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Your First Datastore

The fastest way to understand ActiveManage is to create your first datastore and add a few fields to it. This article walks through the end-to-end flow in about five minutes — by the end you'll have a working table, a form to add rows to it, and a list view to see what's been added.

1. Open the Datastores admin

From the Admin Panel home, open the Architect Panel and click Datastores under the Data section. You'll see every existing datastore listed — both the platform-shipped ones (with a leading dot) and any application-specific ones already created.

Click the green New Datastore button in the top-right corner.

2. Name your datastore

Pick a real example to work with. We'll build a Customers datastore. Fill in:

  • Datastore Name: customers
  • Friendly Name: Customers
  • Name of Rows: Customer (singular)

Leave the advanced settings at their defaults for now. Save.

3. Add fields

You're now on the field-management screen. Click New Datastore Field. The first field for our Customers table will be Company Name:

  • Row Name: companyname
  • Friendly Name: Company Name
  • Field Type: Text Box
  • Required: on
  • Min Length: 2
  • Max Length: 100

Save the field. Repeat for a few more:

  • contactemail — Friendly Name "Contact Email", Field Type Text Box, Validation "Email format", Required on.
  • phonenumber — Friendly Name "Phone Number", Field Type Phone Number.
  • createdate — Friendly Name "Created Date", Field Type Date, Default Value {{today}}.
  • active — Friendly Name "Active", Field Type Toggle Switch, Default Value 1.

You now have a datastore with five fields. The auto-generated form for adding new customers includes all of them, with the right input types and validation already applied.

4. Add a row

Back on the datastore list (Architect Panel → Datastores), find your new customers datastore and click View Data. The data table opens — empty for now. Click the green New Customer button (notice the button label reflects the Name of Rows setting you picked).

Fill in:

  • Company Name: "Acme Corp"
  • Contact Email: "contact@acme.example.com"
  • Phone Number: "+44 20 7946 0123"
  • Created Date: today's date (pre-filled by the default value)
  • Active: on

Save. The customer appears in the list.

5. Where to go next

You've just built the simplest possible ActiveManage application — a single datastore with manual data entry. From here, the platform's features open up:

  • Configure permissions so only the right people can see and edit the data. See the Security & Access Control section.
  • Create a User Input View if you want a public-facing form that submits into this datastore with an approval workflow on top. See the Forms section.
  • Build a Browse View if you want a tailored listing for end users — different columns, different filters than the admin default.
  • Add the customers list to a Page Builder page for end-user access.
  • Set up the API if external systems need to read/write customers programmatically.
Tip: Don't worry about getting the datastore perfect on the first try. Fields can be added, edited, and reordered later. The most common pattern is to start with the obvious fields and add more as you discover what your application actually needs.