The system of Categories in Dabble allows you to create Entries that share the same type of data. Each category of entry has the same Fields so that, for example, each “Person” entry has a name, address and telephone number, or each “Event” entry has a date and location.

To extend this functionality, Dabble allows you to put an entry in more than one category. Such an entry will have all of the fields from all of the categories to which it belongs. The advantage of this can be shown by example:

Let’s suppose you have an application to manage personnel records in a company.

Every person at the company has some basic information that they share — a name, some contact information, a birthday, for example. You might have these fields in the “Person” category.

But not every person at the company has the same role. Some people might be standard employees who report to a supervisor and who work on a particular project. Other people are managers who supervise a set of employees. You can create two new categories — “Employee” and “Manager” and add specific fields relevant to each one. The “Employee” category might have a field called “Boss” which links to a person in the “Manager” category, and another field called “Projects” which lists project entries (in a separate “Project” category). The “Manager” category on the other hand might have a field called “Supervises” containing a list of employees.

By using multiple categories, you ensure that only fields relevant to a particular entry are available. To put it another way, using multiple categories allows your entries to wear different “hats” according to their roles.

For new entries created manually (not by importing), you can ensure that they are assigned into multiple categories by creating a default view for one category that also filters for the additional category or categories. Entries created from such a view will always be in both (or all) categories that are specified as filters.