Metadata Definition: Remarks

If database remarks already exist for the database, you can configure the Interactive Reporting database connection to retrieve and display them as part of the data model.

Database remarks function like context-sensitive help by providing detailed contextual information about a table or column, and can be very helpful to users when navigating through a large data model.

The Remarks tab uses SQL instructions to direct Interactive Reporting Studio toward the unified server source of remarks for tables and columns. Once the Remarks tab is configured, all data models using the connection have access to remarks (Query > Show Remarks).

  To add remarks from stored metadata:

  1. On the Remarks tab, select Table Remarks to set up remarks for tables, or select Column Remarks to set up remarks for columns.

    Click Clear to clear the entry fields if you make a mistake and want to start over.

  2. In the Tab Name field, type the name of the tab that you want to be displayed in the Show Remarks dialog box.

  3. In the Select field, enter the name of the column of table or column remarks.

  4. In the From field, enter the physical name of the table containing table or column remarks.

  5. Use Where to link the selected topic to its corresponding remark.

    Use the following syntax in the Where field:

    Name of the Remarks Table =:TABLE

    and 

    Name of the Remarks Column=:COLUMN

    The dynamic variable automatically inserts the physical name of the object from which the user is requesting data in the application. Interactive Reporting Studio displays remarks when it finds rows in the remarks tables which match the names temporarily stored in :TABLE and :COLUMN. You can also use the variables :TABALIAS (displays name of a table) and :COLALIAS (displays name of a column) to specify table and column aliases in the SQL.

    Note:

    The database variables must be entered in upper case and preceded with a colon.

  6. Click Add to add the tab to the Remarks Tabs list.

    The Remarks Tabs list shows all of the tabs you entered in the order in which you entered them. The first tab in the lists is the default or first tab to be displayed in the Show Remarks dialog box.

    Use the following buttons to reorder the appearance of Remarks tabs:

    • Up—Moves a tab up one position (toward the front of the Show Remarks dialog box).

    • Down—Moves a tab down one position (toward the back of the Show Remarks dialog box).

  To update a Remarks tab:

  1. On the Remarks tab, select the tab from the Remarks tabs list.

    The information for the selected tab is displayed in Remarks SQL fields.

  2. Enter the desired changes in the Select, From, and Where fields, and then click Update.

  To delete a Remarks tab, select the tab from the Remarks tabs list and click Delete.