Populating a database

Before you can use Visualizer, you need a populated database. This means that you need to transfer and integrate data from your measurements or predictions collection application into a Visualizer database. You can use the Microsoft Access database shipped with Visualizer or any ODBC-compliant database from vendors such as Oracle or Microsoft.

Populating a database describes the process of adding data to a database or integrating new data into an existing data base. Once a database has been populated, you can select it and use the data in it to draw graphs.

You might have more than one database because you might want to store different kinds of data in separate databases. You can store different kinds of databases (referred to as data sources) in the same directory. There are two ways to populate a database:

• From Visualizer, select Database > Automator > Populate to run the event interactively.
• As part of an Automator script, run a Populate event (see Online Help for more information).

If you are adding data to an existing database, choose the data source name where that database is stored. If you're populating a new database, create a new data source name.

When you run the Populate event, a script file, with a .tmp extension, begins building a script and logging all activities surrounding the Populate event. The length of time it takes to populate a database varies from minutes to considerably longer depending on the size of the database and the size and number of input files. However, you can switch to another application and let Populate run in the background.

Automator displays the script log as it populates the database. The log also displays the time the event completes and any warnings and errors that occur during the Populate event.