Databases

An important feature of the database is the form. Forms are the user interface of the database. They allow the designer to setout the data in the database in a user friendly way. For example in the british birds database the amount of data available is to wide to read on a single screen:

But if the table is placed in a form it can all be viewed conveniently. It is also possible to make longer items of text multi-line. Which a table will not allow. Images can be displayed and sized; you can also make an attractive background.

All of which are substantial advantages but they are not the most powerful part of forms. In this case suppose the table contained details of nesting sites for rare species. It would not be a good idea to make that information public. Well with a form that's easy; the field in the table that shows the nesting sites does not have to be on the form. If its not on the form and the form is all a user can see then they can't see the sensitive details.

In places like the doctors surgery this is important. It means non medical staff like the receptionist can not see the confidential details like the patients medical history.

You can also add buttons to forms. The one shown has simple navigation buttons to scroll through the 102 bird species found in the table. But forms can be placed on queries as well as tables so you could create a FIND button. This might take you to a form where you can type in the name of a bird and it finds it. You could also use such a search to find birds that live by rivers. This would be a much more powerful search. The details of this sort of search are found in the section on queries.

Forms can also contain images that are part of the background. Such images are used to brand the database i.e. show it belongs to a given company. Sometimes the backgrounds are used to indicate the type of user who is logged on to the database. Thus at the doctors the receptionists might have a pale yellow background but the doctors have an orange background.