Is there a way of attaching a data source and selecting the table / fields from a database in the designer, or is it a manual thing ?
I can obviously drop in the ProbindingSource, but I can only seem to add tables and columns, not select from a database.
You need to create a XSD file file (temp-table:WRITE-XMLSCHEMA or dataset:WRITE-XMLSCHEMA) and import that. One of the buttons in the datasource designer can be used for that purpose.
or do it manually, right ?
Is there any option in the OEA to generate the xsd from a table ?
(and for the third question)
Is there any reason not to be able to select tables from the datasource designer ?
To the first question:
Not that I'm aware of. You need to create a number of those 3-line helper programs to generate them for each table (or do it all at once in a batch).
I've build a custom tool once, that generates xsd files out of T4BL generated include files. I always had the plan to put it on codeshare some day.
The second question should be answered by Progress. I guess it's mainly a matter of priorities and ressources. 10.2A is mainly a release targetted to make it happen and a later release will (hopefully) focus on productivity.
Mike is absolutely right. It is on our roadmap to provide the functionality you are looking for.
-Shelley