Understanding Lawson Data Organization

Product line

Data area

An RDBMS database is a collection of information organized into interrelated tables of data and specifications about that data.

A Lawson product line includes the RDBMS database and the Lawson programs that access that data. The GEN and LOGAN product lines contain a relatively small number of programs that you use to manipulate product line data. Infor Lawson System Foundation offers a larger set of programs to access application product line data. On a high level, the product line definition has two components, structure and data.

A data area is created from a product line, but it includes only the data structure when created. Data can be copied into a data area from the product line, imported from another source, or entered manually through Lawson programs. Lawson programs are shared between a product line and all data areas created from that product line.

A table in an RDBMS is made up of logically arranged row and column definitions that define an entity (object).

A Lawson file is equivalent to an RDBMS table.

For example, in the preceding figure, the FILEDEF table in the GEN database contains data about Lawson files and the fields contained in the files.

An RDBMS column describes the attributes of an object, or piece of data. A column has a name and data type.

In the Lawson database definition, the term element is also used for the concept of a column. A Lawson element describes the attributes of an object, such as a user ID or an expiration date.

For example, in the preceding figure, the Filename column has the following attributes: alphanumeric, 8-character, database file name. Each field that belongs to the Filename column must conform to those attributes.

A Lawson or an RDBMS record or row is the organization of multiple, related fields.

For example, in the preceding figure, a record is a group of related Product line, Filename, Prefix, and System Code fields.