Portofino 4 by ManyDesignsWizard
Overview
The wizard is a very simple process that allows you to create an application from an existing database. The steps are the following:
- Step 1: Connect to your database
- Step 2: Select the database schema(s) to import
- Step 3: Set up user management
- Step 4: Generate pages
- Finish
Step 1: Connect to your database
In step 1 you are asked to connect to your database. You can use an existing connection or you can create a new connection from scratch.
If you choose to create a new connection, you must decide if you want to use JDBC or JNDI.
In you choose JDBC, enter the following connection details:
- Database name: a name of your choice to identify this connection.
- Driver: choose one in a list of drivers available in your classpath.
- Connection URL: the connection URL
- Username: the connection username
- Password: the connection password
See the following screenshot.
If you choose JNDI, enter the following connection details:
- Database name: a name of your choice to identify this connection.
- JNDI resource: the path of the JNDI datasource (e.g.: java:/com/env/jdbc/myDatasource). For more information and examples on how to configure JNDI datasources on Tomcat, see http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/jndi-datasource-examples-howto.html
See the following screenshot.
Click on Next to proceed to the following step.
Step 2: Select the database schema(s) to import
In step 2, you are asked to choose which schema(s) to import. Choose one or more among those available.
Click on Next to proceed to the following step.
Step 3: Set up user management
In step 3, you can set up user management based on the tables already available in your database. You need to identify three tables:
- Users tables: the table containing the system's users.
- Groups table: the table containing the user groups.
- User-group join table: the table that joins users to user groups. This is usually an "intersection table" than implements a many-to-many relationship between users and groups.
This step is not mandatory, so if these tables are not available in your database don't worry: leave the fields blank and proceed to the next step. If only the Users table is available (but the groups table and the join table aren't) select it and proceed to the next step: a partial yet working user management will be set up.
Click on Next to proceed to the following step. If you've selected at least one table in Step 3, you will be offered Step 3a to provide further details.
Click on Next to proceed to the following step.
Step 4: Generate pages
In step 4, you can decide which pages will be generated. The wizard can operate in three modes:
- Don't generate anything: no pages will be generated. This is recommended for advanced users who want to create pages manually outside the wizard.
- Automatic: the wizard will decide the root pages based on an automatic analysis of the data model. This is the default.
- Manual: the wizard will generate only the pages that you decide.
See the screenshot below.
If you choose "Manual", you can select the root pages from the list.
Click on Next to proceed to the following step.
Finish
This is a confirmation page.
Click on Finish to start the generation. The wizard will:
- connect to the database and load its metadata,
- set up a security.groovy script
- create the application pages
... according to the answers you've provided in the previous steps.