A join condition determines the combination of records from the individual objects that are included in the resulting set.

Before an InfoSet can be activated, the join conditions have to be defined in such a way (as equal join condition) that all the available objects are connected to one another either directly or indirectly.

Usually, however, only rows containing a common InfoObject or rows containing InfoObjects that share the same basic characteristic are connected to one another.

There are various ways of defining join conditions:

Position the cursor over a row in an InfoObject.

Press the left mouse-button and, keeping the left mouse-button pressed down, trace a line between this row and a row in another object.

Providing that the join condition between the two rows that you have indicated is a valid join condition, the system confirms the join condition by displaying a connecting line between the two rows.

You get to the Link Maintenance dialog box.

In a tree structure on the left-hand side of the screen, all of the InfoProviders that are already included in the join are displayed along with their fields or attributes. If you double-click on one of these fields or attributes, the system displays on the right-hand side of the screen all of the fields or attributes with which you are able to create a join condition.

In the Selection column, set one or more of the indicators for the fields or attributes for which you want to create a join condition. The system generates valid join conditions between the fields or attributes that you specify.

You use the Delete Links pushbutton to undo all of the join conditions.

You use the All Characteristics or the Basic Characteristics Only pushbutton to choose between the corresponding display variants.

When you have finished making your settings, click on the Continue icon.

We recommend this method, because the system searches for all the possible join conditions for any field or attribute that the user specifies, ensuring that the join conditions are defined without errors.

Usually inner-join operators connect all the objects in a join to one another. You can also connect each object with any of the many other objects by using a left outer join operator.

If you want to use a left-outer join operator to connect an object, select the object and choose the corresponding function from the context menu.

The system displays all of the valid join conditions that originate from this object. The connecting lines that represent these join conditions are labeled as Left Outer Join . InfoProviders, on which a left outer join condition is affixed, are differentiated by color from the InfoProviders that are connected using an inner join operator.

If you want to use an inner-join operator instead of the left-outer join operator, select the object that you want to connect, and choose the Inner Join option from the context menu. Again the system displays all the valid join conditions that originate from this object, and labels the connecting lines accordingly.

Once the join conditions have been defined in such a way as to connect all the available objects to one another, either directly or indirectly, the InfoSet is ready to be activated.

You click on the Check pushbutton in the pushbutton toolbar to find out if these preconditions for the activation have been met.