The Database
(revised 06/18/05)

  The database function can be quite useful. For example:

•  make a list of participants with all their important contact information or you could post specific assignments here using a table format,
• divide participants into working groups with tasks and deadlines for discussion, 
• create a joint document with each paragraph a record and room to add comments
• have participants register for the sessions with guest speakers. In that way, you can give the presenter an approximate number of participants

 Go to the Database section (navigation bar on the left):

Fig. 1. Navigation bar

 1. How do I create a table?
  Yahoo! Groups provides templates that are great starting points, including a simple phone book, class   assignments, and a FAQ table. To create a table:

a. Click on the Create table button, on the right.

b. Select the "empty" template or choose one of the existing templates (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Selecting a Template for the database

c. Fill out the required information for the table, including table information, policies, and columns.

d. Finish by clicking on Create Table at the bottom.

 At this point, you are ready to begin adding records to your table.

 Note: Each group can only have up to 10 tables. Each table can't exceed 1000 rows, or 10 columns.

 2. How do I add records to a table?
  To add a record:

a.  Click on the name of the table you'd like to edit.

b. Click on the Add Record button (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Adding a record to the database

c. Enter the data you wish to add.

d. Click on Add Record.

 Alternately, you can choose to import a set of data all at once.

 3. How do I import data into a table?

 To import data into a table:

a. Go to your group's Database area.

b. Create a table, or click on the name of the table where you'd like to import data.

c. Click on the Edit link (see Fig. 3).

d. Click on the Import Data button (at the bottom of the page, see Fig. 4 below)

Fig. 4. Importing data from the database

e. At this point, you're ready to input your data into the empty data box presented, row by row. You'll need to select a delimiter (a way of separating one piece of information from the next) to separate information within each row (See Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Box to input data.

f. Enter your data, row by row, depending upon how you set up your table. For example, if you set up a table with the following columns:
Name, Gender, Grade, Telephone Number
and then selected a semi-colon to be your delimiter, you would enter each row of data into the box like this:
James; male; 12; 555-1234
Kate; female; 10; 555-9876
Make sure to put a return after each row of information.

g.  To finish, click on Import Data.

 4. How do I export data from a table?

 To export data from a group database:

a. Go to your group's Database area.

b. Click on the name of the table from which you'd like to export data.

c. Click on the Edit link.

d. Click on the Export Data button.

e. The data will be presented to you in a delimited set. 

 5. How do I print a table from the database?

a. Click on the name of the table you'd like to print. 

b. Then, click the Printable Report link. This will create a web page with your table on it. 

c. Print this page using your browser's print command.

For more information about the database, visit the help are at: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/database

For further instructions on the use of Yahoo! Groups go to the tutorial index page at: http://daf4.free.fr/settings/yg-index.htm