Views Node

About Views

A view is a custom-tailored presentation of the data in one or more tables. You can think of a view as a stored query. Views do not actually contain or store data; they derive their data from the tables on which they are based. Like tables, you can query, update, insert into, and delete from views, with some restrictions. All operations performed on a view affect its base tables.

How the Views Node Works

The Views node contains the Relational Views Node, Object Views Node, XML Views Node, and Materialized Views Node category nodes. Each of these category nodes can contain one or more child View Nodes that represent relational views, object relational views, XML views, or materialized views respectively.

To perform actions on the Tables node: right-click this node and from the menu choose the appropriate command. To view the node's properties, select the node and/or click Properties in the node's menu.

If this collection node is filtered, the icon changes to include a funnel symbol. For more information about filtering, see Filtering Collection Nodes.

Menu Options

Menu Option	Description
New Relational View	Creates a new view with relational and/or `XMLType` columns using the View Designer.
New Object View	Creates a new Object view using the View Designer.
New XML View	Creates a new view of `XMLType` using the View Designer.
Query Window	Opens the Query Window so that you can execute SQL and PL/SQL queries from Visual Studio.
Generate Create Script	Writes the view definitions to a `.sql` file. If the object associated with the views node is deleted from the database backend, this menu option does the following: Displays a message indicating that this object no longer exists in Oracle Database, and the script will not be generated.
Generate Create Script to Project	Generates the view definitions to a .`sql` file and adds the `.sql` file to an open Oracle Database Project. If multiple objects in Server Explorer are selected, a master SQL script is created in the Oracle Database Project Scripts folder. This master script contains calls to individual child SQL scripts (one for each schema object) generated into the various schema object folders and this master script is ordered with dependencies taken into consideration. If there are multiple open Oracle Database projects, Visual Studio prompts you to select the project to add the script to. This operation can also be performed by dragging and dropping the Server Explorer node(s) directly onto a database project folder. See Managing Oracle Script Files for more information. Note: Oracle Database Project Version 2 projects are not supported. To add scripts to this project type, use Import Schema or Add Existing Item menu items on an Oracle Database Project Version 2 project folder, or use the Schema Compare tool.
Filters	Opens the Filters Tab to control which child nodes appear under the collection.
Privileges	Opens the Grant/Revoke Privileges dialog box.
Copy	Copies views to the clipboard for pasting to Visual Studio designers. This provides the same functionality as dragging and dropping views to the Visual Studio designers.
Refresh	Updates the Views node tree, including its associated View nodes.
Properties	Displays the Properties window.