You can use Data Academy Form Builder to enhance your warehouse by adding custom web forms. This covers two common scenarios in data warehousing:
- Entering "paper" data manually into the warehouse.
- Editing imported data.
The basic principle in each case is the same: identify a table, and Form Builder will generate customizable web forms, which your users can access on a secure basis in exactly the same way that you access regular Data Academy forms.
Data Academy Form Builder is a Visual Studio 2008 Add-In, so to use it you need a working copy for Visual Studio 2008, with the Visual Basic development environment installed. (Form Builder can not be used with "Express" versions of Visual Studio.)
Getting Started
- Install Form Builder on your desktop system.
- Install Data Academy (the web UI) on your desktop system, and point it to your existing warehouse, by running /Forms/start.aspx. This will be your "Data Academy Template" and you should not edit it directly.
- Open Visual Studio 2008 and create a new ASP.NET Web Application.
- From the "Tools" menu, select Data Academy Form Builder.
- Create a "Profile" pointing to your warehouse database.
- In Tools -> Options (of Form Builder) select your Data Academy Template installation.
- In Tools -> Data Academy, select "Upgrade" to convert your new project to a Data Academy project.
Building Forms
By default, Data Academy Form Builder will generate two forms
List Forms
A list form shows all of the data in your source table, with options to filter, add, edit, sort and delete.
Detail Forms
A detail form shows a single record, with options to "Save" and "Close" - the latter without saving.
Building a Basic List-Detail Pair
- From the Table \ View combo, select the table for which you want to generate forms.
- Click "Generate Forms".
- Set the required options in the Form Definition screen.
- Click on Save & Gen to build your forms.
- A basic list-detail pair will be created.
- A data wrapper class will also be created, in the "DataClasses" folder.
