Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Because you will create tables that contain the same fields as the Rep and Customer tables in the
Premiere Products database, you will use the Premiere Products database and Access to create templates that
you can use to create the fields in these same tables in the Web database. This template is called a data type
part; when you create a data type part from an existing field or collection of fields, you are creating a
user-defined data type. Creating a user-defined data type saves time because you can create a collection of
fields in a single step, instead of creating all of the fields individually.
After creating the data type parts for the Customer and Rep tables, you will use Access to create a
blank Web database from a template. You
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ll create the Customer and Rep tables using the data type parts.
After you add the fields to the tables, you will create the lookup field to relate the tables. You
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ll import the
data for the tables using text files that are provided with the Data Files for this text.
After creating the tables and importing data into them, you will create the navigation form. To use
a navigation form in a database, you need to set the properties for the database to display the navigation
form automatically when a user opens the database in Access or accesses the Web database using a
Web browser, so it is the first form displayed and provides a method for the user to navigate the objects
in the database.
Before publishing the Web database to a SharePoint Server running Access Services, you will run the
compatibility checker to verify that the database is compatible with the Web. Web databases have certain
limitations; not every Access database can be published to the Internet.
CREATING A USER-DEFINED DATA TYPE
To use an existing data type part to add fields to a table, click the More Fields button (Fields tab | Add &
Delete group) to open the More Fields gallery. To use a data type part to add fields to a table, click the field
in the datasheet to the right of where you want to insert the new fields. Some predefined data type parts,
such as the Category part, add a single field to a table. Others, such as the Address part, add multiple
fields (Address, City, State Province, ZIP Postal, and Country Region) to the table. When you create fields
using data type parts, the fields are created using default field properties associated with the type of field
you are creating.
To create a user-defined data type using the existing field(s) in a table, select the field(s) to use for the
user-defined data type part in the datasheet, and then click the Save Selection as New Data Type command
in the More Fields gallery, as shown in Figure E-9. If you create a user-defined data type using more than one
field, the fields must be adjacent in the datasheet.
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