Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-05-11)

36

The label for the DateAcquired field is overlapping the Genre field

Use the toolbar at the bottom of the screen to save and navigate

records in a form

How I use databases

How do you use databases? Please let us know:

[email protected]

My DVD collection is in disarray, but my recipes are neatly typed

and categorised, allowing me to search by cooking time or

ingredients when lacking inspiration. I haven’t quite got as far as

logging when each recipe was used: nobody needs to get that

technical when making sure they have a balanced diet!

Nik Rawlinson

3

Design a form

Click ‘Forms’ in the sidebar,

followed by ‘Use Wizard to

Create Form...’. On the first screen of

the Form Wizard, click FilmTitle, then

press Shift while clicking Stars to select

everything aside from ID (because the ID

field is only relevant to the database itself,

not you as a user). Click > to move your

selection to the ‘Fields in the form’ box,

then click Next twice.

Click the second option in the

‘Arrangement of the main form section’.

This arranges your fields in a column,

with the Stars block to the right of the

FilmTitle, and a field name above each

box. Click Next. Leave ‘The form is to

display all data’ selected, click Next, then

choose your preferred colour scheme (we

like Bright Blue, with the Field Border

option set to ‘No border’, as shown in the

screenshots below).

Click ‘Next’, then select ‘Modify the

form’ and click Finish. You might want to

tweak the form if, as was our experience,

some of the labels and fields overlap each

other. You can see this in our screenshot

(below left), where the DateAcquired

field is overlapping the Genre field.

You can fix this by clicking the

misaligned object and dragging it to its

new position. If you can’t get it exactly

where you want it, right-click the

misbehaving object, choose ‘Position and

Size’ from the menu, then choose your

positions using the dropdown menus

beneath ‘Position’. You might need to

use a bit of trial and error to get things

exactly aligned.

When you’ve finished, press Ctrl+W to

close the window, then click Yes when

asked if you want to save your changes.

4

Enter your first record

You’re now ready to start logging

your DVDs. Double-click the

form you’ve just designed to open it for

use, rather than editing.

Now fill in the fields, using DD/MM/

YY style for the DateAcquired field;

providing a cinema age rating like U,

PG, 15 and so on for Rating; specifying

the running time in minutes in the

Length field; and devising your own

score out of five for the Stars field. When

you’ve finished, click the save icon on

the toolbar at the bottom (^1 in our

screenshot below), not the top. Then, if

Genre, FilmTitle and DateAcquired^2.

Click the > button^3 and your selection

will be added to the ‘Selected fields’ box.

It doesn’t really matter which order

they’re in, as you can arrange fields in

your form or report, but it makes sense

to reorder them now so they’re more

logically arranged in the table. Click

‘FilmTitle’, then keep clicking the up-

arrow button until it’s at the top of the

list. Click ‘Notes’ and use the down-arrow

button to move it to the bottom.

Click ‘Finish’ and Base will show

your empty table. You’ll notice that an

extra field, called ID, has been added

alongside your selection. This will hold

the unique identifier for each record

which, in its current configuration, you’ll

need to enter yourself. It makes more

sense if Base does this for you, so close

this window to return to the Base home

screen, where your new DVD-Collection

table will appear in the Tables panel.

Right-click it, then select ‘Edit...’.

Click ‘ID’ in the Field Name column,

then, in the Field Properties panel

below, click the dropdown menu beside

AutoValue and select Yes.

Now click ‘Text [VARCHAR]’ in the

column to the right of Length, and pick

‘Integer [INTEGER]’ from the menu. You

need to make this change so that film

lengths, which you’ll enter in minutes

without the letter ‘m’ at the end, can be

treated as a number for sorting.

Finally, add a new field: click in the

empty box below Notes, still in the Field

Name column, then type Stars. Click

‘Text [VARCHAR]’ in the Field Type

column beside it, and pick ‘Small Integer

[SMALLINT]’ from the menu. Press Ctrl+S

to save your changes, then close the

window.

(^32)
11 – 24 May 2022 • Issue 631
1