Additional Instructions

Overview

Additional Instructions For Important Tasks

WebDataPro Discontinued in iSchool Courses
WebDataPro has been discontinued as a software tool in iSchool courses, effective June 2022. The tutorials are being maintained here for benefit of INFO 289 e-Portfolio students who may wish to use materials created using WebDataPro as evidence.

Covers additional tasks including: validation lists, displaying all records, printing out the structure, exporting records, backing up, batch importing, and uploading images.

DISPLAYING ALL RECORDS IN YOUR DATABASE

1. Go to the search page URL for your database (From the administration page, select “Manage Layouts,” select your layout, and choose “Search Using Selected Layout.”). Leave all of the search fields blank and click on the Search button.

Search Page

2. This will generate a listing of all records in the database.

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PRINTING OUT YOUR DATABASE STRUCTURE

1. From the main administration page, click on “Manage Table Configurations“.

2. Click on the button labeled “Print Table Layouts“.

3. This will print out a summary of your table structure. You can then save that information using various methods, including saving the page as a PDF file (if your computer supports that option), or copying the structure and pasting it into a text document.

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EXPORTING YOUR DATABASE RECORDS

1. From the main administration page, click on “Manage Records“. Select the table in question and click on the button labeled “Go to Selected Table“.

2. Leave all fields blank and click on the button labeled “Search/modify“. This will display all of your records in a column format.

3. At the bottom of the page, locate the item labeled “Export found records…“.

Modify Delete Records

4. On the delimiter menu, select what delimiter you would like to use (comma, tab, pipe, or MS Excel). The default delimiter is Comma. In general, we recommend that you use the Comma delimiter.

5. After selecting the delimiter, click on the button labeled “Export Records“. Your delimited records will be displayed as text in your Web browser. Save this as a text file to your computer. Be sure to choose a name for the text file that is relevant to you, and be sure to add a “.csv” file extension (for example, LastName_202_Assignment1.csv). Included below are instructions for common Web browsers:

  • Internet Explorer: File > Save As > Save As type > Text File (*.txt)
  • Firefox: Save Page As > Text Document
  • Safari: File > Save As > Format > Page Source

For Chrome, please use the following procedure. This procedure will also work with any other Web browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc):

  • Select All > Copy > Open a text editor (such as Notepad or TextEdit) > Paste > Save file.

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BACKING UP YOUR DATABASE

1. From the main administration page, click on “Manage Records“.

2. At the bottom of the page, click on the link labeled “Back-up the database“.

Backup Database

3. Make sure that the “Include DROP TABLE” checkbox is selected and then click on the button labeled “Backup Database“.

Backup Database

4. The backup will appear as text in your Web browser. Save this as a text file to your computer. Be sure to choose a name for the text file that is relevant to you, and be sure to add a “.txt” file extension (for example, LastName_202_Assignment1.txt). Included below are instructions for common Web browsers:

  • Internet Explorer: File > Save As > Save As type > Text File (*.txt)
  • Firefox: Save Page As > Text Document
  • Safari: File > Save As > Format > Page Source

For Chrome, please use the following procedure. This procedure will also work with any other Web browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc):

  • Select All > Copy > Open a text editor (such as Notepad or TextEdit) > Paste > Save file.

IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT use the Restore Database operation without first consulting with Abigail Laufer. The Restore operation will wipe out your current database, so you need to be VERY careful. This option is only to be used in very specific, very limited situations.

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BATCH IMPORTING RECORDS

PLEASE NOTE that this option is for advanced users only. You must have some basic understanding of working with comma-delimited (CSV) files. Students who use this option do so at their own risk. The iSchool cannot help you recover from any mishaps due to incorrectly formatted CSV files. Again, use of this feature is AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1. From the main administration page, click on “Manage Records“.

2. Select the table in question and click on the button labeled “Go to Selected Table“.

3. Click on the button labeled “Import Records”.

4. Follow the instructions for importing a delimited text file.

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IMAGE UPLOAD

Fields which accept a file upload are supported, however, we recommend that you use this option SPARINGLY. NOTE: We will be closely monitoring use of this feature, and if this feature is abused in any way, we will be discontinuing it and removing all previously uploaded files.

When creating a field, select the Display Type labeled “Upload” (Option #5). Enter the maximum file size for the upload. The default of 500 KB should be sufficient in most cases. Enter the allowed file types. The default is GIF and JPG, however, you can modify to include other types of files, such as PNG, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, etc). And select whether this is a required field.

Next, use “Manage Layouts” to add that new field to your search/query page. On the search/query page, that field will show up as a “Choose File” button which allows the user to upload a file which will be stored as part of that database record.

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NAVIGATION CONTROLS

In order to control the number of result records per page, or to change the navigation format from one results page to the other (e.g. ‘go to page’, ‘previous/next’):

  • Go to Manage Layouts
  • Select layout and click ‘edit selected layout’
  • Scroll down to the Navigation Controls section and select your preferences

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