Writeable Data

If you have followed the above procedure, you now have a set of read-only tables. You should also notice that every Edit menu command (Edit>Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Change, and the equivalent toolbar buttons) and the Toggle read-only flag toolbar button is disabled.

This is because you can only mark rows as writeable if you also define a key column.

SQL Direct Configuration uses the key column to identify an element when it is writing data back, so you need to specify either the REFNO or the NAME as the key column. Table Designer does not enforce this ‑ in theory you can mark any column as the key, but in practice only REFNO or NAME are useable.

Select the required column in the left-hand pane, then select Schema>Key Column, the key button, or right-click on a column name and select Key Column.

Once you have marked a key column, you can turn off the read-only flag for any other column by selecting Schema>Read Only, clicking on the toolbar, by or right-clicking on a column name and selecting Read Only).

Remember that the onus is on the person designing the table to ensure that writing to that attribute is sensible. Table Designer does not enforce any rules about attributes that must be read-only.