Pre-database advice

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1

Can anyone advise me BEFORE I jump into creating a database and becoming frustrated? It would be a big help to get advice before doing anything. For instance:
Combat Command Database:
This database records the components of a group, not the individuals, though that would come later (think of the individuals as members). So, a user would select from checkboxes that will comprise the components of a battle group, once done, click submit. There would therefore be a summary page showing the components of each group the user could click through using previous next buttons.
Checkboxes would be for army components:
Check the item desired and enter the quantity desired: Stuart Light Tanks, Sherman Tanks, Self-propelled howitzer tank, SP halftrack, 37mm Antitank guns, etc. Even down to how many stands of infantry in the group and what kind: Rifle, Heavy Weapons, LMHeavy Mortar teams, jeeps, trucks etc. Then I suppose there’d also be a field for history which would be just text, and a field for commander name and even the name of this unit, e.g. Kelly’s Heroes.

2

Hi,

I think that the easiest way to go over the data later will be to break it down to as small pieces as possible.
Maybe even go with a few databases approach.
First of all, I think you should have a boolean field for every possible unit, and the commander:
COMMANDER (text) Stuart Light Tanks (boolean) Sherman Tanks(boolean)
etc.

This way, the database itself defines the ‘History’, as you can search by commander, time created etc.

This will make is easier for you to answer questions like ‘How many time had commander Keen select a Sherman tank’.

Another database might be a ‘Battles’ database:
BATTLE (text) COMMANDER1 (text? ref to commander database record?) ARMY1 (ref to army from the previous database) COMMANDER2 (text? ref?) ARMY2 (ref) LOCATION

And some other fields.

If you do need a commanders database, it should be pretty straight forward:
NAME RANK CITY …

Hope this will help you get started.

Liran.

3

Thanks. Dove into it and its ok for both Axis and Allied powers. Next question: Can I put hyperlinks in the heading titles of tables e.g. Tiger tank leads to website page about tigers?

4

Nope…
You can, however, hide the heading of table and create your own using buttons.

Liran.

5

AHHH… yes. . good idea. Ok now that I have your attention: next thing: Word Wrap. Isnt a text element hooked to a DB supposed to word wrap on the text box? Am I missing something? Note this is a data entry text box so the user can both read the existing text and click to enter the text box and start changing the text then clicking the submit button. BTW I did discover that the text box does have a configurable limit setting for characters to enter by the user.

6

Text auto break lines (keeps width).
If you want to limit the text element (not the input) to a certain number of characters (say 30) , use code:

$w.onReady(function(){
    const numberOfChars = 30; 
    const fullText = $w('#text1').text; 
    $w('#text1').text = fullText.substring(0, numberOfChars);
});

Oh, and a small request:
If you have new questions, please post them in a new thread so other people can use them easily :slight_smile:
Thanks,
Liran.

7

Ok thanks. But when you show a table, how do you limit the amount of text showing in a cell?