Explore database meta-schemas

Follow these steps to interact with a database meta-schema for developing forms, reports, and services.

1. From the Welcome Page, Projects tab, select the OfficeStore project. This opens the OfficeStore project file in the project view.
2. Expand the project and find the Databases node.
3. Double-click on the officestore.4dbx file. The file opens in the Meta-schema manager.
4. Note the layout of the tables and columns and the defined join relationships between them. Zoom in and out of the diagram by holding down the Ctrl key while scrolling with the mouse.
5. Select File >> Print Preview. Note that you can print any diagram in a variety of ways.
6. Find the account table. Select the lastname column and modify its column length from 80 to 120.
7. Save your changes. Note that the diagram reflects that the schema is different from the database by flagging the modified column.
8. Generate a script to update the database with your change to the meta-schema. Select Database >> Generate Database Update Script. Select OK and note that a 4gl file is created for you to use or expand upon as needed. Note the additional options in the Database menu allow you to also update a schema from the database as well as compare schemas with the diff tool.