Index | Organising data

Organising data

Tables

Your data are organised as uniform data records. The uniform nature of the records makes it possible to display such records as table rows in a tabular layout. Tables can contain any number of records.

The columns of each row are comprised of the individual attributes of a record. To ensure that all cells of a column are treated equally, the underlying attribute must share the same data type across all records.

Collections

Collections are a way to organise your tables hierarchically. Think of tables as files that contain your actual data, and think of collections as directories/folders that contain these files. Naturally, a collection allows you to nest other collections. Any table that is not created as part of a collection resides in the top-level collection. Once created, both tables and collections can be freely moved to other collections.

Managing tables & collection

To manage your tables, navigate to the table management view, which is denoted by Index, the left-most breadcrumb in the navigation bar. The table management view lists all your tables and collections in alphabetical order. Collections can be collapsed and opened using the downward and rightward facing arrow in the top-left corner of each collection, respectively.

To switch to the table view of a table, click the name of a table in the list.

Creation

In the management view, you can create a new table via the button called Add table, and you can create a new collection via the button called Add collection. Both require you to specify a name for the new item. Notice that table names must be unique, i. e. two tables must not share the same name. Collections do not have any restrictions in terms of naming.

You also need to specify in which collection you want to create the new table or collection. For tables, you need to specify the schema that models the structure of the raw data of your table. Pick a schema from the list of schemata listed below the input field for the table name. Once a table has been created, you can customise its schema according to your needs.

Editing

You can edit a table or collection via the cog wheel icon on the right-hand side of an item listed in the management view. This lets you to move the respective table or collection to a different collection. You can use the editing form to change the name of a collection, but not the name of a table, which is fixed once it has been chosen.

Deletion

You can delete a table or collection via the same icon. If you delete a collection, all tables and collections currently nested in it will be moved to the top-level collection.

If you delete a table all the data stored in it will be irrecoverably erased. You cannot undo this action.

Export & import

You can export any table via the drop-down menu opened via the cog wheel icon. This will export your data records as a series of JSON file, one with 100 rows each.

You can import files thus exported via the drop-down menu opened via the cog wheel icon. All imported records will be assigned new unique IDs to prevent them from overwriting any existing records. To import data into a table, the keys used in the data records of the JSON must match the schema of the original table used for exporting it.