Designing Simple Data Views in .NET framework

Draw UPCA in .NET framework Designing Simple Data Views

After you get the columns rearranged, you might find that some columns have special formatting requirements Before you make any changes to the cell or column, modify the data format as required Right-click any of the webbot entries (third row of the table) and choose Database Column Value Properties from the context menu You see the Database Column Value dialog box shown in Figure 2-7

The entries help you display the data from your database as HTML In fact, you can store URLs or other information in the database and use it to create a hyperlink with the table When you select Display as Hyperlink, it doesn t necessarily mean the data is a hyperlink It could simply be data that you want to use to create a hyperlink The Web page produced by the SimpleDataViewasp file of the source code for this chapter on the Wiley Web site is a good example This sample database contains words, acronyms, and their associated definition I ve also added a linking mechanism so you can see the same work in both Acronym Finder and Webopedia two good online sources for words To make a change of this sort, follow these steps:

You see the Hyperlink Parameters dialog box shown in Figure 2-8

3 Place the acronym value in the Query String field 4 Click Add, select the field you want to use, and then click OK

In some cases, you must make changes to the resulting URL in Code view, but using the editor is a good start

You might find that you don t know what to expect as a query from the user, so building a specific query isn t possible In some cases, the database might be too large to display on one Web page and some users will need access to the entire database to perform their work To provide good access to the database when either of these problems occur, you need a search form Begin creating the search form by using the Insert Database command and following the steps provided in the Creating a new connection using the Database Results Wizard section of the chapter When you come to the column selection screen shown in Figure 2-5, follow these steps:

2 Click Criteria to display the Criteria dialog box shown in Figure 2-9

This dialog box contains the criteria used to choose records from the database Notice that it includes an option for displaying the criteria as a search form

This field controls how the search is performed When you select Equals as the comparison, the input the user provides must precisely match the information in the database, so this search option usually isn t very useful A better selection in most cases is Contains When you select Contains, the search phrase can appear anywhere in the database field, making the user s search a lot easier because the user needs to remember only part of the information

create You must combine a default value with a criteria when you use this feature to reduce the number of entries that FrontPage returns from the database without using a search form When using a search form, the default values are optional After you create the connection, FrontPage displays both a table and a search form The search form labels will have the same name as the variable you created Make sure you modify the label text as needed to make the purpose of the data entry field clear

Databases seldom rely on a single table to accomplish a task Normally a database has two or more tables that have a relationship to each other This fact means you ll probably want to use multiple tables in FrontPage as well To create a relational data view in FrontPage, you must begin by creating a query in Access Because FrontPage allows you to choose only one data source when you create a connection, it s easier and faster to create the query you need within Access and then test it in that environment