When you connect to a Pacbase database, you need to indicate your user code, a Database name, the name of the current library and a session number. All these information are then displayed in a status bar when you open a connection directory, this is the current library context.
The Specification Databases store all the data handled throughout the life cycle of applications.
Several Databases can coexist in a company.
The Administrator is the person responsible of the databases consistency and update.
Libraries define the structure of a Pacbase Database.
Libraries are hierarchically structured on a maximum of nine levels. The hierarchical structure is defined when Libraries are created and can only be modified by the deletion or creation of a new Library.
The hierarchical level of a library corresponds to the general nature of the information it contains.
A specification is described in the user's connection library but also in the higher libraries of which this library is dependent.
Any modification in a given library immediately impacts all its dependent libraries.
Pacbase displays the data that belong to the selected Library, as well as those of the higher level libraries and, optionally, those of the lower libraries, depending on the view selected.
The principle of sessions makes it possible to manage various versions of the same application: the Administrator can 'freeze' the Database, creating a snapshot of the current session.
This versioning does not entail any physical duplication of specifications. So the source of your applications is always up-to-date and accessible in real time.
Sessions are represented by four-digit numbers, the value being 0001 at the time the Database is created. This value is being incremented every day, when the first user logs on to the Database. However for a better identification of sessions, names can be assigned to frozen sessions
The current Library is the starting point to the exploration of instances within the Pacbase Repository regarding import operations and visualization. This Library may be seen through different filters, called views. There are several views on the libraries that you can find in the Library manager in the Pacbase explorer perspective. The list of entity instances displayed in the Pacbase explorer view is dependent of the view selected on the current library.