1. When first run, DSF will have a database connection configured for the demo database. From the main menu select File... If you have administrator access to a local database server or know someone who does, then choose Create New DSF Database. You will have faster performance if you use your own local server to store the DSF work tables. Your other option is to use our cloud servers for this purpose. Choose Create New DSF Cloud Database. This option will store the DSF work tables on our servers. 


All Data Sources require a READ ONLY connection to your company's physical database. If you don't know your database connection information you will need to get this information from your Systems Administrator. 


If you are currently using Excel, a report writer or BI tool to access the database, you may already have this information. Use the same credentials.



Provider

When connecting to a database, DSF requires a registered .NET Data Provider.  Any detected provider data drivers on the machine will be listed when making a connection to the database. In plain english this simply means the type of database you will be connecting too.


Each Data Provider has different requirements to connect to your database. See your provider's documentation for more details.


DSF supports the following Data Provider types:


If you are NOT using one of the major database providers then you may need to setup ODBC using a DSN connection.

Selecting Change… on the Provider line will list the installed providers:



Microsoft SQL Server


Server

The server name is the name of the server where the database is running. Physical servers can run multiple instances of SQL Server. Include the instance name with the server name if one is required. The server name in the figure above is “DS01” and the instance name is “SQL2014”.

Port: 1433 is the default port for SQL Server. If you need a different port add it to the end of the server name separated by a colon “:”.


Example:     DS01\SQL2014:1434


The Find… button that is shown on the server line will browse your network to detect server names that you have access to. Depending on the size of your network this may take a while. You can select the server name from the list or enter it directly. There are many reasons why your server may not be listed. The Find… button is for convenience only. If your server is not listed you can enter the name directly. 


2. Once all the information is entered, you can check the server connection by pressing the Test Connection button. If the system reports that the connection to your server  is working, you will see Connected OK.


3. Now use the database pull-down and select the database you wish to connect to.


Once you have selected the database, press Connect.


4. Enter a name for this connection or use the default:



The system will create the needed database structure and then analyze your database.



5. Press the Discover button.


The system will now begin to discover your data. Depending on the size of your database this could take awhile.

You can cancel the discovery process at anytime which will give you partial results.


6. When complete, create a new DSF View by pressing the New View button from the main menu and then select and Entity (Business Object) to see what data has been found.