Using Glom as an Operator

To open an existing Glom document, either open that document from the File Manager, or choose Glom from the Applications menu, and then choose the document when asked. Glom will ask you for a user name and password to access the database. Your administrator will provide your user name and password.

When you open an existing document, Glom will be in Operator user level. This user level allows you to find and edit records, but does not allow you to change the fundamental structure of the database.

3.1. Navigation

Each database has several tables. To look at a different table, choose Tables from the Navigate menu. Then double-click on the table, or select it and click the Open button.

Figure 3Navigating to a Table

3.2. Viewing and Entering Data

When in Data Mode, you can view or enter information in either the List or Details view.

3.2.1. The List View

The List view shows many records at once and usually shows only the most important fields.

When you enter data into a field it will be saved into the database immediately after you finish editing the field. If it is a date or time field then the data format will be checked for you.

To create a new record just click the New button, or start typing into a field in the last empty row. A new record row will be created with blank fields for you to fill in.

Figure 4The List View

To sort the records just click on a column header. For instance, you could might click on a date column to list invoices in order of their date, and click again to list them in reverse order.

3.2.2. The Details View

The details view shows only one record and usually shows all the fields arranged suitably.

When you enter data into a field it will be saved into the database immediately after you finish editing the field. If it is a date or time field then the data format will be checked for you.

To create a new record just click the New button. A new record will be created with blank fields for you to fill in.

Figure 5The Details View

3.3. Finding Data

Choose Find Mode from the Mode menu. The fields in the List and Details views will now be empty, and a Find button will appear at the bottom of the window.

Enter information, or part of the information, into a field to find records with that information in that field. For instance, enter Jim into a name field to find records with "Jim" or "Jimmy" in the name.

When you press the Find button, Glom will search for records and then display them. If only one record is found then it will show you that record in the Details view. If several records are found then it will show you those records in the List view.

3.4. Printing Reports

If your database developer has defined some reports for a table then you will seem them listed in the Reports menu. Just choose the report from the menu to create the report. If you have previously performed a search then the report will contain only the currently-found data. Otherwise it will contain all data in the current report. Remember that each table has its own reports so you may need to switch to the relevant table to use a particular report.

Figure 6A report