Understanding a Data Source Description

Describing Data With TIBCO WebFOCUS® Language

TIBCO WebFOCUS® products provide a flexible data description language, which you can use with many types of data sources, including:

Relational, such as DB2, Oracle, Sybase, and Teradata.
Hierarchical, such as IMS, FOCUS, and XFOCUS.
Network, such as CA-IDMS.
Indexed, such as ISAM and VSAM.
Sequential, both fixed-format and free-format.
Multidimensional, such as Essbase.

You can also use the data description language and related facilities to:

Join different types of data sources to create a temporary structure from which your request can read or write.
Define a subset of fields or columns to be available to users.
Logically rearrange a data source to access the data in a different order.

How This Manual Is Organized

This manual includes the following chapters:

Chapter/Appendix	Contents
1	Identifying a Data Source	Documents how to describe general aspects of a data source.
2	Describing a Group of Fields	Documents how to describe groups of related fields or segments of a data source.
3	Describing an Individual Field	Documents how to describe specific field level information of a data source.
4	Describing a Sequential, VSAM, or ISAM Data Source	Provides supplementary information specific to sequential, VSAM, and ISAM data sources.
5	Describing a FOCUS Data Source	Provides information specific to FOCUS data sources.
6	Defining a Join in a Master File	Describes how to create a new relationship between any two segments that have at least one field in common by joining them.
7	Creating a Business View of a Master File	Describes how to create a view of a Master File that groups the information based on business logic.
8	Checking and Changing a Master File: CHECK	Describes how to use the CHECK command to validate a data source description.
9	Providing Data Source Security: DBA	Describes how you can use DBA security features to provide security for any FOCUS data source.
10	Creating and Rebuilding a Data Source	Describes utilities to create new FOCUS data sources and to refresh existing data sources after the structure has changed.
11	Master Files and Diagrams	Contains Master Files and diagrams of sample data sources used in the documentation examples.
12	Error Messages	Describes how to obtain information about error messages.
13	Rounding in WebFOCUS	Describes how WebFOCUS numeric fields store and display data, how rounding occurs in calculations, and what happens in conversion from one format to another.

Chapter/Appendix

Contents

Identifying a Data Source

Documents how to describe general aspects of a data source.

Describing a Group of Fields

Documents how to describe groups of related fields or segments of a data source.

Describing an Individual Field

Documents how to describe specific field level information of a data source.

Describing a Sequential, VSAM, or ISAM Data Source

Provides supplementary information specific to sequential, VSAM, and ISAM data sources.

Describing a FOCUS Data Source

Provides information specific to FOCUS data sources.

Defining a Join in a Master File

Describes how to create a new relationship between any two segments that have at least one field in common by joining them.

Creating a Business View of a Master File

Describes how to create a view of a Master File that groups the information based on business logic.

Checking and Changing a Master File: CHECK

Describes how to use the CHECK command to validate a data source description.

Providing Data Source Security: DBA

Describes how you can use DBA security features to provide security for any FOCUS data source.

Creating and Rebuilding a Data Source

Describes utilities to create new FOCUS data sources and to refresh existing data sources after the structure has changed.

Master Files and Diagrams

Contains Master Files and diagrams of sample data sources used in the documentation examples.

Error Messages

Describes how to obtain information about error messages.

Rounding in WebFOCUS

Describes how WebFOCUS numeric fields store and display data, how rounding occurs in calculations, and what happens in conversion from one format to another.