General Description

A dataview is a logical view of data that makes requests of the data, independently of the storage structure. A dataview can be shared across many applications. A CA Ideal application only needs to name an existing dataview in the Program Resource Table and reference the various columns or fields in the Program Procedure. All attributes of the columns or fields are bound to the CA Ideal program at compile time, based on the status of components of the dataview when the dataview was cataloged.

For CA Datacom/DB only, the same table may be accessible using SQL and native access. Separate dataviews are required for each method, and these may present different formats for the same data (e.g. native access allows group fields, SQL does not). CA Ideal will present the program with a consistent form of the individual data fields regardless of the access used, even for types such as dates.

Mainframe CA Ideal supports four types of dataviews as follows:

CA Ideal SQL access dataviews: Dataviews for SQL objects (tables, views, or synonyms to access the
CA Datacom SQL) to use as resources for CA Ideal programs. SQL access dataviews can be for DB2 or CA Datacom SQL access and are created with the CATALOG command. The SQL objects are created and maintained using database facilities.
CA Datacom/DB native command access dataviews: Dataviews for CA Datacom/DB native access tables to use as resources for CA Ideal programs. These dataviews are modeled, created, and maintained in CA Datacom/DB.
Sequential file dataviews: Dataviews that refer to sequential data files to use as resources for CA Ideal programs. These dataviews can be modeled in the dictionary or created and maintained in CA Ideal using fill‑in screens to describe file and field attributes. When the dataview is created and maintained in CA Ideal, it is referred to as an unmodeled dataview because it is not modeled in the dictionary.
VSAM file dataviews: Dataviews that refer to VSAM files to use as resources for CA Ideal programs. These are unmodeled dataviews, created and maintained in CA Ideal using fill‑in screens to describe file and field attributes.