Introduction to Data Editor

Learn the basics of Glide's Data Editor

All software is powered by Data. Data may sound like an abstract idea, but it's just the 'stuff' your software is about: products, customers, staff, locations, etc...

Databases & Spreadsheets are the best way to organize and think about data, so Glide lets anyone build software from Spreadsheets and other Data Sources.

The Data Editor is where you manage your project’s data. You can edit in the Data Editor or wherever the data is stored. Everything stays in sync.

A view of the data editor, with Glide Tables as the source

Data Structure

Before you start a project in Glide, it’s important to consider the structure of your data. In other words: what your project is about.

An Employee directory may be quite simple and only have two tables, one for People and another for Locations.

A simple database of an Employee Directory

But if you’re making a project to help with inventory management, it might well be more complex.

You’ll probably need tables for:

• Inventory Items

• Customers

• Suppliers

• Orders

A database of an Inventory Management System

But maybe there’s a delivery aspect to it, in which case you might need tables for:

• Deliveries

• Drivers

• Vehicles

• Warehouses

A database of a Delivery Management System

You can add new Tables whenever you want, but, it's worth establishing the most important tables upfront.

Adding a new database

Within each table, the first row should be column names. These column names should describe the properties of your items.

For example, if you’re making a team directory for your company, the first row could contain column names like Name, Role, Title, Number, Photo and Email—because these are the properties that each person has.

After the first row, every following row should have values in each of those columns;

It's okay to leave cells empty. But if you leave big gaps between rows & columns, Glide may not pick up your data correctly.

Avoid leaving large gaps between rows & columns.

Basic Columns

Basic columns live in your data source as well as the Data Editor.

Basic Columns are simple columns that just contain Data. They're the same as the ones that live in a data source.

Any new column you make in your data source will become a Basic Column in Glide. Glide will look at the data in this column and assign a type to that column.

For example, if you add a number column, you’ll be able to format those numbers – or if you add an image column, we’ll show you the image thumbnails, and you can even upload images or pick royalty-free ones from Unsplash.

You can preview images in the Data Editor

If you want to change the column type, you can click on the dropdown menu, click Edit and change the column type.

You can create new Basic Columns at any time with the new column (+) button. These will be added to your data source as well.

Computed Columns

In addition to the Basic Columns, Glide adds a special type of column called a Computed Column.

App & websites need to do things that aren’t easy or even possible to do with Spreadsheets alone, so computed columns introduce new concepts on top of spreadsheets that allow you to structure and connect your Data in powerful new ways.

For example, the Distance Column calculates the distance between two locations, and the Template Column lets you replace parts of your text with unique values from each row.

A Distance column calculates the distance & a template column replaces text with values in other columns

Read more about the types of Computed Columns here 👇

🏛️pageComputed Columns