Specifications

CHAPTER 5 Defining Reports
Users Guide 155
InfoMaker data
sources
InfoMaker has five data sources. All five can be used for reports, but only a
subset of the possible data sources can be used for forms and data pipelines:
You cannot create a form for data that is not stored in a database. A form allows
you to display and change data in a database.
About stored procedures
The Stored Procedure data source icon displays only if the DBMS you are
currently connected to supports stored procedures that return result sets.
To specify the data for a report, choose one of the data sources from Table 5-2.
Table 5-2: Data source choices for data from a database
After you choose a data source in the various Report wizards, you specify the
data. The data source you choose determines what displays in the wizards and
how you define the data.
Data source Reports Forms Pipelines
Quick Select X X X
SQL Select X X X
Query X X X
External X
Stored Procedure If the DBMS supports
stored procedures that
return result sets
X
Data source Use when
Quick Select The data is from a single table (or from tables that are related
through foreign keys) and you only need to choose columns,
selection criteria, and sorting.
SQL Select You want more control over the SQL SELECT statement
generated for the data source or your data is from tables that
are not connected through a key. For example, you need to
specify grouping, computed columns or retrieval arguments
within the SQL
SELECT statement.
Query The data has been defined as a query.
External The data is coming from text file (TXT) or dBASE II or
dBASE III file (DBF).
Stored Procedure The data is defined in a stored procedure.