Raw Data Tables

Each of the Raw Data Tables selections of the Maintenance menu will open a dialog with a grid showing one of the complete data tables.  If you've been using the system for awhile, be sure you have some time to wait if you open the Reservation or Transactions tables, as these can be large and slow to open.  These dialogs can only be accessed by an operator with Administrator access.

In general, these data table functions should be used only by someone who is very familiar with the database, because they contain some internal fields that aren't normally seen and major damage can be done if things are changed or records deleted.  On the other hand, this is the only place that some database "corrections" can be done.  This manual won't cover any specifics about this, but access to these tables may be required when calling for support.  Each table has an Allow Editing of Fields check box, which is disabled by default, so that the tables can be browsed without worry.  

That said, there are some good uses for the data tables for certain tasks.

Uses for the Data Tables

One potential use for the data tables is to print a list of customers, for instance.  You need to use caution because the grid printout can be very large and will result in a report several pages "wide" as well as "tall".  You can minimize the printing by using the Print Preview to figure out which pages are of interest.  Then when you Print you can enter the start and end pages.  If you need pages that are not in continuous range, like 1, 5, and 9, then you need to do three separate Print operations with the start and end pages both set to 1, then both set to 5, then both set to 9.

The grid on data table dialogs can be sorted by any column by clicking on the column header.  This can make them potentially useful for finding a particular record, since all fields are available to sort by.  You can also Export any table as a CSV file and open it in another program like Excel for manipulation.

The Sites data table can be very useful if you are setting up your sites and have a lot of site information to enter.  Because the grids used here allow you to copy many fields at a time, and make many copies of a field, it can dramatically speed up the process.  For instance, it can take only a few seconds to set hundreds of Site Type fields to the same value.

You may have noticed that the Parks table is not represented in the Raw Data Tables menu. This is because the Parks setup requires special handling due to the authorization codes, and cannot be manually edited.

Aside from the uses mentioned above, no changes to data tables should be attempted without consulting with the Cottonwood Software support staff first.

Working with Data Tables

The Data Tables dialogs themselves are very similar to the Pick List dialogs.  There is a grid for the table with one record in each row.  The controls are the same as well, except that only the Sites table has the Move Up and Move Down buttons (records in the other tables have no reason to be moved).  

On the right side is a View Fields button -- this can be used to show all fields of a single record in a list, along with the internal time-last-changed information (for diagnostic purposes).  This function can be also handy if the record has many fields and you want a snapshot of it, e.g. for printing or exporting.  No changes can be made in this view.  Note that the time-last-changed is new as of version 10, and also is not set the first time a non-blank value is set (it's only used to synchronize subsequent value changes) -- so don't be surprised to see this empty for most fields.

You will also see a check box on some of them: Show Links as Index values.  When this is selected, any fields that use relation links to other tables (for instance the Site field in Reservations) will show the numeric index value instead of the human-readable form (e.g. the site name).  This is for troubleshooting purposes only.

Warning -- Remember that the Sites table and the Operators table are the only ones that are reasonably safe to edit here.  The other tables are generated by the software and should only be edited by an expert.

Warning -- There is no Cancel button -- any change you make to the tables is instant and permanent.  This also applies to Deleting records.

Editing data tables is basically the same as for pick lists.  One thing that can be useful, particularly on the Sites table, is the multi-copy operations.  You can do two different kinds of multi-cell copying that can be useful.  

Copying one value to multiple cells

This can be used to copy a cell to multiple cells in a column, multiple cells in a row, or a combination (multiple rows and columns in a rectangle).

1. Highlight one cell to copy (click on it once, it should change to a dark blue background).  

2. Press Ctrl-C (or Ctrl-Insert) to copy that cell to the Windows clipboard.

3. Move the cursor to (or click on) the upper left cell you want to paste to so all are highlighted.

4. Use Shift-arrows to move to (or Shift-click on) the lower right cell you want to paste into.

5. Press Ctrl-V (or Shift-Insert) to paste the value into all highlighted cells.

Note that if it doesn't work, it may be that one or more cells in the range does not accept the copied text as a valid value.  (Cell validation is done each time you change a cell, which could abort the entire paste operation.)  Also make sure you have the Allow Editing of Fields box checked.

Copying multiple cells at once

This allows you to highlight a range of cells in a row or column or rectangle and copy them all to another location as a group.  It can only make one copy of the cells at a time, however (e.g. you can't highlight one column and copy it to multiple columns at once).

1. Highlight the upper left cell to copy (click on it once).  

2. Move the cursor to (or click on) the lower right cell to copy, so cells all are highlighted.

3. Press Ctrl-C (or Ctrl-Insert) to copy that cell to the Windows clipboard.

4. Click on the destination cell for the upper left cell copied.

5. Press Ctrl-V (or Shift-Insert) to paste all of the copied cells as a group.

Note that the copied cells are still on the clipboard after the paste, so if you need to paste multiple groups then you can repeat steps 4 and 5 over and over as needed.  This is useful for copying many fields in one record to multiple other records.