Question

discuss the different type of cradles

Answer 1

Data Storage

There are a number of different storage types in Cradle.  These relate to where the data is held and how it is accessed. This article outlines the different storage in Cradle and explains when and where you may consider using it. Whilst there are some compelling reasons to hold certain data in certain ways, others can be a matter of choice.

For example if you want to add a URL to your item, there is no point trying to store the data inside Cradle this is, by its very nature, an As Reference storage type. On the other hand a binary word processor document could easily be stored inside the Cradle Database or as a reference to an external file on the rest of the company’s network. In this case it could depend whether the file needed to be accessed from outside Cradle or whether it was shared by multiple Cradle projects

Frames

Within an item data is either held in the main indexed database fields, such as ID, name, key or a category, or in associated frames. These frames are defined as part of the project’s schema to hold different types of data. There are a large number of predefined types and the ability to define your own.

Base Types

These are the fundamental type  of data we expect to see in the frame. They may be presented in different ways to the user. For example a plain text based frame can be shown in Forms and Views and read directly on the screen. The same is true for basic images. However, a word processor document is held as a binary frame and viewed within whichever application your company uses. A CAD sketch would not be directly visible in Cradle, but could still be stored in the item and viewed with an external program.

These are the fundamental and abstract data types offered in Cradle

Text

Binary

Image

URL

Category Picklist

Category Multiple Picklist

RTF

Date

Time

Integer

Positive Integer

Real

Storage Types

Each of the above types can be stored in Cradle in one or more ways. Some storage in Cradle, such as a date, make no real sense to store in more than one manner, the URL as mentioned or a date would not make sense to be stored in a file!

In PDB

As File

By Command

As Reference

Referenced File from Item