Opening and closing databases

When you open an iBridge database, a connection is set up between Analyst's Notebook and the database. This connection allows you to use the iBridge facilities to interrogate your database and chart the results on your Analyst's Notebook chart.

You can open several iBridge databases at the same time and chart information from each of them on the same chart. When you open an iBridge database, you may be prompted for a user name and password. This is the same user name and password you use when accessing your database directly. If you are unsure, refer to your System Administrator or the person who set up the iBridge database for you.

When you perform database interrogations and chart the results, the entities and links you chart contain a reference back into the database. Whenever you are connected to the database, that is whenever you have opened the database from within the Analyst's Notebook, the entities and links you have charted point back into the database, allowing you access to the information about them which is stored in the database. Whenever the connection to your database is closed, they stand alone as normal Analyst's Notebook chart items. The reference back to the database is maintained for when you reopen your iBridge database.

The entities and links that you have charted from your database are special in that they have a specific database identity. This means that if you have more than one database open, you can always identify the database from which your entity or link originated. These database identities are automatically set up by iBridge and provide an alternative identity to the normal Analyst's Notebook chart item identity. If you merge two chart items that originate from different databases, the resulting merged chart item will have two database identities, one for each database.