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Connecting to your Database!
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Connecting to Access Databases!
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Connecting to SQL Server!
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Connecting to Oracle!
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Connecting to MySQL!
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Connecting to Sybase!
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Connecting to IBM DB2!
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Connecting to PostgreSQL!
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Browsing Data!
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Record List Screen!
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Record Detail Screen!
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Searching Data!
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Quick Search!
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Query Builder!
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Query Bookmarks and History!
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Searching with raw SQL!
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Editing Data!
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Editing Existing Records!
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Creating New Records!
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Deleting Records!
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Exporting & Printing!
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Advanced Topics!
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Enterprise Auto-Discovery!
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Tunneling Connections over SSH!
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Connecting to your Database
CONNECTING TO ACCESS DATABASES
Access Connections
Microsoft access databases are stand-alone files, and so the database file must be transferred to your iOS device in order to open it in Access Mobile Database Client. This is in contrast to many other databases, which connect over a network in “client-server” mode. While having your database file on your device prevents the ability to work on the data concurrently with other users, it also allows you to work with your database in a disconnected environment, such as on an airplane.
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Note: Access Mobile Database Client supports databases in the Access 97, 2000, 2002, 2007, and 2010 formats. It does not sup-port databases exsup-ported as “Web Databases”, nor does it supsup-port databases exported for “Snapshot Viewer”Note: Access Mobile Database Client does not support
en-crypted Access database files. In order to open an enen-crypted file, you must first remove the decryption in the Database Tools menu of MS Access.
Transferring Access Database via Mail
1. On your desktop, find your “.accdb” or “.mdb” database file and add it as an attachment in an e-mail to yourself
2. On your iOS device, open the Mail app and check for incoming mail. 3. In the body of the mail, tap on the attached database file, and an
Transferring Access Database via iTunes File Sharing
1. On your desktop, locate your “.accdb” or “.mdb” database file.
2. Plug your iOS device into your desktop or laptop using the USB cable and open iTunes.
3. In the left panel of iTunes, locate and click on your iOS device name. 4. At the top of the screen for the device, select the “Apps” tab.
5. Scroll down to the “File Sharing” section at the bottom of the screen. 6. Select “Access” from the list of apps.
7. Drag your Access database from your computer into the file list.
Transferring Access Database using Dropbox
1. Sign up for a free account at www.dropbox.com if you don’t already have one.
2. Upload your “.mdb” or “.accdb" file to your dropbox account using their desktop integration program.
3. Download the free “Dropbox” app from the Apple iTunes App Store, launch it, and log in.
4. Browse to your database file and tap the forward button , then select “Access” as the application to open the database with.
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Note: When you first select your database in Dropbox, the app may say “Unable to view file”, but you should still be able to tap the forward button to open it in Access Mobile Database Client.CONNECTING TO SQLSERVER
1. Open the SQL Server Mobile Database Client app and from the top-level screen select “Edit” and tap “New Connection”
2. In the subsequent connection screen, enter the IP address or host name of the the database host. Consult your database administrator if you need this information.
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Note: if you enter a host name rather than an IP address, youneed to make sure that the host name is able to be looked up by your iOS device. This is frequently a problem with host names on an internal network that are only identifiable from Windows ma-chines. If you have problems connecting, find the IP address of the host and use that instead, or else contact your system administrator for assistance.
3. Fill in a valid User Name and Password for the database.
☞ Note: by default, SQL Server Mobile Database Client uses the
native “SQL Server” authentication. If you need to use integrated Windows authentication instead, tap the “Advanced” button and fill in the “Windows Domain”.
4. If you want to connect to a specific database name, fill it into the “Data-base Name” field.
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Note: this is different from a SQL Server’s “Instance Name”,which you can enter from the “Advanced” button.
8. Tap the “Save” button to save your connection.
9. Tap the resulting new entry in the databases list to make the connection. The first time you connect, it may take a little while to read in the schema and table information for the database.
CONNECTING TO ORACLE
1. Open the Oracle Mobile Database Client app and from the top-level screen select “Edit” and tap “New Connection”
2. In the subsequent connection screen, enter the IP address or host name of the the database host. Consult your database administrator if you need this information.
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Note: if you enter a host name rather than an IP address, youneed to make sure that the host name is able to be looked up by your iOS device. This is frequently a problem with host names on an internal network that are only identifiable from Windows ma-chines. If you have problems connecting, find the IP address of the host and use that instead, or else contact your system administrator for assistance.
3. Fill in a valid User Name and Password for the database.
4. Enter the Oracle database identifier into the “Database SID” field.
☞ Note: If your Oracle installation uses a “Service Name” rather
than an “SID”, you can specify to use the service name by tapping the “Advanced” button.
5. If your databases uses a non-standard port, enter it into the “Database Port” field.
6. Enter an optional “Description” if you want a specific description to show up for that connection in the databases list.
CONNECTING TO MYSQL
1. Open the MySQL Mobile Database Client app and from the top-level screen select “Edit” and tap “New Connection”
2. In the subsequent connection screen, enter the IP address or host name of the the database host. Consult your database administrator if you need this information.
3. Fill in a valid User Name and Password for the database.
4. If you want to connect to a specific database name, fill it into the “Data-base Name” field.
5. If your databases uses a non-standard port, enter it into the “Database Port” field.
6. Enter an optional “Description” if you want a specific description to show up for that connection in the databases list.
7. Enter any additional advanced connection information in the “Advanced” button, including timeouts, character encoding, and SSH Tunnel informa-tion.
8. Tap the “Save” button to save your connection.
9. Tap the resulting new entry in the databases list to make the connection. The first time you connect, it may take a little while to read in the schema and table information for the database.
CONNECTING TO SYBASE
1. Open the Sybase Mobile Database Client app and from the top-level screen select “Edit” and tap “New Connection”
2. In the subsequent connection screen, enter the IP address or host name of the the database host. Consult your database administrator if you need this information.
3. Fill in a valid User Name and Password for the database.
4. If you want to connect to a specific database name, fill it into the “Data-base Name” field.
5. If your databases uses a non-standard port, enter it into the “Database Port” field.
6. Enter an optional “Description” if you want a specific description to show up for that connection in the databases list.
7. Enter any additional advanced connection information in the “Advanced” button, including timeouts, character encoding, and SSH Tunnel informa-tion.
8. Tap the “Save” button to save your connection.
9. Tap the resulting new entry in the databases list to make the connection. The first time you connect, it may take a little while to read in the schema and table information for the database.
CONNECTING TO IBMDB2
1. Open the DB2 Mobile Database Client app and from the top-level screen select “Edit” and tap “New Connection”
2. In the subsequent connection screen, enter the IP address or host name of the the database host. Consult your database administrator if you need this information.
3. Fill in a valid User Name and Password for the database.
4. If you want to connect to a specific database name, fill it into the “Data-base Name” field.
5. If your databases uses a non-standard port, enter it into the “Database Port” field.
6. Enter an optional “Description” if you want a specific description to show up for that connection in the databases list.
7. Enter any additional advanced connection information in the “Advanced” button, including timeouts, character encoding, and SSH Tunnel informa-tion.
8. Tap the “Save” button to save your connection.
9. Tap the resulting new entry in the databases list to make the connection. The first time you connect, it may take a little while to read in the schema and table information for the database.
CONNECTING TO POSTGRESQL
1. Open the PostgreSQL Mobile Database Client app and from the top-level screen select “Edit” and tap “New Connection”
2. In the subsequent connection screen, enter the IP address or host name of the the database host. Consult your database administrator if you need this information.
3. Fill in a valid User Name and Password for the database.
4. If you want to connect to a specific database name, fill it into the “Data-base Name” field.
5. If your databases uses a non-standard port, enter it into the “Database Port” field.
6. Enter an optional “Description” if you want a specific description to show up for that connection in the databases list.
7. Enter any additional advanced connection information in the “Advanced” button, including timeouts, character encoding, and SSH Tunnel informa-tion.
8. Tap the “Save” button to save your connection.
9. Tap the resulting new entry in the databases list to make the connection. The first time you connect, it may take a little while to read in the schema and table information for the database.
Browsing Data
RECORD LIST SCREEN
The interface for the record list consists of the following components:
• In the upper-left corner is a back button that will return you to the previous screen.
• In the upper-right corner is a search button you can use to bring up the query builder screen as well as recent searches and search book-marks. See: “Query Builder”
• Below the top buttons is
a list of the column names of the current table. Tapping on any of the col-umn buttons will sort the currently-loaded records based on that field in as-cending order. Tapping a second time will sort the records in reverse order.
• Below the column list is the
quick search field, where you can enter a search term. See: “Quick Search”
• Below the search field is the actual list of records in the database. Tapping on any of the records will bring you into a screen with more details about the records, as well as the ability to edit or delete the record. Also, when a record list has more columns than can fit on the current screen, you can tap and hold a record and drag your finger to the left to scroll to see more columns in the table list.
but-• The double arrow button is used when the number of records is greater than the default maximum to show at once (the default is 100 re-cords, although this can be changed in the settings for the app). Tapping the double down arrows will load the next batch of 100 records.
• The double arrow ending in a square in the toolbar will try to load all of the query results. Note that this could result in memory and performance slowdowns if your table contains millions of rows, since those rows all need to be transferred the the app.
• The line chart toolbar button can be tapped to bring up the chart builder.
RECORD DETAIL SCREEN
• In the upper-left corner is the back button that will take you to the previous record list screen.
• In the upper-right corner is the “Edit” button that will allow you to make changes to the record, provided you have sufficient permissions and the record contains database “primary keys” to uniquely identify it. See: “Editing Existing Records”.
• In the center of the screen are the individual fields and relationships that make up the record. Tapping on any of the fields with the chevron mark to the right will drill into the relationship or open a viewer for attached photos or text.
• The left-facing arrow on the bottom left will move to the previous re-cord in the current rere-cord list.
• The plus button in the bottom toolbar will allow you to create a new record or duplicate the current record. See: “Creating New Records”. • The numbers in the center of the bottom of the toolbar indicate
which record from the parent record list you are currently viewing.
• The trash icon in the bottom toolbar offers you the ability to delete the record. See: “Deleting Records”.
Searching Data
QUICK SEARCH
The quick search bar at the top of any record list allows simple searching in the current table against a single field. You can access the search bar by going to any record list screen and sliding your finger downwards on the screen until the search bar appears. The column that you search against is controlled by which column you have selected in the column header list at the top of the screen.
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Note: searching in most database is case-sensitive, soQUERY BUILDER
QUERY BOOKMARKS AND HISTORY
SEARCHING WITH RAW SQL
You can enter any freeform SQL that your database can handle by opening the Query Builder and selecting “Custom SQL Query” at the bottom of the
screen. Queries entered this way will be added to your search history and can be bookmarked like any other query.
Editing Data
EDITING EXISTING RECORDS
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Note: in order to be able to edit records, the table must have aCREATING NEW RECORDS
DELETING RECORDS
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Note: in order to be able to delete records, the table must haveCharts
Exporting & Printing
Advanced Topics
ENTERPRISE AUTO-DISCOVERY
DataGlass is able to automatically discover instances of database servers on the local network and show their information as a connection template in the "New Connection" screen. For Sybase ASE and Microsoft SQL Server, this dis-covery uses their built-in network advertising features and is automatic. Other da-tabases, however, do not provide any network auto-discovery mechanism, which means that user has know and enter the correct hostname (as well as username and password). This can be tedious and error-prone, especially on the software keyboard of a small iOS device.
Fortunately, DataGlass is also able to query network "zeroconf" (known in Ap-ple parlance as "Bonjour") services for information about databases, which it will use to populate the "New Connection" list. DataGlass will check for the local "_dataglass-DATABASENAME._tcp." name for this information. For example, us-ing the "dns-sd" program (included by default on OS X, but requirus-ing you to install Bonjour on Windows from http://www.apple.com/support/bonjour), you can regis-ter a local PostgreSQL server using the following command line in Terminal.app (Mac) or cmd.exe (Windows):
dns-sd -R "My PostgreSQL Server" _dataglass-postgresql._tcp. local 5432 Host=10.0.1.3 Name=dellstore2
The anatomy of the command is as follows:
• “My PostgreSQL Server”: the title you want to appear next to the data-base. This will be pre-filled as the database's description
• _dataglass-postgresql._tcp.: the service name of the database that Da-taGlass will search for from the iOS device
• Host=10.0.1.3: the host name or IP address the database server is run-ning on. If omitted, the host where the mDNS service advertisement is running from will be assumed to be the database host.
• Name=dellstore2: the name to pre-fill into the database name of the con-nection. Some databases (like PostgreSQL) require this. For Oracle, this will be the database's SID.
• Username=xxx: the name to pre-fill into the username for the database. This is useful if many people will be sharing the same username (e.g., for report designers).
The equivalent command when using the "avahi" Zeroconf implementation:
avahi-publish-service -s "My PostgreSQL Server 2"
TUNNELING CONNECTIONS OVER SSH
Many networked databases prohibit direct access over the internet for security or policy reasons. This prohibition is often implemented using a firewall that
blocks direct access to the network port of the database.
If your organization uses a VPN that is compatible with iOS’ built-in VPN cli-ent, you can often use that to transparently connect to your organization’s inter-nal network, and then use the app to connect directly to the database. However, many smaller organizations do not provide a VPN solution, and instead allow en-crypted access using the popular SSH service.
