Creating a data model

To process data from your database, BizDataX packages need data source metadata imported on the Portal. This page will explain the process of importing Portal data from a previously created Portal data source into your project.

Prerequisites

1. A Portal data model is created.
2. Web API URL and user key are set in options.

Steps

1. Right-click on your project, then Import Portal Data. Figure 1: Import Portal Data action

2. In the Import Portal Data window select your project. If you want to import every data source with all schemas, tables and columns, click Finish. If you want to choose what data will be imported, click Next.
   Figure 2: Project selection

3. Select the tables and columns you want to mask.
   Figure 3: Data source data selection

Primary key columns will be automatically detected and set to be imported as Read-only. They are highlighted in yellow. Read-only columns are highlighted in blue.

For each column you can use one of three available modes:

• Read-only
• Read-write
• Skip (won't be imported)

Switch modes by clicking on the icon beside the column name.

Right-click to set the column to Skip mode.

After selecting the columns click Finish. The required code will be generated automatically. The columns you picked and their settings will be saved into BizDataXProjectData.xml. Connection strings of selected data sources will automatically be loaded to your project's App.config file. This is done only once, so in the case that a connection string is changed on BizDataX Portal it must be changed in the App.config file manually - update is not supported.

Based on the imported data source analyzer type, the corresponding database handlers are automatically installed (if not already - version upgrade is not supported). The installation progress is visible in the Visual Studio Package Manager Console. For more details on manual installation see NuGet packages installation.

If the data was previously imported from the Portal, the T4 template (BizDataXProject.tt file) can be automatically updated by checking the Overwrite T4 template checkbox, then clicking the Finish button. This option is most often needed when upgrading the BizDataX Designer version.

Figure 4: 'Select options' checkbox

If tables contain Foreign keys, by selecting Auto assign checkbox, repeaters based on FK will be automatically displayed. For more details see Assign repeating value.

If the activities in the toolbox for each imported table need to be generated, the Generate toolbox checkbox should be selected. If there are a lot of tables that we want to import, it is better to turn off that option, because then the toolbox works slower.

Note: If you see a dialog like the one below, check Do not show this message again and click OK. The template mentioned in the warning processes the imported data and poses no harm to your computer.

Figure 5: Template security warning