Can I have multiple people edit the same data?

[woodb]

I've found Strata to be very good at manipulating tables and it works great for me. I have another project that I feel Strata would work great for, but I haven't been able to get it to do what I want.

We have a department that has about 10 users that are trying to track information about several hundred thousand drawings. Currently the group has been trying to manage this using multiple excel files. This just wasn't working as you can imagine. I took all the spreadsheets and put them into DabbleDB (an online database). This seemed like it was going to be the ideal solution, but dabbledb is just too slow. They need the speed of excel with the ability of being managed by a database (sounds like something Strata might do).

I was hoping that I could take the records from dabbledb (which I've done) and open it with Strata. I hoped I could export it from strata into MySQL or Oracle (we have both databases). Then I was wanting our group to be able manipulate the data with Strata directly from the database (not create local copies)(this is similar to multiple excel files). I found I can connect to the databases, but I can't modify the data. When I edit anything, the data reverts back to what it was when I click on another cell. It behaves the same way if I try to manipulate data on a shared network drive. It seems I can only modify data if it's a local copy.

Is it possible to do what I've described?

Thanks,
Brian

[Aaron]

Hi Brian,

Currently, it's possible to edit cell values in Kirix Strata's tables (make sure "Protect Data" in the Edit menu is turned off), but not in tables that are in connected databases. However, since multiple users can connect to the same Strata project, users should be able to concurrently edit data in the same tables simply by sharing a project on a network.

To set up a shared project, go to the Tools menu, select "Projects", and in the Projects panel, add a new project in a network location accessible by all your users. Once you've created a new project, go to the Tools menu, select "Options", and in the "General" area of the Options panel, select this newly created project as the default project.

All this said, we've had similar requests to be able to edit cell values in external, linked tables, and this is a capability we want to add.

Best,
Aaron

[Ken]

Just to chime in with a little additional information for you... here's a post that briefly talked about the ways you can share data using Strata:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=488

Unfortunately, the one area where direct connectivity to a data set (whether connecting directly to a database system or just opening an external file) falls short at the moment is when you want to edit the external data set.

However, as Aaron mentioned, the way around this is to simply create a Strata Project on a network drive.

In Strata, a Project is merely a collection of tables, scripts, queries, reports, bookmarks, etc. They are quite useful for organizing your various analysis projects. Each Project is stored as a folder on your system. These folders can be moved to other locations or other systems at will. The location just needs to be re-synched with your copy of Strata via the Project Manager (Add Project > Add Existing Project). You just don't want to mess with the "stuff" inside the folder, since these are used by Strata for all its wizardry.

We've actually got quite a few customers who use the project-on-a-network-drive method to share data in their corporate environment. Each user just adds the central Project location into their own copy of Strata and edit the table(s) as they would with their own local copy.

In addition, they can obviously create their own separate Projects for any non-shared analysis/manipulation they need to do. And you can always flip between projects by selecting Tools > Project.

Last thing, sort of off-topic, but this question tends to get asked in this context. You can't open up two Projects in your project panel at the same time. So, in order to share data between projects (say, I wanted to make a copy of a table from my shared project to do some special analysis), the best method is to either Save As External or Export from that original project to a KPG file. A KPG file is a Strata-centric file that lets you save Strata tables and keep all the same meta information like calculated fields or marks, as well as save report templates, queries, etc. Then you just need to import the KPG file into the second project.

Hopefully that helps... please let us know if you need further information on the specifics.

[woodb]

Thanks Aaron and Ken, I've set my project up on a network drive and this looks like it's "almost" exactly what I'm looking for. I say almost because I'm looking for one more feature. Maybe strata can do this, maybe it's an enhancement request.

To be honest, strata is what I'm needing for part of my job. I'm trying to make Strata work for this group of 10 people to do their job. Their job really calls for a database. DabbleDB would have been perfect for them if it wasn't too slow. The last feature I'd like, is it to have Strata act a little bit more like a database. We have about 4 fields that the users enter by picking the item out of a pulldown list. This ensures that the data is entered consistantly (and quickly). I know I can have users enter the data by copy and paste, but I'm hoping there's a way that a related field that only has the values they can choose from can be utilized. These people are entering lots of data (quickly) and it needs to be consistant. Pulldown lists are prefect for some of the data. These fields that have pulldowns are the most critical fields and if there's a typo, those entries won't show up in the searches.

Thanks again,
Brian

[Ken]

Hi Brian,

Unfortunately, this pick list/drop-down functionality is not available directly in table cells, but it is a good feature request that I'll add to our list. However, there are a couple options that you might consider:

1. This is definitely a kludge -- but in the shared project you could have a table with your pick list items in it. Since it is really easy to just drag tabs to tile them as you wish, a user could have the pick list table open off to the side of the main table they are working with. Then, you'd have a pretty trivial copy/paste situation from within Strata itself.

2. Again, kludgey -- but Strata does have very nice data clean-up functionality, so if you did have the issue where you had some dirty data, this would be pretty simple to resolve. For instance, in your field where you want the pick list, you could just select the Group Records icon (Sigma symbol), drag in the field in question, add a Count and hit OK. It will group together all the permutations in the field, making it easy to spot any outliers.

3. The other option would be to write an extension that would add this type of functionality. For instance, it should be pretty easy to create a form that would give a view of a given record in the table, with appropriate drop-downs for the desired fields. We're planning on launching our extensions section next week on our website; this will provide a lot more in the way of how to build extensions, example extensions/scripts, etc. We'd be happy to help investigate this option further with you if this is something you'd be interested in doing.

[woodb]

Thanks for the info, the group feature works pretty slick for finding outliners (and getting totals). I also found that marking certain values a particular color works great too. I know if the color doesn't change, there's a typo. I'll be interested in looking into extensions next week and building a form. It seems like there's a lot of cool features that I'm just beginning to find.

Thanks again,
Brian

[Ken]

Hi Brian,

Glad you are finding fun new uses for Strata.

Three quick things:

1. Marks are definitely useful for visual analysis. There are two "kinds" of marks -- the "quick mark" that is cell-sensitive (right-click on a cell and select Mark records to get a context-sensitive menu) and a custom mark. Select Data > Mark Records and the marks panel will appear along with a formula builder. This lets you build marks that are based on formulas. These are "dynamic" like calculated fields, so if a record changes the mark refreshes instantly.

So, in theory, this could be another kludgey option in your shared project. You could set up a mark that would turn a record red if any one of the, say, three choices wasn't typed in correctly (which would provide instant feedback of a problem to a user), like:

Code: Select all

field1 != "OPTION1" AND field1 != "OPTION2" AND field1 != "OPTION3"

Obviously we're not hitting that pick list the way it should be -- but just thought that marks could be another control that could be added to your process.

2. Strata actually has quite a bit of stuff tucked away. I'd recommend going to Help > Help Contents and just taking a look down the various options. In particular, open up Performing Standard Data Operations and taking a look at some of the data manipulation options at your fingertips.

3. Lastly, besides the main screencast video on the home page (http://videos.kirix.com/screencast/overview.html) we've also done a few different screencasts on a range of other things that may be of interest. You can find them here: http://videos.kirix.com/screencast/overview.html

We've still got some work to do to better expose Strata's capabilities via tutorials and screencasts... but plan on filling this area out a lot more in the weeks and months to come. As always, if you have any questions, just let us know.