| Using MaxBase is actually quite simple: the Graphical User Interface, with its icons, menus and toolbars lets you work the way you are already accustomed to. Clicking on the buttons above you can learn more about MaxBase and its components. It is also important, however, to understand the role of the various MaxBase subsystems and the jargon used to describe them in order to understand how to put them effectively to work, therefore if you are a new user please read on. Basic Concepts and Jargon Information is organized in database tables, which in turn are composed by fields and records. A field is a piece of information that needs to be entered for each record, like in the following example: |
Name | Surname
John | Doe
| Name and Surname are the fields of this database table, while "John Doe" is a record. The main application of this package is MaxBase, and its purpose is to serve both as a database table editor -- creating, deleting, modifying the tables structure, searching and entering data -- and as a launchpad for other applications that let you perform other activites related to the database tables (printing, defining forms, converting data between file formats..). We have just introduced forms, but what are them actually? A MaxBase form is much like any paper form you have already used in your life: there are one or several pages, filled with components that will represent the actual data. Let's see an example of MaxBase form:
| You can customize every part of your forms -- colors, fonts, number of pages, size, etc and you can do it with the help of VFD, the Visual Form Designer. After you have created your table, defined one or more forms for it and entered some data, you may have the need to share or print it. There are several useful applications that will help you with these tasks: MERGe is the report generator (it can print both line view and form view reports), then you have the conversion utilities that are used to import and export tables from/to other database formats and the database server that allows people to access your data from remote computers. Information about the database server can be found in the Administrator's Guide section. Warning: if you are a first time user, you may want to get acquainted with simpler tasks like creating tables and populating them before trying to share your databases on the network. Morevoer, if your computer is on a Local Area Network (LAN), you may have to contact your network administrator to get the permission to do it.