Data Object Editor

The primary responsibility of a data object is to provide generic database access to arbitrary database resources (tables, views, stored procedures). The TARGET platform used in TextConverter and TARGET Reports supports any number of data objects in two data object types: Input data object and Output data object.

Input data object consists of three parts (variables): input data source, input dictionary, and scope. An input data object is used to store database connectivity information, a field structure, custom fields (terms) and a scope to limit the number of records, which will comprise the final record set. The input data object has a number of methods available for scripting. (See data object.)

Output data object (data object creator) consists of two parts (variables): output data source and output dictionary. The output data object stores the location and structure of the database table, which will be created later as a result of some component-specific functionality.  The major difference between an Input data object and an Output data object is that the former can be connected to an existing database resource and the later one defines a database table that does not exist yet.