Connecting to the Server Database with 4D Client

version 2004 (Modified)

Before working with 4D Server and 4D Client for the first time, it is a good idea to check your installation. To do so, read the section Checking Your Installation.

This section discusses:

• How to connect clients to the server database you created.

• Creating a database structure. This section includes a tutorial in which you create tables and fields in the database, enter new records, and modify existing records.

• Connecting a second user.

• Working concurrently.

Although you created the database with 4D Server (see section Creating a server database), all modifications to the database design and the actual data are performed from the client machines. In this section, you will learn how to connect to the server and open the server database.

1. Double-click the 4D Client application icon.

The Connection dialog box is displayed:

The Employees database appears in the list:

The database will be opened on the client workstation. It opens in the Design environment, ready for you to create the structure of your database.

Tips: If you do not see the name of the database you have just created with 4D Server, check the following points:

• Is 4D Server still runnning on the other machine?

• Are your machines connected to the network?

• Is the TCP/IP protocol correctly configured on both machines?

• If you are not sure about using the Connections dialog boxes, see the section Connecting to a 4D Server Database.

When you look at the 4D Server administration window, note that your network user name has been added to the list of users and the number of connected users is one.

There are now a total of six processes running:

The first four processes are for 4D Server itself and were created when 4D Server was launched. The two new processes are for the first user connecting to the server:

• The Design process manages the Design environment. If you close the Design process on the client machine by choosing Close Structure from the File menu, the Design process on the server ends.

• The User/Custom Menus process manages the User and Custom Menus environments. Each additional user will add at least two processes to the list of processes. You can hide the processes of a user by clicking the cross (Windows) or the arrow (Macintosh) to the left of the user's name. To show the processes of the user, click the cross (Windows) or the arrow (Macintosh) again.

Now that you are connected, you can work with the database with the same feature set as that of 4th Dimension in single-user environment. First, you need to define the structure. Go to the section Defining the database structure.