This article will highlight some of the terminology, commands, and functionality of the LMV databases (which deploy the Zoho Creator online database system).
Layout of Database View
- various "Tabs" may be available to tailor the use of the database for different applications or LMV operational areas (e.g. shown below is Trip Planning tailored specifically for Oasis, Mexico and International trips)
- a given tab will have a number of "Views", with each View simply a way to "look" at the data... there might be several views of the same basic data, much like a front-view CT scan and a side-view CT scan
- a "row" in the view table represents a "record" in the database, e.g. each row in the view below represents a person signed up for an LMV trip
- "Commands" are available to further manipulate the data:
- perhaps the most important command, "Add" allows the addition of a new record to the database
- if the user selects one or more records (via the Multi-Select "checkboxes"), then those selected records can be "Deleted", "Duplicated", or "Bulk Edited"
- the "Bulk Edit" command is very useful to make the same change to multiple records... e.g. click the checkboxes in front of a number of records, click Bulk Edit, select the column to be changed (e.g. Subgroup), and enter a new value (e.g. "Room 222") for that column in all the selected records
- the most often used command is "Edit"... this opens up the data form for that record and allows the user to change field values for that one record
- Note: a View might contain data from not only the active database (e.g. here the LMV Trip Planning database) but may also pull data from other LMV databases (in this example, many fields pertaining to the LMV member are pulled from the LMV Roster database). The Edit command only allows changes to data from the active database (e.g. Status on Team, flying with pilot xyz, rooming assignment) and not to data from associated databases (e.g. Role, Discipline, Certification, Tail#).
- "Multi-Select" as described above applies to the Delete, Duplicate and Bulk Edit commands
- also available is the Filter command that can be used to limit the records shown in the active view, e.g. pull down Filter to "candidate" to show only those people not yet confirmed to be on the trip
- to the right of Filter is a count of the number of records (35 in this case) in the active view
Limiting the Records shown in the active view
- as noted above, the Filter command is perhaps the most often used method to limit which records are to be shown
- the "Search" command is a powerful way to reduce the number of records (rows) shown in the active view... e.g. clicking Search, entering Last Name = Morgan, and clicking the gray Search button will result in all records that contain the letters "Morgan" in the last name to be listed (e.g. Dave Morgan, Dotty Morganstern, etc)
Manipulating Columns in the active view
- "columns" in the active database view represent "fields" in the database, e.g. for a given person (the record or "row") what value has been entered for the "field" (or "column") called Discipline
- any column in the active view can be manipulated by clicking on the column header (e.g. click on the word "Discipline") pulling down to select:
- Sort, Asc... to sort that column by Discipline in ascending order
- Hide Column... to hide that column (e.g. to reduce clutter) in the active view
- to return to the original View (unsorted, unhidden) simply click that view name (e.g. Trip Waitlist - operations) again
Custom Actions -- Send Email
You can use the database to prepare and Send Email to some or all the records in the active view (note: composing the email allows some formatting, e.g. bullets, but does not allow more advanced options such as image insertion):
- select which records should receive your email:
- for all records, click the checkbox just below the Add command
- you can also select a subset of checkboxes
- or you can use Filter or Search to a arrive at a subset, and then check some or all of the remaining checkboxes
- pull down Custom Actions to Send_Email
- compose your email
- click Send
- (note: limited to ~250 addresses; for more, cut/paste addresses into your email client)