This node allows you to read in data from any data source, it also allows you to set parameters on how to read in the data.
- Data Source section allows you to choose ANY Data Source currently configured on your computer system. Here you will specify the connection string required by the ADO connection method. You can enter your own connection string directly or you can use the systems DataLink's connection string generation dialog screen to do all the hardwork for you.
- Login Details section allows you to specify the User Name and or Password required to connect to the selected Data Source. If you configured your Data Source with the user name and password then you do not have to supply it here.
- SQL Query section allows you to specify the sql statement to be executed to retrieve the data from the selected data source.
- Retrieve Options section allows you to configure the data retrieval from the Data Source. You can select to remove spaces leading and lagging the data elements read in. Also you can select to remove quotes surrounding the data element, which means the first and last character of the data element must be quotes otherwise no quotes will be removed. The Strip Space option will be performed before the Strip Quotes option if both are selected. You can set the Timeout value (seconds) when retrieving data, this specifies the number of seconds to wait if the connection to the Data Source can not be made. It also indicates the timeout on how long to wait before recieving any data after sending the SQL Query to the Data Source. You can also set the Row Batch value which sets on how many rows of data should be returned at any one time. The default value will return at most 100 rows of data back every time. You may want to increase this value if you know that the Data Source will return more than 10,000 rows all together. A value of 1000 will return 10 batches of data of which each batch has 1000 rows. This may decrease the time taken to retrieve the 10,000 rows.
- Output Data Columns section allows you to analyse the ODBC data and determine what columns will be returned by the SQL Query. You can then also change the column type if it is incorrect. Clicking the Analyse button will read at most 100 rows of data from the Data Source and it will try to determine the columns type. The column type is either specified as an continuous (ie: 123) or a discrete (ie: ABC). Once you analyse you can change the column type by first clicking on the column and then clicking on the Change Type button.
NOTE: If the data retrieved from the Data Source returns NULL values they are converted into missing values and designated the value '?'.
NOTE: Global Constants can be used within the ConnectionString, UserName, Password and SQL Query entries.
NOTE: To create connection strings consult Microsoft documentation on using the ActiveX ADO component from the "Microsoft Data Access Components" software package.
NOTE: To be able to use the InputANYDB Node you require to install the "Microsoft Data Access Components" (MDAC) libraries. The procedure for installing MDAC is as follows:
- Install DCOM95 for Windows95 or DCOM98 for Windows98
- Install the latest MDAC
Both of these libraries can be downloaded from the Microsoft MDAC web site.
