Another option is to use Label Copy/Data views in TMS 9.20 and up. 

We have two instances of TMS and use a similar method for linking
records as described by David below. There are several SQL views on the
database server that span the two databases and TMS Label Copy views
that sit on top of that. Even though our views are created between two
SQL Server databases with a small effort you should be able to create
them using any SQL compatible data source.

And as David said not knowing the database type and platform it's
difficult to know if this method will really work.

Jeff Steward
Manager of Collections Information Systems
Department of Collections Management
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston



-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of David Parsell
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 11:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Making another database partially accessible in TMS


David,

The answer to your question is a qualified yes without knowing what
database and platform is being used.

I have linked access databases and SQL tables outside of TMS to TMS
tables by using the ID field (IE: objectID, conID), found in each TMS
table.

Using Crystal Reports I write reports that join the TMS and non-TMS
tables or just the non-TMS tables.

The reports are selected from the TMS reports menus and work well.

I'm very curious about your conservation db. Our conservators also
find the TMS conservation assistant less than thrilling. Can you
share any of the design with us?

David Parsell
Yale University Art Gallery and The Yale Center for British Art




  At 11:03 AM 1/22/2007, you wrote:
>Good morning,
>
>Because I wasn't fast enough with exploring the possibility of adapting
>the conservation modules of TMS in a manner that was acceptable for our
>conservation department, they went ahead and created their own database
>that they use for their own purposes.  It's a beautiful database, and
is
>very useful for them.  They also had very strong feelings of mistrust
of
>the security abilities of TMS and did not want access to many of their
>reports to general users.
>
>Now, though, they are starting to realize some of the benefits of
having
>at least some of their data accessible through TMS.  They don't want to
>talk about mapping a conversion to dump their data into TMS yet, but
>they think that they want the ability within TMS to capture a report of
>specific fields from their database.  They suggested doing this through
>some sort of hyperlink.
>
>I haven't talked with Gallery Systems about this yet, but I will.  I
>have a feeling that this is not an unique problem for me, though, so
was
>curious about if anyone was dealing with multiple databases and trying
>to merge them in a way that would enable both to operate dynamically or
>independently?  Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>David
>
>David Aylsworth
>Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
>Registrar for Collections
>telephone:  713-639-7824
>fax:  713-639-7780