Configuring Project Database Connections

Database Connection Roles

In addition to the project preferences, each project entry contains a three default roles for connecting to the SQL database for connections:

data for connections asking for user data
schema for connections asking for schema or data-dictionary information
security for connections asking for user authentication information

These different roles let you control default SQL security differently for the different types of connection. You can also use different servers or tablespaces for the different roles. Having the different roles also allows the ARCHIBUS Web Central application to pool database connections that have identical credentials in order to reduce the number of connections needed.

If you use the Smart Client Preferences/Projects form to create project entries, the program will create identical information for each role. However, you can refine these defaults if you like by editing the afm-projects.xml file directly.

Database Preferences

Each <database /> entry has these characteristics.

role is the role for the connection: "data", "schema" or "security".

maxNumberOfRecords is the largest number of records that a view for this project will display for each table-group in a single query. A value of "0" sets no limit; although this option is only used for the schema and security roles, in which the return data sets are small and all records must be returned. Since rich-interface views typically drill down directly to the data in question (e.g., buildings drill to floors, drill to rooms), large values are not necessary. If you find that you wish to filter data in the view to restrict the records of interest, use one of the console views provided.

engine type is the database server engine type: "Sybase" , "sqlServer", or "Oracle".
jdbc url is the JDBC URL usedfor accessing the database.

The JDBC URLs

Typically, you need only change the database server name ("localhost", "harp", etc.) or instead specify an IP address of the database server (e.g. "10.1.99.75" and leave the rest of the URL unchanged. The rest of the URL varies slightly between server types:

The value after the colon (e.g. "2638", "1433", "1521") is the default port on which the database server is listening. If you change this port from its default, you should change this value in the URL as well.

In the case that you are running two databases on the same server, such as HQ and Schema, you must add the database identifier to the JDBC connection URL.

For Microsoft SQL, add ";databaseName=Hq" where "Hq" is the name of your database, to the end of the JDBC URL setting. The end result would look like the following:

For Oracle, for each project, you must add ":sid" where "sid" is the Oracle sid of your database, to the end of the JDBC URL setting. The end result would look like the following:

For Sybase, for each project, you must add the database name (but not path or extension) as the ServiceName parameter:

Securing your Database Passwords

If you do not wish to store your database passwords in plaintext, you can encrypt them using the the "Encrypt Passwords in Configuration Files" view in the ARCHIBUS System Administrator / ARCHIBUS Administrator process.