Overview of Data & Tables & Things

[Christo]

Hi,

I am trying to understand how to use Bubble…

I understand drag and drop website builders like WIX, which this looks similar, however this obviously has the power of databases and dynamic data etc

I have viewed most of the tutorials…however it is very hard to follow the steps. For example what is " ‘s current marker’?

Is there an overview of how data is structured, what the labels mean etc?
Do I build a database in the ‘data’ tab, or does data fields get created when you create a workflow, and after many clicks through different stages it asks to name a field?

Sorry if I am slow on this, or if you need some coding skills to get started, but I am very lost on the data / things etc side of this.

If any one has a beginners guide, perhaps even definitions, in a way a ‘wix / excel user’ can understand.

Thanks

[romanmg]

Hey @Christo,

There are plenty of different resources to help get you on track. Hopefully you’ve done the lessons and watched the videos over at bubble.is/documentation to become familiar with some concepts. If some of them are still not clicking, I’d love to walk you through the fundamentals in a coaching session. I do this every day to help users understand how Bubble works. You can learn more and schedule a session at https://coachingbubble.com.

With that said, the forum is a wealth of information from the community as there are tons of specific examples and solutions posted. You can also search the forum for a handful of learning resources offered by other Bubblers. They’re scattered about, but I’ve seen posts with compiled lists.

Welcome again!

[supernaturally]

@Christo - Definitely go through the Bubble intro courses. I’d also suggest searching the Bubble courses available on uDemy to get yourself up to speed (they’re about $10 for a wealth of information):

@iamsalar has a good one that I’ve used in my beginning Bubble days.

@vega.andrew has one that many people seem to like:

@brentsum has some interesting ones (monthly fee as compared to flat fee):

If you have cash to burn or specific needs relating to building your app, some of the “coaches” on the forum are available (I see you’ve already been pitched above ). Many of them are quite good, and worth the money if time is valuable to you…here’s a list of coaches that many on the forum have used:

@iamsalar, @natedogg, @romanmg, @gf_wolfer,

All that said, the forum is a great, great way to learn if you have time and have the patience to type things into the search bar…all basic and advanced topics are covered here…and completely free to boot. If you need more structure, just take a course as mentioned earlier. To explain the “Things” and data-types a bit…just think of everything like a giant spreadsheet (for example: YourBubbleApp.xls).

• Think of a “Thing” as a worksheet inside of a spreadsheet.
• A “data type” is like a column title inside that same spreadsheet

Excel/Google Sheet Example: If you had all your business tax info inside a Taxes2016.xls and you wanted to enter in a new computer that you bought as an expense…you might open up Taxes2016.xls in Microsoft Excel…click on the “expenses” tab inside of Taxes2016.xls…and begin entering the details under 4 columns: item name (i.e. computer), price (i.e. $1,500), date purchased (i.e. 12/1/2016), and category (i.e. Technology).

Translated into Bubble: If the above example was entered into Bubble - you would have an app called “Taxes 2016” (instead of Taxes2016.xls)…and inside of Bubble you would have a Thing called “expenses”…and inside of that Thing called “expenses” you would have 4 data-types: “item name” (type = text), “price” (type=number), “date purchased” (type=date) and “category” (type=text).

[Christo]

Thanks Supernaturally. Great example with the xls. I will take your advise and search the community, as well as one of those courses which look great. Thanks.