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Creating a database
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ILEMAKER PRO HELP 151
Creating a database
The first step in creating a database is to plan the content, structure, and design. Then, you create a
FileMaker Pro database file and define tables and fields.
Related topics
Deleting table definitions, field definitions, and data
About planning a database
A well-designed database promotes consistent data entry and retrieval, and reduces the existence
of duplicate data among the database tables. Relational database tables work together to ensure
that the correct data is available when you need it. It’s a good idea to plan a database on paper first.
Follow these general steps to plan a database:
1. Determine the purpose for your database, or the problem you want to solve. For example,
“to keep a list of my customers,” “to manage my inventory,” or “to grade my students.”
If other people will use the database, be sure to talk with them about the data they will need.
2. Consider the information you will store in your database. Typically, information falls into
broad categories. Accurately identifying these categories is critical to designing an efficient
database, because you will store different types and amounts of data in each category. For
example, a database intended to track sales has categories such as “customers,”
“products,” and “invoices.” A database that records student grades has categories such as
“students,” “classes,” and “assignments.”
3. After you’ve determined the broad categories, consider how these categories are related.
This can be done by writing simple sentences that describe how the categories interact,
such as, “customers order products” and “invoices record customers’ orders.” Each of these
pairs suggests a relationship between the data in one category and the data in the other
category.
4. After you’ve identified your categories of information, you are ready to organize your
database.
In database terminology, these categories of information are referred to as tables. Tables are
used to group data containing a common element or purpose. For example, you might use one
table to store names and addresses, while you use another table to store transaction details,
such as date of sale, item number, unit price, and so on.
Typically, databases are organized in one of three ways:
• A single table in a single file. Use a single table if you need to track data in one category
only, such as names and addresses.
• Multiple tables in a single file. Use multiple tables if your data is more complex, such as
customers, products, and invoices.
• Multiple tables in multiple files. Use multiple files if you need to share the same data
among several different database solutions. For example, you can store your tax rates
or shipping information in a separate file if you plan to use that information in more than
one solution.
Use relationships to share data between tables in the same file or with tables in external files.
Other database elements, such as scripts and access privileges, are stored at the file level;
therefore, some complex solutions will benefit from using multiple files.
Note FileMaker Pro is very flexible, so the decision to store data in a single file or in multiple
files is often one of packaging and convenience. Data stored in tables is very easily shared