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eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Dabble DB SAAS Database
by eWEEK Labs
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Creating a New Category
In Dabble DB parlance, tables are known as "categories." You begin your category building through cut and paste, importing from a Web source, or creating and populating fields by hand.
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The Data Set
I tested Dabble DB with NBA stats for my fantasy basketball league. The source I use comes formatted for fixed-width column import in Excel or Openoffice.org Calc.
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First Crack at an Import
I copied the data into Dabble DB, and I also tried importing via URL.
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Import Troubles
As I could see from the import preview, Dabble DB wasn't going to parse the fixed-width formatting correctly.
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Light Data Adjustment in Calc
I used OpenOffice.org Calc to whip my stats into shape for Dabble. I also could have written a script to strip out redundant spaces.
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Import Back on Track
Once massaged a bit, my data proved more palatable to Dabble DB, and I was able to check out (and correct, if needed) the service's automatic data type detection.
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Create a View
With my new category created, Dabble DB dropped me off at its view-creation interface, where all the real dabbling occurs.
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Derived Columns Made Easy
I clicked my way through the process of creating a bunch of derived columns that I needed in order to calculate my player rankings.
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Save Your View
Once you arrive at the views you desire, you must save before exporting your data in one of the RSS, Excel, CSV (comma-separated values), plain text or JSON formats that Dabble DB supports.
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Freshening Your Data
For future daily stats updates, I chose "new similar" from the Dabble DB import page to conduct an update operation using the same settings.
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Navigating Through Your Application
Dabble DB offers good facilities for sorting and filtering through your stored data, but the speed penalties associated with a Web application prompted me to use Dabble alongside my local spreadsheet, rather than in lieu of it.
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Editing Your Entries
I could step into my data to make changes, and Dabble's knack for sussing out list-based data types came in handy while editing data.
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Charting a Course
Dabble DB offers some facilities for visualizing your data. This bar chart is based on the player rating I used Dabble DB to help calculate.
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