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This topic is contained in the PDXpert help file: select Contents from the application's Help menu.

Viewing items in the PDXpert database

You can access a read-only view of PDXpert part and document records in your PDXpert database using an ODBC client with the appropriate SQL Server ODBC driver.

There are 3 classes of views within PDXpert:

  • Public views can be used by an administrator-defined view, ODBC client or other SQL Server client application. Public views are read-only and will generally remain stable from one PDXpert release to the next. They always end with the characters ...View (such as ItemView). Within the view's name, ...Pair... indicates a parent-child (for example, assembly-component) view. ...Master... views include each item's custom attributes.

  • Administrator-defined views extract and format data using public views and other administrator-defined views. An administrator-defined view can exclude columns, filter data, perform calculations, and CAST() data types to other more convenient types.

    You manage administrator-defined views using the Views collection, in the Collection Explorer's General group. Administrator-defined views always begin with the characters My... (such as MyPurchasedParts).

    Only views defined within the Views collection are preserved when your PDXpert system is updated. Views added directly to the PDXpertDB database are deleted when you upgrade to a new release.

    Administrator-defined views must not reference non-public objects, such as database tables or private views.

  • Private views are used only by the PDXpert application. These views may contain unpredictable content, may be modified or deleted when upgrading to a new release, and should never be used. Private views always end with the characters ..._View (such as Item_View).

A public view displays the underlying data without any data type conversion. The application using the view must

  1. be able to handle all SQL data types/sizes, such as GUID and varchar(max) values; or

  2. SELECT only those columns that contain data types that it can handle; or

  3. refer to an administrator-defined view created within SQL Server as an overlay to the published view.

Using ODBC to access the public views

The ODBC client connection uses the default login name PDXpertViewer and password By2Go4Me8.

By accessing the database views using an ODBC client with the default user account, the PDXpert database is protected from potentially damaging queries. Private views are hidden from ODBC clients that use the default login account.

You can combine public views into a new administrator-defined view, and add it as a member of the Views collection. For example, an electronic design tool such as Altium or OrCAD may display a supplier's datasheet link alongside the part number. This view joins the SourceItemMasterView and FilePairMasterView to display every home (IsHomeItem = 1) part (Class = 1) and the primary (..._1) supplier's web page (FileList = 'External'), if it exists on the source record.

SELECT SourceItemMasterView.Number,

  SourceItemMasterView.Description,

  SourceItemMasterView.OwnerShort_1,

  SourceItemMasterView.Number_1,

  FilePairMasterView.Filename

FROM SourceItemMasterView LEFT JOIN FilePairMasterView ON

  SourceItemMasterView.ItemId_1 = FilePairMasterView.ItemId

WHERE (SourceItemMasterView.IsHomeItem = 1)

  AND (SourceItemMasterView.Class = 1)

  AND (FilePairMasterView.FileList = 'External'

       OR FilePairMasterView.FileList IS NULL)

ORDER BY SourceItemMasterView.Number

Using SQL Server Management Studio

SQL Server Management Studio can be used to develop administered-defined views which, after testing, can be saved as members of the Views collection.

Never access any PDXpert PLM database object other than public views and administrator-defined views.

Non-ODBC clients like SQL Server Management Studio are both powerful and potentially dangerous to your PDXpert database. The complete set of undocumented PDXpert database tables and private views may be visible. These private objects, which use the default Database Owner (dbo) database schema, are compiler-generated and may change from one release to the next.

Never attempt to update or delete data in the PDXpert PLM database. Use only SELECT commands, and only objects within the viewer database schema.

PDXpert's documented public views, as well as members of the Views collection, are within the access-safe viewer database schema, such as PDXpertDB.viewer.ItemView or PDXpertDB.viewer.MyReleasedParts.

Never add a view directly into the PDXpertDB database. A PDXpert system upgrade deletes all views, and then rebuilds public views and members of the Views collection.

Unless otherwise specified in the upgrade release notes, documented public views remain stable from one release to the next. Administrator-defined views using the PDXpert client's Views collection are migrated automatically during upgrades.

The SQL default user account and public views are created after you enter a PDXpert license registration key with the appropriate permission setting.

A database connection uses the default login name PDXpertViewer and password By2Go4Me8 unless you create a different account or change the password. You can manage the login account using Microsoft's SQL Server Management Studio.

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Help topics describe the most current PDXpert PLM software release, and may differ from earlier releases.