Database Tour can work with databases via several database engines. Some database types can be opened only by one of these engines (for example, UDL files can be opened only by ADO), while others can be opened by more than one engine (for example, dBase (DBF) files can be opened either by ADO or BDE, and Interbase databases can be opened by all engines which are available in Database Tour). If more than one engine is available, you can switch between them when opening databases.
Database kinds Database Tour works with
- Folders with files of the local databases like Paradox (DB), dBase (DBF), comma separated values (CSV) etc.
- Files of multi-table databases like Microsoft Access databases, SQLite databases, Microsoft Excel worksheets etc.
- Relational databases of server types (mainly connected by FD engine) like Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Firebird etc.
- Local or remote databases, for which ODBC data source names (DSN), ADO connection strings, or BDE aliases are defined.
Preparing data sources
In most cases you can register your database in the application without any preparation, by describing its properties in Open Data Source dialog, especially if you work with databases directly by FD or Interbase engines.
But if you work with databases through the older solutions like ADO or BDE, it sometimes worth defining ODBC data sources or BDE aliases for your databases.
To create or modify an ODBC data source, use the corresponding application from Windows Control Panel.
To create or modify a BDE alias, you can use BDE Administrator utility from Windows Control Panel (if any) or choose the BDE Aliases module in Database Tour.
Working with existing databases
In Database Tour, you can work with already existing databases, which was created in Database Tour (see below) or other applications. Please follow Opening Data Source topic to learn how to open different types of databases. Once the data source is opened, you can start to read or change data from the database tables, perform SQL queries or use many other useful functions available in Database Tour.
Creating new databases
Database Tour allows creating local database files, where database is a physical directory (folder), and the files in it are the tables (for example, dBase or Lotus databases). Also, creating databases of SQLite, Interbase, Firebird and Microsoft Access (.mdb) type is possible. Databases of other types (e.g. Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 etc.) still can be opened in Database Tour, and new tables in such databases can be created, but the current version does not support creating the databases of these types, so you should do this by other tools.
To create local (folder based) database, you need to open the folder, which you wish to use as the database.
Creating new tables in the databases
Once the database (either folder based or any other) is opened, you can start to create tables in it using a tool for creating tables or SQL queries.
New tables can also be created by exporting data from any open database to another database using Database Tour export tool.