Edit entry

In Dabble DB, each of your Applications is made up of Entries. To work with your entries, you create Views to focus your attention on a particular set of data at once. To edit the data or to see the details of one specific entry, simply click one of the entries in the view (click the link in the left-most Entries column) to open the entry editor.

The entry editor appears below the view.

The top bar includes links to delete the entry, to print the entry and to close the form (to close the entry editor).

The area below the top bar shows the Fields and values that are stored for the entry. If you have access to change data, you can edit the field values.

The left-most column shows the names of the fields. The adjacent column shows the field values.

Clicking the name of any field will open a menu with several choices:

• Move: changes the position the field appears on the entry editor.

• Merge field into: allows you to merge one field with another.

• Split field… allows you to split one field into two.

• Configure… loads the Field configuration to allow you to edit how the field works and what type of field value it contains

• Delete removes the field (and all data in the field) from all entries that have it.

For fields containing Text values, Number values, Money values, Date and time values or Duration values, the value will be shown in a text box that you can edit by clicking in the box and typing.

For fields containing Choice values or Dabble user values, the value will be shown in a drop-down selector. Click it to see the choices and select a new value.

For fields containing Attachments, if a file has been uploaded, it will be shown as a link (and images are shown inline). Click the small delete button to remove the file. You can only upload a new file if there isn’t one currently. To upload the file, click the Select file button and choose a file from your computer. The file will begin uploading once you save the entry.

For fields containing a Link to entry or List of entries, the entry/entries will be shown as links. Clicking a link will take you to that entry. To remove a link, click the small delete button (X) beside the link. Link to entry fields can only have one entry. To change it, remove the existing entry first. List of entries fields can have multiple entries. To add another, click Add Entry to choose from existing entries in the application or click Add New to create a new entry.

The way you select an entry for a link or list field depends on how many entries there are to choose from:

• If there are 30 or fewer entries in the chosen category, they will be shown in a drop-down menu. Select the one you want.
• If there are more than 30 entries, there will be a search box. Type part or all of the name of the entry you want to add. A drop-down menu will appear showing possible matches — select the one you want.

To be safe, you should always click the Save changes button to save your work. In particular, changes to text and numbers will not be saved until you do this. As a shortcut, you can also type Alt-S (Windows) or Ctrl-S (Mac OS X).

There are also several other buttons you can click to save time:

• Save and close to save your changes and close the entry editor. Shortcut key: Alt-C (Windows) or Ctrl-C (OS X).

• Save and view next to save your changes and switch to editing the next consecutive entry in the view. Shortcut key: Alt-N (Windows) or Ctrl-N (OS X).

• Save and add another to save your changes and immediately create a New entry of the same type. Shortcut key: Alt-A (Windows) or Ctrl-A (OS X).

If you have followed a link from a List of entries, you can also click Save and return to save changes and return to the original entry.

If you save a change that you wish to undo, you can click Undo or type Alt-Z (Windows) or Ctrl-Z (OS X).

For each field, you will often see one, two or three small adjacent buttons. Which buttons are available depends on the circumstances.

• The filter button is shown next to each field value if the value is not blank. Click this to add a filter to the view limiting the view to entries that have that particular field value.

• If a field has not been added to the view as a column, you can click the column button (shown next to each field value or above for list of entries fields) to do so.

• For Date and time values, a calendar button is shown next the field value. Click it to switch to Calendar view. The adjacent field’s values will be represented as events on the calendar.

Below the fields in the entry, there is one or more links to add new fields. Because fields are tied to Categories, a link will be shown for each category that the entry belongs to. To add a field, decide which category you want to add it to, and click the appropriate link.

On the right of the links to add fields is a link, Add category… to select additional categories for the entry (if you have other categories available). If the current entry is in more than one category, you can also click Remove category… to remove one of the categories. (You cannot remove the category if there is only one.) See multiple categories for more information.