About Data Tables

Data tables are one of the most flexible features in SiteMaker. They allow you to build many customized peices to your site that are not easily accomplished with the other section types. Data tables allow you to store data on your site. Your users can then seach this data to get information they need. A data table is basically a database that has fields and records. The data access section is a section that access these records. You can have more than one data access section tied to a data table. Here are some examples of how we uses data tables are used in our school system.

• SiteMaker News is a blog. Each blog entry is a field in the data table. The data access section available to the public lists all blog entries from newest to oldest. Clicking an entry opens it so you can read the whole thing. Each entry also has a field for files to be attached.
• The School System News is a modified blog. One big defference is a field called "Published." This field is a check box (true/false). Only records where Published is checked (true) are displayed to the public. additionally, there is a condition set where publication of an entry can be post dated so that news can be added to the site at any time but not be displayed until a set time.
• The School System Calendar is another data table. Each event on our calendar is a record in the data table. A conditioin was set on this table to only display events after the current date (upcoming events). Old events (those before the current date) are inaccessible to the public.
• The Personnel Directory is also a data table. Accessing this table presents a search field where one can look up people by name, position, or school. This directory has one data access section designed for each school to use as an embedded section on the school's web site. These "school sections" use a default search to restrict access to just those people assigned to that school.
  
• Our job postings (certified postions | classified positions) share one data table. Each record is a job posting and is only displayed when the current date is between the records begin posting date and end posting date. There is also a checkbox to differentiate between certified and classified positions.

Data Table Packages

Data tables and their associated access sections can be packaged. You can upload on of these packages to your site and install it. Doing so saves you all the setup work as described here. More information can be found on the SiteMaker Support site.

Teaching by Example

The best way to teach the basics about data tables is to build an example and document the process. This example will be a data table that hold information about the US States. This will be a simple example and does not cover having a relationship between two or more tables or customizing the data access template.