其作用是讓設計者可以為CCS的 Form Builder 表單建立器建立Controls控制項時預先設定各種屬性。這樣一來，設計者就可以減少每一次都重複的為Form Builder填寫重複的屬性資料。可以重複使用。
CCS的DD還可以用來查詢資料庫目錄、改變產生表單的屬性、匯入或匯出自行定義的DD。
要先建立一個 Database connection, 資料庫連結。
DD可以匯出為 XML 格式。這樣就可以儲存、重複使用、與其他專案共用、或建立不同版本的管理等。
DD跟特定的 database connection名稱綁定在一起。例如，你有一個資料庫連結叫做 IntranetDB，那麼，建立的 DD也會叫做 IntranetDB，而匯出的XML的檔案就叫做：IntranetDB_DataDictionary.xml
DD 可以從功能表單中選取到。DD也可以從程式建立器中呼叫。
注意：從程式建立器中更改欄位的屬性，如果再重新建立一次，可能會改變原本的設定。
Data Dictionary Example資料字典範例
This example shows you a simple case where you may use the Data Dictionary to
configure the default properties of the forms and controls generated by the
builders.
以下的範例展示一個簡單的狀況，你可以使用資料字典來設定程式建立器所建立的表單控制項的屬性預設值。
Changing Captions and Defining a Link Parameter 改變標題及定義連結參數
This example is just a simple demonstration of configuring the Data
Dictionary to change the default controls, captions and titles of forms. We will
use the 'departments' and 'employees' table of the 'intranet' sample database to
display a list of departments and the employees that belong to each department.
We will configure our changes in the data dictionary first, then run the Grid
builder to create two forms like the ones shown below. The page should display a
list of department names. When we click on one of the departments, the second
grid will display a list of all the employees within the department.
CodeCharge Studio comes with two sample Access databases, plus corresponding ODBC DSN definitions that are installed automatically when you install CodeCharge Studio. The sample database files are located in the installation folder. There are also several SQL scripts to create the databases in other formats. See Connecting to Databases. For this example, create a connection to the 'Intranet' sample database called 'intranet'. Which type of connection (e.g. OLEDB, ODBC, SQL Server, MySQL, etc.) should not matter as long as the database definition is the same.
Click on the 'Data Dictionary' tab and select 'Open Connection', then the connection for 'intranet'.
Double click on the 'departments' table.
Click on 'department_name' in the middle part of the Property Editor. This changes the current database field and updates the list of properties accessible in the Data Dictonary Property Editor . You can also change the selected database field, by clicking on the column in the Database Explorer.
At the top of the Property Editor, change the 'Form Title (Display)' property to: 'Department List'
Click on the 'display' tab in the Property Editor and select 'Link' for the default control when this database item is used for display. We want to use the department name as a link parameter for submission to other forms.
Although we won't use the other properties in this example, some other properties we might want to change for now are: 'Display Caption', 'Input Caption', and 'Form Title (Input)'.
The Data Dictionary at this point should look like this:
When users click on the department name, we want to submit an URL parameter, so click on the Href Source and the ellipsis (...) in this field, and define a parameter like this:
The 'Static address' for the web page is just a placeholder. You
want to redirect the browser to the page containing the form you want to pass
the parameter to (e.g. the current page in this example), but since you have not
created the page yet, it is not possible to select this value. In your own
applications, if you know the page you want to direct the browser to, select it
for the address.
Ordinarily, you would select a database field for the source of
the parameter, however since this control is not part of a form yet (e.g. a
Grid), there is no datasource, so set the 'Source Type' to an expression. Once
you have added this database field to a form, you will need to change the
'Source Type' to a 'datasource column'.
Next, we want to change the default title that will appear on the 'employee'
list. Click on the 'employees' table and for this example, change the 'Form
Title (Display)' to 'Employee List'. The employee list is displayed in a grid with captions running across the top of the grid. We want to change the captions of each column to be more expressive than the defaults so change the captions as shown below. For each caption, select the column of the employees table, then click on the 'Display' tab at the bottom of the Property Editor and then change the 'Caption' property in the grid. For this example, we'll change the captions to:
| From: Emp Id | To: Id |
| From: Emp Login | To: Login |
| From: Emp Password | To:Password |
| From: Emp Name | To: Employee Name |
| From: Emp Title | To: Title |
| From: Phone Home | To: Home Phone |
| From: Phone Work | To: Work Phone |
| From: Phone Cell | To: Cell Phone |
Run the Grid Builder and for the datasource, select the 'departments' table, and build a query that returns both the 'department_name' and the 'department_id'. Use 'build query' to create the query. Remove the 'department_id' from the grid form. That is, include 'department_id' in the query (datasource) but do not display it in the grid.
Do not include a 'search' form for this grid. The other options are unimportant for this example, but we included the 'sorter control' so the list could be arranged alphabetically. Remember, we changed the default title for the 'departments' table to 'Department List', so this should be the default title as it appears on the form. Also, we defined the default control for 'department_name' as a Link control, so the the web page at this point should look like the one below.
The field caption is optional.
When we configured the data dictionary, we could not set the
specific page associated with the Link paramter, nor determine the source for
the parameter value. In Design mode, click on the 'department_name' control, and
change the properties of the Link. Open 'Href source' and change the 'Static
address' by selecting the current page. Change the 'Source Type' for the
parameter to 'DataSource Column' and verify that the 'Parameter Source' is
'department_id' (the name of the database column). If you don't make these
changes your application is likely to fail (e.g. with compilation errors since
the generated code is incorrect).
When the user clicks on a department name, the form will submit an URL
parameter like so: 'dept_id=<the 'department_id' value>'
Run the Grid Builder again to add another
grid for the Employee list. For the datasource, build a query in Design mode
that looks something like this by joining the Employee, Department, and Group
tables, and adding a SQL WHERE clause that returns the fields desired from the
Employee table, including 'department_name' and 'group_name' from the
'department' and 'group' tables.
SELECT <all of the selected fields of
the employees>, department_name, group_name
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = {dept_id}
where '{dept_id} is an URL parameter that will be submitted from the Department grid. The 'default value if parameter is missing' should be -1. i.e. display the employees only when a department has been selected.
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = {dept_id}
where '{dept_id} is an URL parameter that will be submitted from the Department grid. The 'default value if parameter is missing' should be -1. i.e. display the employees only when a department has been selected.
Rearrange the fields selected in the
builder until the order and number of fields matches the 'Employee List' form at
the top of this section: department_name, group_name, emp_name, emp_login,
emp_password, title, email, phone_home, phone_work, phone_cell. Change the
captions for 'department_name' and 'group_name' to 'Department' and 'Group'.
Notice that the control generated for
'department_name' is a Link control. This is because we configured it this way
in the data dictionary so the control type would be correct in the 'Department
List' form. In Design mode, select this control and change the control type to
Label. It is not necessary to change any properties but this change is very
important; without it, your application will likely fail (e.g. compilation
error) because, as you may recall, we did not fully define the Link control
properties in the data dictionary (e.g. parameter source type).
Because we joined multiple tables, the Grid
Builder combined all of the default form titles into one heading. Modify the
title in the builder to 'Employee List'.
The other options in the Grid Builder are
unimportant for this example. The final web page should look something like the
picture at the top of this section.
