Structuring data/schema

Tips on how to structure your data.

It is important to structure your data and schema in a way that allows you to use your data for efficient workflows, analysis the data, and make decisions based on these analyses. Understanding what you want your data to do and how it will be used or viewed will help you decide how to structure the information.

Important points to remember when creating your schema or designing your data grid

Clear and consistent field names

When naming a field it is important it makes sense to you and anyone else who will be interacting with the data. For example, when creating linked fields it is important to state where this field is coming from.

Know the relationships

Using linked fields allows you to pull in other information from the linked table. Here naming is especially important to understand what table links are populating from.

Understand what you want users to see

If users should only be seeing information related to them or their related records, they need to be attached to those records with the appropriate permission on the tables. When you understand what is visible to different users, your connections on the tables are clear.

Have an idea of information you are collecting

Streamline the fields needed in your app. If you are collecting information on your users, decide what is important to be collecting and why and understand what is important information to display. This helps you keep your data clean and your analysis concise with the relevant information.

Make a plan

Start with a plan. Before creating your data grid, make a plan for what you are looking to accomplish. This will make your data easy to work with and change in the future.