Can attributes be added to Views?

Toad Data Modeler
1

I did a Reverse Engineer (Oracle 10g database) to create an ERD. The views came over but are just boxes on the ERD (no table columns/attributes). I’ve already read that Views come over as text objects but I’m wondering if there’s a way to add the attributes after the fact? I’d just like to see the complete View (all its columns) when I print the diagram — any suggestions? Thanks.

2

Hello,

I'm wondering if there's a way to add the attributes after the fact? I'd just like to see the complete View (all its columns) when I print the diagram --- any suggestions?

Unfortunately, there's no way to do what you require.
I've entered your request to our system. We will consider it. CR # 43 869.

Thanks!

Regards,

Vladka

3

I’d also like to request that attributes of views can be shown.

In fact couldn’t views just have the “display level” option as entities do?

Thanks

Morgan

4

Hello Morgan,

Thanks for your suggestion. We will discuss it and let you know then. Thanks.

Regards,

Vladka

5

Hi Morgan,

I’ve added your suggestion to the CR # 43 869.

Information for all: Yes, we’d like to resolve this issue. Unfortunately, at this moment there are other tasks of higher priority we are dealing with and need to accomplish. We will work on this in the future but not in the near future.
Thank you for understanding it and also for your patience.

Regards,

Vladka

6

Has this been resolved yet, I am very much in need for such feature. 11 Months of waiting is Fair, but …

7

Hi,

thank you for your reminder :slight_smile: The original request seems to be simple, to show items in graphical representative, but in fact there is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to be able to accomplish this:

  • It must be possible to define views visually, not only via SQL code (and that include also some GUI for quick specification of WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY… items)
  • Reverse engineered views must be parsed and the DDL command must be converted to individual objects (table columns etc.)
  • There should be some visual reference to linked objects, e.g. to tables from which columns are added to your views etc.
  • Ideally, when you rename a column in table, the change should affect your view automatically (and you will not have to rewrite the View DDL code manually)
  • Comparison related features will have to deal with views and also individual view items properly, that means when you modify your view visually, the change should be visible in Sync & Convert Wizard…

After this all is done we can say the functionality is OK and it should be possible to display view items graphically. As you know, views are not the only feature we have been working on and that’s the reason why this feature has not been introduced yet. But… good news is that the development of described features is in progress (with high priority) and you will be able to work with your views in next commercial version much more comfortably then now. If you want to get this functionality sooner, please join our BETA program, one of our next BETA versions should contain “view modeler”, visual representations of view items will come later.

Regards,

Vaclav

8

Running TDM 5.2.4.25 - I believe this is a commercial version.

Still no attributes on views??

What is the current status of CR 43 869, particularly with the Dec 2010 post stating:

"But… good news is that the development of described features is in progress (with high priority) and you will be able to work with your views in next commercial version …

9

Hello Brad,

TDM is currently capable of graphically displaying structure (attributes) of simple views. See an example on the screenshot below:

5127.simpleview.png
5127.simpleview.png974×690 47.5 KB

However, when a view gets more complex, TDM is not able to display its structure using attributes/relationships. Such views are shown as "text views". When you open their View Properties, most of the tabs are greyed out and the view code is contained in the SQL tab. You can manually edit the code to make changes to the view.

4478.complexview.png
4478.complexview.png879×693 52.8 KB

Generally, a view is displayed as a text view when it contains some complex SQL statement - joins, unions, subqueries...

Note that the same situation occurs when you are reverse engineering views (as you asked here). Simple views will display their attributes, complex views will be reverse engineered as text views.

Regards,

Lukas

10

Thanks Lukas,

I was aware of these limitations, but based on the 8 Dec 2010 post by Vaclav Frolik and on the numerous customer requests for this functionality, I was hoping something more useful would now be available. I don’t think many applications utilize the “simple” views that TDM can handle. I’m also still curious on the status of CR 43 869. Is there a way Toad Community members can query the status of CRs?

Thanks for your feedback.

11

Back then, even the simplest of of views were displayed as text views, CR 43 869 was created to implement the functionality to display structure of such simple views (attributes and relationships). So the CR has been closed for a long time.

The present state of views is most likely to persist for some time since it is not currently possible to display structure of complex views using TDM assets.

Regards,

Lukas

12

Hi Lukas (or whomever monitors here these days). Another four years have passed, may I presume that DM6.5 is still not able to show columns in reverse engineered views? I can't figure out how, anyway.

It's very frustrating for those of us for example who publish ALL our end user accessible data through views (a prudent thing to do if you want to retain flexibility to change published entity and column names, or even implementation, without necessarily having to alter physical data structures. Even Visio 2000 had that capability :frowning:

13

Hi mark.manville,

currently TDM can graphically display structure of simple views.
When a view contains a complex SQL statement like subqueries and joins, then it is displayed as text view.

If you want see details, I present list of incidents when view is reversed with "Select in Views as Text" without View Relationships:

  1. WHEN JOIN IS USED IN FROM. Only CROSS JOIN is supported (it is the same as none JOIN).

  2. When the table or view in FROM is not exist.

  3. When something other than a simple table / view name is used in FROM. Or is added any sentence after the table / view name. Some functions, subquery, partition_extension_clause, PIVOT, UNPIVOT, DBLINK, flashback_query_clause, row_pattern_clause, etc.

  4. When using “WITH common_table_expression”, UNION, EXCEPT, INTERSECT, MINUS, model_clause, hierarchical_query_clause.

  5. Reverse engineering algorithm beside this look at some definition between ORDER BY and end of definition view.

Regards,
Petr