Documenting Access Databases

The power of TechWriter comes from its ability to leverage information from your database. In this topic we will show you how to document Access Databases by including comments directly within the database itself as an alternative to creating annotations within TechWriter. Comments can include simple text descriptions or richly formatted content depending on the comment model you wish to use.

Documenting the Database

To create Access database comments, open the Database Properties dialog shown below:

Database Properties

Creating database comments is as simple as entering text in the Comments box.

Documenting Tables

To create table comments in an Access database, open the database, right click on the table and select 'Properties' from the pop-up menu. This will display a dialog similar to the following:

Table Properties

Creating table comments is as simple as entering text in the description box.

Documenting Table Columns

To document columns in an Access database, open the database, right click on the table and select 'Design View' from the pop-up menu. This will display a dialog similar to the following:

Documenting your columns is as simple as entering text in the Description column.

Documenting Queries

TechWriter documents Access Queries as Views and Procedures in order to maintain consistent terminology across different types of databases. Any SELECT queries that do not have any parameters are documented as Views while all other queries are documented as Procedures. To create comments for your Access Queries, open the database, right click on the Query and select 'Properties' from the pop-up menu. This will display a dialog similar to the following:

Query Properties

Documenting your Access queries is as simple as the text in the description box.

Documenting Query Columns and Parameters

TechWriter will automatically use the description for the underlying table column as the description provided that the column in the query is not a computed column. For computed columns, you can use comment tags using one of the supported comment models. For example, if you choose JavaDoc as your comment mode, the extension tag named @column can be used for this purpose as shown below.

JavaDoc Column Tag

Note that if your query column name contains any spaces, you should enclose the name in double quotes.

TechWriter also supports the use of comment tags for documenting query parameters. For example, the @param JavaDoc tag can be used within the query description to document each parameter as shown below.

Query Parameters

Note that if your parameter expression contains any spaces, you should use double quotes to mark the beginning and end of the expression.

In order to use comment tags for documenting query parameters and computed columns you must select the proper comment model for your database from the Database Settings dialog that is displayed when you add or edit an Access database for the project.

Documenting Other Database Objects

Access does not currently provide a method for documenting the following database objects:

Indexes
Foreign Key Relationships
Check Constraints

However, you can still document these types of database objects using TechWriter annotations.

Formatting Options

In some instances, you may want to format your descriptions with multiple paragraphs, lists, links and other formatting options that are available when using TechWriter's Annotation editor. While Access does not provide a WYSIWYG editor, you can still apply formatting to the text using the syntax defined by the comment model. TechWriter supports several different comment models, including HTML, that can be used within Access to format your descriptions. See Supported Comment Models for more information.