8.2 Tables

8.2.1 Add a table

8.2.2 View a table

8.2.3 Import a table

8.2.4 Standard actions on a table

8.2.5 Delete a table

8.2.1 Add a table

To add a relational database table to a relational database, click  Add  |   Table  . This will take you to a form, similar to the one for adding a document or folder, requesting a name for the new table.

8.2.2 View a table

A table is viewed by clicking on its name or on the icon in the database view - a typical database table is shown in Figure 8.2-1:

Figure 8.2-1: A relational database table

For a table containing few records, all the records will be displayed. Larger tables will be split into several pages to reduce the volume of information to be processed whenever the page is refreshed. The total number of records in the table is always displayed towards the top of the page. If the user has not selected to use JavaScript (see section 4.2 - User Preferences), these pages can be traversed using "previous" and "next" buttons. With JavaScript turned on, any page number can be selected directly from a list box. Note that for a large database, this will make it considerably faster to move between the pages of the database.

8.2.3 Import a table

Rather than create a new database table from nothing, an existing "Business Collaborator Table" or a comma separated list (CSV file - comma separated values file) can be imported. As most database packages and many other applications, such as Microsoft Excel, can export their table data as comma separated lists, this can be a very quick method of entering large volumes of data which are already stored electronically in another format. For more information on how to export a Business Collaborator table, see section 8.7.5 - Export a Table.

In the database view, select  View/Change  |  Import Table  . Browse through the file hierarchy on the local hard disk to find the file to import and select the format of the table to be imported. If the file is a comma separated list (.csv file) and the first row of data is to be used for the field names, this can be specified by checking the box provided. An alternative name for the table can also be specified.

8.2.4 Standard actions on a table

A relational database table can be renamed or its description edited in the same way that a document can be modified. They can also be copied and pasted.

8.2.5 Delete a table

To delete a table, select the table in the database view and click  Selected  |  Delete  . The table will be moved to the waste bin from where it can be undeleted or destroyed. A table cannot be deleted if any of its tables has a relation linking the table to another. The relation must be deleted first.