database tables, perform SQL queries or insert records into database tables. These actions are taken by the components using a database connection.

There are two ways of accessing a database:

• Using a client on your computer that connects to a database located on some server by means of some client utility. This approach is used in bulkloaders.

• Using a JDBC driver.

Each database connection requires a JDBC driver. JDBC drivers for commonly used databases are included in Data Shaper Designer.

Note: When using database connections in a Data Shaper Server project, all database connectivity is performed server-side. One of the benefits is that database servers accessible from Data Shaper Server can be also used from within Data Shaper Designer.

Database connections can be internal or external (shared). Internal database connection can be converted to external and vice versa.

Database Connection Properties dialog is described in Database Connection Properties.

Access password can be encrypted. See Encryption of Access Password.

Database connection can serve as a resource for creating metadata. See Browsing Database and Extracting Metadata from Database Tables.

Remember that you can also create a database table directly from metadata. See Create Database Table from Metadata.