Create tables

This page guides you through creating table in Cinchy.

Create a table from scratch

  1. Navigate to the Cinchy homepage. In the upper left-hand corner, click on Create to get started. (Image 1)

  1. Select either a Standard or a Spatial Table (Image 2), per the descriptions below.

  • Spatial Table: A spatial table allows you to create geography and geometry column types, as well as geospatial indexes. You won't be able to create partitions on a spatial table.

  • Standard Table: You can't create geography or geometry columns in a standard table.

You can't convert from one type to another and will have to either recreate your table or link to another table with geospatial columns.

Any existing tables created before installing Cinchy Platform v4.19.0 are standard tables.

  1. Select From Scratch (Image 3).

  1. A new page will open with the Table Info tab (Image 4). Input the following information:

  • Table Name: This is a mandatory field, and must be unique to the domain you select.

  • Icon: You can pick an icon and colour to differentiate your table on thee home screen.

  • Domain: This is a mandatory field. Select the domain that this table will reside under. If you are have administrative privileges, you can also create new domains from this screen.

  • Description: You can give your table a description, which will be displayed on the homepage.

  1. When you are finished with the Info page, select Columns from the left-hand navigation bar (Image 5). See here for additional information about column types.

  1. A new page will open with the Columns tab (Image 6). Every table in Cinchy must have at least one column. Input the following information:

  • Column Name: Input a unique column name.

  • Data Type: You can select from the following:

    • Text: All data in this column must be input as text

    • Number: All data in this column must be input numerically

    • Date: All data in this column must be in date format. The default is yyyy-mm-dd however you can change that.

    • Yes/No: All data in this column must be in Yes/No format

    • Calculated: Data is this column is calculated using a CQL expression

    • Choice: Data entered in this column must be selected from a set of choice answers that you provide

    • Link: Data in a link column is pulled from elsewhere on Cinchy

  • Description: Enter a description of your column

  • Data Security Classification: You can select from Public, Internal, Confidential, or Restricted. Additional options can be created in the [Cinchy].[Data Security Classifications] table by an Administrator.

    • Restricted: Restricted data is the most sensitive data, so you would have to treat it extra carefully. If compromised or accessed without authorization, it could lead to criminal charges, massive legal fines, or cause irreparable damage to the company. Examples include intellectual property, proprietary information or data protected by state and federal regulations.

    • Confidential: Often, access to confidential data requires additional authorization and explanation of why access to the data is needed. Examples of confidential data include social security numbers, credit card details, phone numbers or medical records. Depending on the industry, confidential data is protected by laws like GDPR, HIPAA, CASL and others.

    • Internal: This type of data is strictly accessible to internal company personnel or employees who are granted access. This might include internal-only memos, business performance, customer surveys or website analytics.

    • Public: This type of data is freely accessible to all employees and company personnel. It can be freely used, reused, and redistributed without repercussions. An example might be job descriptions, press releases or links to articles.

Currently there is no functionality tied directly to Data Security Classification - the tagging is just for internal auditing purposes. Future security settings will be tied to Data Security Classifications, rather than simply done at a column level.

  • Advanced Settings: Select any checkboxes that pertain to your column. See here for more information about these parameters.

You may have further mandatory or optional data to input depending on your selected Data Type.

7. Click on Design Controls > Entitlements in the left navigation pane to set your permissions (Image 7). You may set these as granular as you choose. You may also set permissions on a view by view basis. See here for more about data controls and entitlements.

  1. Click Save to finalize your table.

  2. You may return to change the structure of the existing table (such as rename columns, add new columns, change data type) by clicking on the Design Table button on the left-hand navigation (Image 8).

Import a CSV to create a table

  1. Navigate to the Cinchy homepage. In the upper left-hand corner, click on Create to get started (Image 9).

  1. Select either a Standard or a Spatial Table (Image 10), per the descriptions below.

  • Spatial Table: A spatial table allows you to create geography and geometry column types, as well as geospatial indexes. You won't be able to create partitions on a spatial table.

  • Standard Table: You can't create geography or geometry columns in a standard table.

You can't convert from one type to another and will have to either recreate your table or link to another table with geospatial columns.

Any existing tables created before installing Cinchy Platform v4.19.0 are standard tables.

  1. Select Import a CSV (Image 11).

  1. Enter the following information:

  • Domain: Select the domain that you table will reside under. If you are have administrative privileges, you can also create new domains from this screen.

  • File: To create the table, you must upload a .csv file.

The column names in your .csv file must not conflict with System Columns.

  1. When creating a table via Import a CSV, some settings will be set by default:

  • Default Table Name: The name of the file will be used as the name of the table (a number will be appended if there is a duplicate - ex. uploading Teams.csv will create a table named Teams 1, then Team 2 if uploaded again). You can always rename the table after it has been created.

  • Default Table Icon: The icon defaults to a green paintbrush.

  • Default Column Types: Columns by default will be created as a text field, with a maximum length of the longest value in the column. If a column has only numeric values in it, it will be created as a numeric column.

  1. To update these settings, navigate to the Design Table tab on the left navigation bar (Image 12).

Table views

  1. When you first create a table, a default view called All Data will be created for you, which you can find on the left navigation bar under Manage Data (Image 13).

  1. You can create additional views by clicking on "+Create View" (Image 14).

  1. You may chose to create a view From Scratch or by Copying an Existing view (Image 15).

From Scratch:

  1. Select From Scratch.

  2. The Columns tab will open. Create a Name for your View (Image 16).

  3. If you'd like this to become the default view, toggle the default setting to On (Image 16).

4. Select the column(s) that you want to be visible in this view (Image 17). You may rearrange the column order using drag and drop.

5. Click on the Sort tab in the left navigation bar (Image 18).

6. Use this screen to select which columns you'd like to sort your data by, and in which order. You may rearrange the columns using drag and drop (Image 19).

7. Click on the Filter tab in the left navigation bar. Here, you may use query language to focus your view (Image 20).

8. Click on the Permission tab in the left navigation bar. Here, you may set permissions for who can use this view. By default, it's set to All Users (Image 21).

9. Select Save to finalize your view.

From Existing

  1. Select From Existing.

  2. Select which view you would like to copy (Image 22).

Updating a view

  1. To update any view, including the Add Data view, click on the pencil icon next to the view's name under Manage Data (Image 23).

4. Bookmarks and the Homepage

Once you create a table, it will be added to your bookmarks by default. Other users (or if you un-star the table from your bookmarks) will see it in the Homepage if they have permissions to.

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