What are items?

Items are different types of information within a folder.

If you are familiar with relational databases, an item is similar to a column in a database table. Indeed, an item might be based on a column in a database table.

For example, each product your company produces might have a reference number, a description, and a brand. The Products folder containing information about these products will have three items (a Product Reference Number item, a Description item, and a Brand item).

Figure 2-8 A Discoverer folder containing three items

Description of the illustration folders3.gif

Each item contains individual pieces of information. For example, the reference number item might contain a list of reference numbers.

The Discoverer manager decides which items are included in folders based on the information that you want to analyze.

The figure below shows how items (e.g. Department, Region, City) are displayed in Discoverer Plus Relational's item navigator tab.

Figure 2-9 Items in Discoverer

Description of the illustration items.gif