ConnectionEditor
A connection defines the credentials necessary to connect to a data source. SqlDiffFramework supports connections to SQL Server, Oracle, MySql, and ODBC. Though a fairly old technology, ODBC broadens the spectrum of available data sources to include Access databases, Excel spreadsheets, plain text files and more.
The combination test button/status light provides a convenient way to check credentials without leaving the dialog. The test button's color provides immediate visual feedback. It starts out as grey (status disabled), and turns orange (status unknown) only after you have entered data in all the appropriate fields. Of course, the list of appropriate fields varies based on your entries. For example, if you select Oracle as the database type then you must enter a username, password, and server, but because Oracle does not have the concept of database names, the database selector is disabled. After the button turns orange, you may click it to attempt to connect to the specified system. When the connection succeeds, the button changes to green; otherwise, it turns red and displays an error indicator (the red exclamation symbol).
The exploded view shows a representation of the connection editor for a single data source. Within SqlDiffFramework the connection editor can handle an arbitrary number of data sources and, in fact, lets you import or export a set of connections to port them between different installations.