A database enables you to store values. Those values can later be reused by modules or displayed – in parts or as a whole – in data views. Values can be written into databases by modules or uploaded from a Microsoft Excel sheet. From an Excel sheet they can be uploaded either when creating a new database or when changing records of an existing database.
A database is also the basis of a data view, which allows you to display some or all records in a database to your end users.
Databases as part of applications and environments
Databases are part of applications. Therefore, by default you can only connect action nodes, data views, and databases that are within the same application. If you want to use a database across applications, use Shared packages.
Also, databases keep environments separate, like the Test and the Live environment. This means that modules only read from and write to a database within their environments. For example, you can test your whole application in the Test environment without impacting the Live version of your database (or versions in customer environments). If you then publish the Live version, the database will start fresh and without any records from the Test environment.
Occasionally asked questions
To download data from a database, access the DATA MANAGEMENT tab in your database and click on the download icon in the top right corner. You can download your data as a .CSV file or as an .XLSX file. For more information, refer to the article on data management.
Related topics
- Set up a database, either by creating a blank one, or by uploading an Excel file.
- Read From a Database: Read into a module either single values, or multiple values as a collection.
- Write to a Database from a module.
- Delete From a Database via a module.
- View your data, download and import it with data management.
- Enable the change tracker to monitor changes made to database (records) by authors and end users.
- Set up a data view to display some or all of the data in your database.
- Delete a database or move it to another application.
- Delete data from a database.
- Learn how to assign answer options to categories using databases in this tutorial.