There are two ways of specifying the text to be displayed for a particular database field - with a text global resource or with database extended properties. The two mechanisms are explained below.

Here is an example of the steps that smartDBforms.NET takes in order to determine the Caption for the database column ProductName in table Products.

  1. Reads the SDBF_CaptionResID and SDBF_Caption extended properties from the database.
  2. Fires the ColumnInfo event so that SDBF_CaptionResID and SDBF_Caption can be changed programmatically.
  3. If SDBF_CaptionResID is not empty, its value is used as a String global resource id.

    If SDBF_CaptionResID is empty, a default String global resource id is constructed. In our example it will be Products.ProductName.Caption.
  4. If a String global resource with this id exists , its value is assigned as Caption for the ProductName column and no further steps are executed. 
  5. If SDBF_Caption has a value, this value is assigned as Caption for the ProductName column and no further steps are executed.
  6. If Caption is still empty it is assigned the name of the column. In our case it will be "ProductName".

Global resource

The global resource .resx files are located in the special ASP.NET folder App_GlobalResources. The resourceClassKey setting in Web.config specifies the name of a global resource file. For localization  multiple .resx files are created. They have the same name with different suffix, which determines the language of the resource. For more information see MSDN - ASP.NET Web Page Resources Overview.

In the .resx file you put string resources which are displayed in the user-interface elements such as labels.
The name of the String resource uniquely identifies a database column, a foreign key or a database table. Its suffix determines the purpose of the text. For example a String resource with name Products.ProductName.Caption specifies the text of the label for the ProductName data column of the Products data table.

Using global resource is not mandatory. If no global resource is specified then smartDBforms.NET constructs default texts for caption and description. Another alternative for specifying texts is to use the database extended properties.
You can even mix this two mechanisms. In this case the global resource mechanism has priority over the database extended properties.

 

Here is the list of the different kinds of String resource IDs:

For Microsoft Sql Server the tables can belong to a specific schema. The schema names are case sensitive. The default schema is dbo. If the table does not belong to the default schema then the schema name should also be included in the resource IDs. For example if the a table belongs to a custom schema the IDs patterns will be:
{BaseSchemaName}.{BaseTableName}.{BaseColumnName}.Caption
{BaseSchemaName}.{FKRelationName}.Caption

In case the database table uses a specific schema, make sure to specify the schema in the SELECT statement. For example: SELECT * FROM Production.Product. 

For more information see SQL Server 2005 documentation.

Name pattern Description 
{BaseTableName}.{BaseColumnName}.Caption
 Specifies the caption of the database column. For more information see API - FieldSchema.Caption Property. 
{BaseTableName}.{BaseColumnName}.Description
 Specifies the description of the database column. For more information see API - FieldSchema.Description Property. 
{FKRelationName}.Caption
 Specifies the caption when the database column participates in a foreign key relation. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKCaption Property. 
{FKRelationName}.Description
 Specifies the description when the database column participates in a foreign key relation. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKDescription Property. 
{FKRelationName}.NULLValueCaption
 Specifies the text that is displayed when the database column participates in a foreign key relation and its value is NULL. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKNULLValueCaption Property. 
{FKRelationName}.NULLValueDescription
 Specifies the text description when the database column participates in a foreign key relation and its value is NULL. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKNULLValueDescription Property. 
{BaseTableName}.RowCaptionExpression
 Specifies the sql expression that is used to calculate the text that represents the foreign key parent row in a user-interface control( For example: a drop-down list ).
For more information about the sql syntax see MSDN - DataColumn.Expression Property		 
{BaseTableName}.RowDescriptionExpression
 Specifies the sql expression that is used to calculate the text description that represents the foreign key parent row in a user-interface control( For example: a drop-down list ).
For more information about the sql syntax see MSDN - DataColumn.Expression Property 
Anonymous.{ColumnName}.Caption
 Specifies the caption for a data column which is created on the fly in the SQL select statement. Such columns do not have a parent database table. 
Anonymous.{ColumnName}.Description
 Specifies the description for a data column which is created on the fly in the SQL select statement. Such columns do not have a parent database table.

Database extended properties

Database extended properties can be used to specify the caption and description texts for the database columns, tables and foreign keys.  This mechanism can be used instead or together with a global resource file.

The extended properties for a MS SQL Server database can be modified with Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express or Query Analyzer.

All the extended properties for a database column are available at runtime in the FieldSchema.ExtendedProperties property.

 

Here are the names of the smartDBforms.NET extended properties.

Column extended properties

Extended property Description
SDBF_Caption The caption of the database column. For more information see API - FieldSchema.Caption Property.
SDBF_CaptionResID Used to override the default resource id for the column caption. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.
SDBF_Description The description of the database column. For more information see API - FieldSchema.Description Property.
SDBF_DescriptionResID Used to override the default resource id for the column description. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.

Foreign key extended properties

Extended property Description
SDBF_Caption The caption of the foreign key. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKCaption Property.
SDBF_CaptionResID Used to override the default resource id for the caption. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.
SDBF_Description The description of the foreign key. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKDescription Property.
SDBF_DescriptionResID Used to override the default resource id for the description. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.
SDBF_NULLValueCaption The text to display when the value of the data base column that participates in the foreign key is NULL. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKNULLValueCaption Property.
SDBF_NULLValueCaptionResID Used to override the default resource id for the null value caption. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.
SDBF_NULLValueDescription The description to display when the value of the data base column that participates in the foreign key is NULL. For more information see API - FieldSchema.FKNULLValueDescription Property.
SDBF_NULLValueDescriptionResID Used to override the default resource id for the null value description. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.

Table extended properties

Extended property Description
SDBF_RowCaptionExpression Specifies the sql expression that is used to calculate the text that represents the foreign key parent row in a user-interface control( For example: a drop-down list ).
For more information about the sql syntax see MSDN - DataColumn.Expression Property
SDBF_RowCaptionExpressionResID Used to override the default resource id for row caption expression. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.
SDBF_RowDescriptionExpression Specifies the sql expression used to calculate the text description that represents the foreign key parent row in a user-interface control( For example: a drop-down list ).
For more information about the sql syntax see MSDN - DataColumn.Expression Property
SDBF_RowDescriptionExpressionResID Used to override the default resource id for the row description expression. The resource id is used to extract the value from the global resource.