Via the New Project button on the project toolbar, the project dialog will be opened. Use the Edit Project or a double click on the project to edit an existing project.
The Data Generator Projects overview and toolbar
The Data Generator Project dialog opens on the Project Settings tab for a new project or the Data Settings for an existing project.
The dialog has two tabs:
| · | Project Settings
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| · | Data Settings
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With the toolbar on the top of the dialog, you can export or import project settings to or from a file. This can be useful if you're exchanging projects with other users, or want to send projects by email.
Loading a project will re-arrange the tables "to fill" in the order specified in the project and restore the table and column settings you have saved. Tables that no longer exist in the database are silently ignored.
Closing the dialog will allow you to save the changes, or cancel them.
Project Settings
The "Data Generator Project" dialog with the "Project Settings" tab selected
The Project Settings tab allows you to enter a project name and description, as well as to set options for the project. The following options are available:
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Empty table in reverse order
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Instead of emptying each (selected) table before generating new data, empty all tables "up front" in reverse order. This is especially useful if your tables are related and your database includes Referential Constraints.
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Data Settings
The Data Settings tab is where you create your data generation project. Besides the name and description (and options), a project lists tables and columns that it needs to fill with data. The tables can be arranged in a specific order, so that parent <-> child relations (or master <-> detail) can be established while generating data.
Example of the "Data Settings" tab
In the above screenshot, you can see that the table "Activity" is to be filled with 10.000 rows, as with the Table Settings part at the right of the dialog. The "ActivityID" column is to be filled and is the primary key for the table. The "ActivityName" column has not yet been assigned a "Fill with" value, as you can see in the lower right part of the dialog under Column Settings.
The following table settings are available:
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Rows to generate
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The number of rows to create.
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Rows per transaction
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The number of rows before a "COMMIT" is being executed. If this value equals 0, all rows are generated inside a single transaction.
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Empty table before generating
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Tells the Advanced Data Generator to perform a DELETE of all rows before generating new data. Also see the Project Settings.
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The available column settings differ for each datatype, however, the following settings are common for all datatypes:
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Fill with
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What kind of data gets generated for the specified column.
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Include NULLs
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If the column is not created with the "required" attribute, you can tell the Advanced Data Generator to generate NULLs for the column as well and specify the percentage of NULLs that approximately gets generated.
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Depending on the datatype, one or more types of data-generation are available. Below is an explanation of each type:
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Preset
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One of the user-defined presets. See Introduction to Presets for more information.
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Referential Link
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A random value taken from another table and column. Select a table from the drop down box and a column. Usually, the column is the primary key of another table. Compound primary keys are not supported.
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Fixed Value
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Use the specified value for each row (unless Include NULLs is checked) in the table.
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Random Values
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A random value, might be generated with the use of entered parameters. For text (strings), see section Random Strings.
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Value From List
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A random value from the list entered by the user.
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Value From File
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A random value taken from the supplied file. Each value needs to be on a new line.
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Increasing Values
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A value that's being incremented for each new row. Failed rows (for any reason) will create gaps. The value starts at the start value entered by the user and is incremented in steps as entered by the user.
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File from Folder
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Takes a random file from the given folder, according to the file filter (only for BLOBs).
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Random Strings
The Advanced Data Generator can be used to generate complex string data. When generating random strings, the following options are available:
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Random Values
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A randomly generated string with a length between the specified values. Use the same values to generate a fixed-length string value. Single characters are taken from the "printable" range of characters.
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Random GUID
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A global unique identifier (GUID).
Example: {E2B6008E-24CE-4412-907F-5A764C033E02} |
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Random URLs
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Creates random URLs from a set of top level domains and domains.
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Random e-mail address
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Creates a random email address take from a random last-name, random top level domain and a random provider name.
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Random address
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Creates a random street-address by taking a random street name from a data library and concatenating it with a (house) number.
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Random full names
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Creates a random first-name + last-name combination by taking both from a data library.
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Masked value
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A powerful way to create custom values. See Masked Values for more information.
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Data Library
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Takes a random value from the specified data library. See Data Library for more information.
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Notes:
| · | BLOB values means a file, not an OLE object or anything else.
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| · | BLOB files are pre-loaded into memory, this might take up lots of memory when using larger files.
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| · | Values from a file/list should have each value on a new line.
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