Giving Processes in Laserfiche Forms Access to an External Database

On the Data Sources page, you can create data sources that will be used for specific business processes. Once a process is associated with a data source, forms in that process can access information in the data source to automatically fill out fields or suggest values to users. Learn more.

Users with the System Administrator role can access the data sources page by clicking on their account name, selecting the Administration option and then selecting Data Sources from the left menu.

Data source security has been enhanced as follows:

  1. System Administrators have access to all data sources.
  2. Business processes that have been added to the data source via the Processes tab have access to the source regardless of the user.
  3. Users or groups that have been granted access rights via the Access Rights tab have access to that data source in any business process, whether or not the process has been added to the data source.

This allows users that been given access rights either directly or through a group to use that data source in lookup rules in any business process, without having to request that the business process be added to the data source.

Note: Forms 10.2+ supports using ODBC data sources. Learn more.

Note: Forms 9.1 introduced support for using Oracle databases as data sources. In order to do so, Oracle Data Access Components 11.2 or higher must be installed on the Forms Server machine. However, Forms does not support Oracle Stored Procedures.

Note: SQL databases must be version 2005 or later.

To create a new data source

  1. Click New data source at the top of the page.
  2. In the New Data Source dialog box, specify the Name, DBMS type, Server, Database, and authentication information for that data source.

    Note: The format for authenticating with Windows accounts must be like "domain\username".

  3. Click Test connection to ensure Laserfiche Forms can connect to the data source.
  4. When you are finished, click Save. Your new data source will be shown on the left side of the screen, under Data Sources.

To add user or group access rights to a data source

Access to a data source can be limited to specific users or groups in order to enhance security. Users with the System Administrator role can add or remove these access rights.

  1. Click the name of the data source you want to add access rights to.
  2. Select the Access Rights tab.
  3. Type the name of a user or group. When the desired item appears in the search results, select it. Multiple users or groups can be added at the same time.
  4. Once the user or group is populated in the field, click Add.

To remove access rights from a user or group

To associate a business process with a data source

  1. Click the name of the data source you want to add a process to.
  2. Click the Add/remove processes button at the top of the page.
  3. In the Add or Remove Processes dialog box, select the checkboxes next to the processes that will use this data source. Clear the checkboxes next to the processes you don't want to use this data source.

    4. Note: If you remove a process from a data source, all lookup rules in that process that use that data source will be deleted. If you are using another data source and want to retain your lookup rule logic, change the data source in the rule before removing the process here.

  4. Click Save.

To update the tables and views available from a data source

  1. Select the data source you want to update.
  2. Click the Refresh button at the top of the page.

    3. Note: If, after refreshing, a data source no longer contains a table or stored procedure used by existing lookup rules, Forms will display a warning and automatically disable these invalid lookup rules.

To edit a data source's configuration details

  1. Select the data source you want to edit.
  2. Click the Edit button at the top of the page.
  3. Make changes to the data source as desired.
  4. Click Test connection to ensure the new configuration works.
  5. Click Save.

    6. Note: If, after editing, a data source no longer contains a table or stored procedure used by existing lookup rules, Forms will display a warning and automatically disable these invalid lookup rules.

To delete a data source

  1. Click the data source you want to delete.
  2. Click the delete button in the toolbar.

    3. Important: Deleting a data source used by a business process will delete all lookup rules associated with the data source.

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