This video defines what a database is and details its important roles in the storing and retrieval of your data.
- [Instructor] Before we begin working with FileMaker, it's important to understand what a database actually is. Now, the definition of a database is a collection of like information with underlying attributes. You're probably already familiar with databases, and you may not even know it. You've probably seen databases in the form of things like contacts on your computer, where one record equals one individual whose information you're trying to store. And in this case, the like information that you're storing would be different individuals' in a different context, and the underlying attributes are actually things like phone numbers, email, instant message, address, street address, and that type of thing.
You're always probably familiar with databases from your web experiences. For example, Lynda.com is just a huge database system. It allows you to search on courses. So what are the roles of a database? The roles are actually twofold. So first, the database actually stores the data. This way all of your data lives together in one place. But in addition to storing the data, it also contains information on how to identify the data, along with the storage mechanism. You're probably somewhat familiar with this if you've used desktop databases, or things like spreadsheets.
Let's take a look at a spreadsheet here. We see that in this case, this spreadsheet is storing individuals, or let's call them customers, where each piece of information that's stored in the spreadsheet is an attribute. For example, you see we have different attributes like, first name, last name, and start date. These are all things that we call attributes of a customer. You'll also notice that when we look at the spreadsheet, the information's not only just organizing columns, but also in rows. Each row represents an iteration of what we're storing in this spreadsheet. So what we're looking at are examples of a place where we can store data, we see that we've got four different records of customer information that we're storing, but then the columns, like first name, last name, and start date actually describe what the data is that's being stored.
So, we accomplish both of those things in a spreadsheet. Now as we move forward talking about FileMaker, our nomenclature changes just a bit. So instead of rows, like you see here with row two, we call those records in FileMaker. And instead of these columns, or attributes, we call those fields in FileMaker. And we'll expand upon both of those topics as we move forward in this course. Now although both FileMaker and spreadsheets have these same types of roles in common, you'll see that FileMaker has some very distinct advantages over storing your data in spreadsheets that we'll evaluate in the next movie.
Author
Released
5/9/2017- Getting going with starter solutions
- Creating relationships in FileMaker
- Defining fields
- Designing user interfaces with layouts
- Working with records
- Finding and sorting data
- Building reports
- Understanding calculations
- Automating using Scripts
- What's new in FileMaker version 16
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Learning FileMaker Go 16
with Cris Ippolite1h 16m Beginner
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Introduction
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Welcome1m 1s
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Touring the Launch Center3m 54s
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Using the exercise files1m 8s
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1. Getting Started
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What is a database?2m 23s
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How FileMaker works6m 59s
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Essential preferences2m 41s
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2. FileMaker App Creation Essentials
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3. Creating Tables
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4. Creating Relationships
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What are key fields?5m 17s
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5. Working with Fields
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Understanding field types7m 56s
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Defining fields6m 48s
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Adding fields to layouts4m 25s
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Field options: Auto enter4m 34s
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Field options: Validation6m 42s
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6. Working with Container Fields
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7. Working with Records
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8. Importing and Exporting
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Importing data7m 7s
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Exporting data4m 9s
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9. Creating Layouts
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What is a layout?3m 41s
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Working with layout themes8m 46s
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10. Working with Layouts
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Understanding layout parts6m 48s
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Previewing the inspector1m 48s
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Manage layouts window5m 18s
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11. Formatting Layout Objects
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Applying themes to layouts1m 28s
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Applying screen stencils6m 13s
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Gradients2m 6s
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Layout object states6m 2s
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Access control behavior1m 59s
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Popovers in your layouts6m 18s
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Setting the tab order3m 23s
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12. Finding Data
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New requests in find mode4m 25s
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Search operators4m 29s
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13. Sorting Data
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Sorting with single criteria3m 33s
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Sorting with related fields1m 45s
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Sorting using custom values2m 13s
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Sorting using buttons2m 36s
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14. Value Lists
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15. Printing and Saving
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Printing merge letters3m 54s
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Saving as PDF or Excel2m 23s
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16. Reports
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Creating subsummary reports5m 28s
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Adding charts to reports5m 11s
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17. Calculation Essentials
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What are calculations?2m 46s
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Number functions4m 29s
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Date and time functions4m 49s
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Text functions11m 59s
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Get functions2m 52s
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Logic functions10m 19s
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18. Script Essentials
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Touring the Script workspace4m 11s
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Creating multiline scripts6m 58s
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19. Script Triggers
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Introducing script triggers1m 10s
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Using object-based triggers10m 30s
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Using layout-based triggers6m 51s
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20. New Features in FileMaker 16 Platform
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Layout objects window8m 5s
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Card window style6m 14s
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Support for JSON8m 38s
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Working with JSON5m 19s
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Conclusion
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Next steps1m 14s
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Video: What is a database?