XpertMart Quick Start Guide: Data Entry

XpertMart^™ Quick Start Guide

Lesson 3:
Data Entry & Catalogs

User Manual Chapters to Read
Topic: Catalogs
Topic: Vendors Catalog

Other Resources

Lesson
Before doing large amounts of data entry you first want to get acquainted with how Catalogs work in XpertMart™: how to add records, edit records and search records. The easiest way to learn how to do this is in the Vendors Catalog.

Open the Vendors Catalog. You'll notice that in the bottom right hand corner there are three ?s in the record boxes in the lower left-hand corner. This means that there are no records in the catalog. You will see this every time you open a catalog for the first time.

Now press the New Record button on the toolbar to add a new vendor. Notice that now the three record boxes now show 1,1,0. Also notice that all the buttons on the toolbar appear grayed out except for the Save button and the Delete button. This indicates that you are adding a record and until you choose to either save it or delete you cannot do anything else.

Go ahead and enter your vendor info: company name, address, phone, email, contact and so on. When you are done, press Save. Notice that now the rest of the toolbar button appear active.

NOTE: If you are running XpertMart on Java 5 (Intel Mac) then you need to press <Return> after you enter data in a field, or you can also <Tab> to another field. But if you just enter data into a field and then press the Save button you will get a "Required Value Missing" error.

Let's add a second vendor now. Do this by once again pressing the New Record button. Notice that the three record boxes now show 2,2,0. Keep an eye on these boxes as you work in Catalogs. You'll see the number increase every time you add a new record.

A common beginner mistake is to open a Catalog and just start typing and adding data. If you do this you are overwriting the existing record, not creating a new one. Which is why it's a good idea to keep an eye on those three record boxes.

Once you are done entering the second vendor's data, press Save. Now add two more vendors so you have a total of 4 records in the Vendors Catalog.

Close the Vendors Catalog. Now go back to the Main Menu in XpertMart™ and open the Vendors Catalog again. Notice the records bar shows 1,4,4. This is telling you there are a total of 4 records in the catalog and you are looking at the first of those four.

Use the green arrow keys in the toolbar at the top to navigate through the catalog. Press the next record button to advance to the second vendor. Notice the records bar shows 2,4,4. Practice scrolling through the catalog by using the Next Record and Previous Record buttons. Now try the First Record and Last Record buttons to jump to the fourth vendor and back to the first.

Very simple, but the principles are the same whether you are working with 4 vendors or 400.

Now add three more vendors. By now you should be getting the hang of it: press New Record, watch the records bar grow by one, enter data, press Save. On the last vendor do not enter an address.

Ok, now add one more vendor so you have a total of eight. Press the First Record button. The record bar should show 1,8,8. Use the Next Record button to scroll through the records until you reach the 7th entry. Now enter the address information you didn't enter before. Press Save.

Now go to the next record (the 8th vendor) by pressing the Next Record button. Now go back to the 7th vendor by pressing the Previous Record button.

Hey! Where's the address you just entered? Not to worry...the data you entered is still there, the view just hasn't refreshed. Since the XpertMart™ database is setup to work in a network environment you need to refresh the view to see the latest changes you've made to the database. You do this by pressing the First Record button.

Go ahead and press the First Record button to jump to the first vendor. Now use the Next Record button to scroll through the catalog until you get to the 7th vendor. Now do you see your address data? It was there all along. The First Record button not only jumps you to the first entry in the catalog, it also refreshes the view so you can see all recent changes made to the database.

Ok, let's add two more vendors. Press the New Record button to add another vendor. Notice you don't have to scroll to the last vendor to add a new one. You can press the New Record button any time and it will add a new entry to the catalog. The records bar helps you keep track of how many records you have in the catalog and where you are at that point.

You should now have a total of 10 vendors in the Vendors Catalog. You should feel comfortable with all of the steps we've done so far before you move on to the next lesson. If you need more practice, open the Brands Catalog and enter some of your brands there.

*** Return to QuickStart Index Page ***