Database Reference
In-Depth Information
1. Choose File Manage Database and then if it's not active, click the Fields tab .
The Manage Database window appears, with the Lease Agreement table's fields in a
list.
UP TO SPEED: THESE TERMS ARE RELATIONAL
Before you dive into creating a relational database, you'll find it helpful to review some
vocabulary and learn a few new terms, as they apply to FileMaker:
▪ A database is a collection of tables, layouts, and other features that form an organized
system.
▪ A table holds information about one kind of thing, like the two tables in your database:
lease agreements and payments. Another database might have four tables: people,
products, invoices, and payments. Each table is like a single worksheet in a spreadsheet
program.
▪ A field holds one bit of information about something: lease duration, the date a payment
was made, the person's first or last name, the order date, the color of a product, or the
supplier's address. It's like a single column in a spreadsheet.
▪ A record is the collection of data (a set of fields) in a table that describes one unique
thing. It's like a single row in a spreadsheet.
▪ An attribute is an individual characteristic. For example, a bicycle might have several
attributes: color, size, style, and price. In a database, each of these attributes gets its own
field. Remember the term “individually significant” from the box on A Field = Individu-
ally Significant Data ?
▪ An entity is one kind of thing. If you track information about your customers, the
concept People is an entity; so is a Payment or an Invoice or an Invoice's Line Item. Re-
member, though, the individual thing itself isn't the entity. The person Steve Jobs isn't
an entity; neither is the November 2014 payment for a specific lease. If this is confusing
to you, don't get hung up on it. Focus on this: Each entity (People) gets one table in a
database and each instance of an entity (Steve Jobs) gets one record in that table.
▪ A key field uniquely identifies each record so that each related record knows which re-
cord it matches, like an Employee ID Number for a person. You'll create a key field us-
ing FileMaker's Auto-Enter Serial number option in this chapter and learn about their
finer points on Modification Values .
▪ A relationship describes how the records in two tables match each other ( Understanding
Relational Databases ) .
The most common relationships are called parent-child relationships . That's because one
parent record can have many children, but each child record can have only one parent. So in
your database, the Lease Agreement is the parent record and each Payment record is a child.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search