How to Create an MDS View in VDM – BridgeWorks Help Center

Trouble Viewing Images? Right-click on any image and select "Open in new tab" to view a larger version. You can also zoom in using Ctrl + Mouse Wheel for easier readability.

Article Goal

This guide walks you through how to create a Multi-Database Source (MDS) View in VDM. MDS Views allow you to pull data from multiple databases and combine the results into a single unified dataset.

Why Create an MDS View?

MDS Views are useful when you need to consolidate data from separate databases.

⚠️ Note: MDS must be properly configured on your system before running MDS views.

Video Tutorial:

Steps To Create an MDS View.

1: Launch VDM: Open the VDM application on your system.

💡 Ensure you have access to all databases you intend to pull from and that the MDS database has been setup.

2: Add Fields from the First Database: In the Tables and Fields panel, expand your first database and add fields to the Report Fields section by double-clicking or dragging and dropping.

3: Add Fields from the Second Database: Repeat the process of adding fields from your second database.

💡 Note: As soon as you add fields from another database, the MDS indicator in VDM will activate—confirming that you're now building an MDS View.

4: Adjust Linking if Needed: If any fields across databases should be related, use the Linking feature to define relationships between them.

5: Run the View and Verify Results: Click Run to execute the MDS View.

🔍 What happens behind the scenes:

VDM sends one query to each database

Then it combines those results with a third query run on the MDS database

You can view this process in the log output, which will show:

Query 1: Sent to Database A
Query 2: Sent to Database B
Query 3 (MDS): Combines both results

Article Summary

This article explains how to create a Multi-Database Source (MDS) View in VDM. MDS Views let you pull data from multiple databases and combine the results into a single query executed on the MDS database. The article includes step-by-step instructions for selecting fields, managing links, executing the view, and understanding how VDM handles query distribution across databases.

What’s Next?

Now that your MDS View is working:

Save it for use in Finished Reports or Visualize Dashboards
Apply filters, sorts, groups, and summaries as needed