Define Custom Views for your Online Database

After you finish defining your custom online database, define multiple custom database table views. 

Now that you have your custom online database defined you might want to add some handy features.  One of those handy features is the ability to define multiple database table views.  This blog will walk you through the steps of editing and defining your custom database views.  Not to mention, there is a bonus feature for your database mentioned at the end!  If you need help getting to this step of the process, try reading the previous blogs: Start Creating Your Custom Online Database, How to Customize Fields for your Online Database, and Looks DO Matter: ALL ABOUT VIEWS.  

To begin, click Org Admin on the top  left of your screen, under your logo.  Select Manage Database.  Click edit next to the database you wish to edit.  Scroll down the database edit screen until you see an area titled Views.  Under views you will see expanded view, summary view and new view.  Selecting edit next to either expanded or summary view enables you to edit those two common views.  However, you want to add an entirely new view.  To do so, select new view.  

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Here you are able to give your custom database view a name, determine the number of columns you wish to indent, the number of rows to print before a page break and whether or not you want a thumbnail included in your view.  At this point in time, there are no fields included in your custom view, so you will have to wait to select which fields you wish to sort the data in your database by until you enter the fields (directions for this are below, so keep reading).  Once you are done with this first step, press next. 

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You will see the fields section appear. 

 

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It is now time to decide which fields you want included in your view.  You can choose from the fields you have already created in your database in addition to any of the preset database fields that GroveSite offers.  Select the fields you wish to include in your database view, and then select add field.  

 

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You should now see these appear on the left hand side of the fields list.  Earlier in the process you were unable to select which rows you want to sort the custom database view by because there were no fields entered!  Now that you have entered your fields, you are able to specify how you want it sorted.

One of the unique features of GroveSite is that you are also able to create filters for your database views.  After you have selected the fields you wish to include in your view, you can create a filter.  

 

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You will see that once you add your first filter definition you are able to add additional and/or definitions.  

 

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Once you are done defining your views, be sure to select Save View at the bottom of the screen!  All views will now be available for use within your main database page.  At the top of every database there is a dropdown selection menu that allows you to decide which “view” you want to use while reviewing your database.   

Looks DO Matter: ALL ABOUT VIEWS

If you’ve been following the blog, after reading the past few posts we should have successfully created a hosted web database and defined our fields.  Need to refresh your memory?  Visit Start Creating Your Custom Online Database and How To Customize Fields for your Online Database. 

Now it is time to customize the database views.  Each database will automatically have an expanded view and a summary view.  Although these views have been pre-named, you are still able to customize how the content appears in each view by selecting edit next to whichever view you wish to change.  

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Once you hit edit, you will land on the edit view page.  Let’s take a look:

 

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Number of columns to indent allows you to later select certain fields you wish to have listed below an original entry in the database.  “Two columns” tends to look nice when complete.  When you are done making your edits, be sure to click save view! 

 

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Here I have included a large thumbnail, and selected the image, email, phone, website and discussion to be indented by two columns.  You will see other non-indented data for the same file listed above what is indented.  If you want any items   to be indented select “edit” next to which view you want to work with.  Once here, click the hyperlink for each individual field you want to indent, and make sure you check the box that says indent.  Always remember to save your changes! 

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At this point in the Custom Online Database creation process, it is time to edit the advanced options:

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Once you are satisfied with your setting, select save table.  Your table will now appear in your list of database tables. 

After you have added your database to a page within your GroveSite, you will be able to add individual records to your database.   Need more assistance?  Visit the GroveSite Help Desk and print the Database Editor Guide.

 

 

How To Customize Fields for your Online Database

In our previous blog post: Start Creating Your Custom Online Database, we introduced the first steps to creating your database—creating the table and defining the fields.  While defining the fields originally you were unable to add spaces or special characters to the column labels.  You may want to go back and add them now.  If this is the case, make sure you are editing the correct database under org admin before making any changes. 

• Login to your GroveSite collaborative workspace (Don't have one? Request a free trial here.)
• Click Org admin, then Manage database 
• Click edit next to the database name

Now you will see a list of the field names you added.  Once you have entered the edit section of the correct database, click on the name of the field you created—it should now be in the form of a hyperlink.  Once you click on the hyperlinked name, it will show you a box containing the field options. 

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As you see, the "Label" field defaults to the Field Name, which cannot have spaces.  However, in this screen you are able to add a space to the field's label, determine if the field is required, what size you would like it to be, who has permission to view and edit, etc.  One specific setting we assigned to all of our fields in the first step of this process (what we talked about in the last blog) was determining what the field type was.  In the example above, we had selected text.  Because we had selected text, we now have the further option of determining whether it is going to be an alpha entry, numeric entry, or a date entry.  If you want a combination entry of letters and numbers, make sure to select alpha.  Only select numeric if your entry is all numbers.  The date function will add a calendar icon to the final database entry fields where you will be able to view a calendar as pictured below.

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Once you are done making your changes, be sure to select Save Field Options. 

Click on each field name in the list for an opportunity to edit the label, field size and other attributes.  Be sure to save the field options for each field and then save the table when you are done! 

Have questions?  Visit the GroveSite Help Desk section for its online relational database information. 

Start Creating Your Custom Online Database

Business might get so hectic that you forget that you’re hungry, you forget when you were supposed to leave the office, you forget what you did with that file you swore you put in a safe place, you forget where you parked…okay you get it.  We can get caught up in our day to day duties, but every business needs to make sure it keeps track of its most important asset – its customers!  GroveSite’s Online Database makes creating a secure, sharable customer database easily manageable and headache free.   Don't have an account yet?  Start by requesting a free trial.  

Let’s get started.

Initialize and Name Your New Web Database

Once you are logged in to your GroveSite Online Collaboration account, select Org Admin at the top, left hand side of your page.  You will now see a variety of functions—choose Manage Database under Org Options.  In order to design a custom database for your customer information, select New Table at the top of the screen.  Now that you are in the new table function, fill in the table name, the table label, any notes you wish to add to the table and select which, if any, table you would like to copy.  If you are looking to create a new database, I would suggest not copying any table at this point.  Be sure to click Save Table. 

 

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Define Each Field in the Online Database

The next step in creating your custom database is to define the fields you wish to have within your online database.  To do so, enter your field names and select the field type:

 

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Make sure you don't have any spaces in your field name.  If you do, you will receive the following error message: 

 Unable to save database table schema. The Field Name contains invalid characters. Valid characters are: A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

Save the table and exit the Org Admin View.  

Add Your New Online Database to Your GroveSite Workspace

• Turn on Edit
• Select New Page in the left navigation
• Select Customer Database
• On the next form, enter "Customer Database" for Navigation Text and Page Heading
• Be sure to click Save 

Now that you have successfully added the database page to your workspace, you are ready to go!  More information on creating and managing your fields once they have been created can be found in our GroveSite Online Collaboration and Database Software Usage Tips. 

 

Build an Online Database to Share a Contact List With Your Team

Does your business need a place to share key contact information: emergency contacts, trusted vendors, resources?  GroveSite’s Hosted Online Database  makes it easy!  Keep reading to find out how you can build an online database to maintain your business contacts. 

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Add the Easy Contact Management Ready-Built Template to Your Online Database

Once you are signed in to your GroveSite account, select turn on edit.  At the top of your left hand side navigation panel you will see an option to add a new page.  After selecting add a new page, determine what type of page you would like to add.  In this case, we will select the “Easy Contact Management” option listed under Database Page Types.  Select add page.  You will then be prompted to edit your page information.  Here is where you can determine where your page will be located, what it will be titled, whether or not you want any additional text on the page, and the security levels of the page.  Save your changes, and you should see your page link appear in the left hand navigation panel. 

Add or Import Contacts 

Now that you have the contact database created, you can either enter items into it record by record by selecting add a new contact or if you already have a contact list formatted for Excel, select import contact list, select the file you wish to import, and follow the instructions.  

Track History

The track history feature enables you to stay informed and up to date regarding interactions between you or your company and each contact.  This is a very simple way to track and record any customer service or customer relation interactions. 

The easy contact management is just one of GroveSite's ready-built templates.  Want to take advantage of this feature but don’t have a GroveSite account?  Request a free GroveSite Online Database trial here. 

DabbleDB Users - Welcome to GroveSite's easy online database and great support team

We know it is difficult to migrate from DabbleDB, an online database service you liked, to another service.  But I guarantee you'll like GroveSite! 

And we'll offer you FREE database migration assistance!  And we'll offer you Custom Rates, just call our sales team at 866-952-9880 or email sales@grovesite.com.

There.  That should lower your stress level a bit.

Can a relational web database be both easy to use and full-featured?  Both powerful and social?  Great for organizing lots of data, but still visually appealing? The answer is a resounding YES with GroveSite.

Review GroveSite's online database features including how to define fields, define views, import your data and enroll your far-flung team. 

Take a look at some of our demos:

• Help Desk Request Database:   Help a dispersed customer service team manage and fulfill requests.
• Shared Product Development Database with Images: Keep your local and overseas staff in sync and your products on-time


What are you waiting for?  Sign-up for a free trial, using the promotion code 'DABBLEDB.'

Not sure?  Call GroveSite at 866-952-9880 to discuss your application.