New Builder
Get Started
Manage Your Records
How Knack Works
Design Your Database
Do More With Knack
View and Share Your App
Build Your Live Application
Learn More
Connect Related Data
Reporting & Dashboards
E-Commerce & Payments
Search & Queries
Emails & Notifications
Workflow
Calculations & Logic
Users & Access
Builder Guide
Pages
Working with Pages
Deleting a Page That's Being Linked to
Printing Pages & PDFs
Page Rules
User Pages
Page Menu
Objects & Connections
Plan Your Objects
Plan Your Connections: Complex Example
Plan Your Connections: Simple Example
Special Objects
Connecting Records Together
Use Connections in Your App
About Connections
Connection Types
Working With Objects
Connections: Troubleshooting & FAQs
App Customization
Live App Design
Embed Your App
Integrate with Formstack Documents
Integrate with Zapier
Integrate with Integromat
Working with Icons
Other Customization Options
E-Commerce
Views
Using Action Links
Using Record Rules
Table Settings
Table Column Settings
About Views
Combining Fields from Connected Records in Views
Reports
Source: Which Records Will the View Display
Forms
Searches
Using Display Rules
Tables
Lists
Maps
Details
Rich Text
Calendars
Using Submit Rules
Menus
Records
Importing Connections
Import Records
Working with Records
CSV Format Guide for Importing
Export Records
Batch Updates
Delete Records
Tasks & Emails
Builder Basics
Users & Logins
Live App Security Settings
Live App Security Settings: HIPAA Plans
Manage Roles & Permissions
Manage User Records
About Users
Users and the Page Menu
Single Sign-On with Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Custom
Logins and Registrations
Fields
FAQ
Support
Working With Support
I need help with CSS, Javascript, or jQuery.
What is a dedicated support manager?
Accounts
Is there an option to pay via invoice, check, wire transfer, or something other than a credit card?
Where can I find a copy of my receipt or invoice?
I'm over the storage limit for my account. How do I add more storage or get under the limit?
I'm over the record limit for my account. How do I add more records or get under the limit?
How do I freeze or pause my Knack account?
Need account access or to transfer account access because account owner or colleague left the company
How do I cancel my Knack account?
How do I add more API calls to my account?
Managing Apps
How do I remove the "Powered by Knack" logo at the bottom of my app?
How do I give Builder access to a colleague or developer for one of my apps?
How do I change the favicon for my app?
How do I backup or export my apps and data?
How do I white label my app?
How do I copy an app from my account to another account?
How can I track what users are doing in my app?
App Building
How do I find the most recent date from a connected object?
How do I move or copy fields or data from one object to another?
How do I add a logo to my app?
How can I change the color of something in my app?
The menu isn't showing for my app on mobile devices. How do I fix that?
How do I create a field that always shows today's date?
How do I show multiple dates on a calendar?
Is there a way to add a display rule to multiple columns at one time instead of having to update each column individually?
How can I show a customer's payment history if I'm collecting payments through my Knack app and through cash or check?
Can I combine two date fields into a single date field? For example, combining a start and end date into a single field?
Is it possible to display more than 100 records at a time on a table, list, or search view?
Is there a way to have new users be automatically logged-in after they register?
Do I need a separate user role object for my Vendors, Customers, Employees, Contacts, etc?
How do I create an "If, Then" or conditional equation?
Does Knack offer a service for building apps or have developers I can hire?
How can I set up my app so users see only their own data?
How do I bulk upload or import multiple images?
How do I bulk upload or import multiple files?
How do I merge my apps, or copy pages, objects, or other app elements between my apps?
Can I share or connect data between apps?
Can I?
Can I customize the look and feel of my Knack pages?
Can I migrate or transfer data from Zoho, Quickbase, or TrackVia?
Can I add Google Analytics to my Knack app?
Do you have a sandbox or developer environment?
Can I integrate Knack with other data, products, and services?
Can I have an app in a language besides English?
Can I use Knack on mobile devices?
Can I create invoices and accept payments?
Can I migrate my Access, Filemaker, SQL, or other databases?
Can I use a barcode or credit card scanner with Knack?
Can I prototype for others?
Can I send SMS or text messages using Knack?
Can I email PDFs or other attachments to users with Knack?
Can I add chat or messaging to my app?
Can I sell my Knack apps?
Other
Does the signature captured through a signature field constitute a legally binding signature?
How does Knack work on mobile devices? Is it mobile-friendly? Can users download my apps?
Storing sensitive data (credit cards, social security numbers, etc.)
How secure is Knack?
Will Knack sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)?
Does Knack offer access to beta features?
Does Knack offer a partner program?
Is Knack GDPR compliant?
How do I batch download all of the images and files In my app?
Which browsers do you support?
Imports
Some of my fields aren't importing correctly. How can I fix that?
I'm having trouble importing into a connection field. What can I do?
I'm seeing an odd character when importing data. How can I get rid of it?
Can I import something other than data? Like objects, pages, views, etc?
My import is failing or getting stuck. What do I do?
Can my users import data from the live app, instead of going through the builder/back-end?
Can I schedule or automate imports?
Can I import data into more than one object at the same time?
Can I undo or reverse an import?
I am importing data for the first time. How do I do that?
How do I update existing data using an import?
My import is taking a long time. Can you take a look?
I'm having trouble importing into a specific type of field. What can I do?
I'm getting an error when importing. What do I do?
Do the validation rules on fields trigger when importing data?
How To Guides
Users & Logins
Save a User's Payment Method
Force Users to Reset Their Passwords
Create a Single Login Page for Multiple User Roles
Show Records Connected To The Logged-in User's Company Or Other Group
Create an Admin User Role to View All Records
Add Read-Only Access For Users
Show Records Connected to the Logged-in User
Add Functionality to Your Live App
Manage Your Records
Use an Edit Form to Create Records If They Don't Exist
Use Zapier to Insert Connected Records
Copy a Record Using Record Rules
Create a Version History for Records
Track When Records are Created and Updated
Track Which User Last Updated a Record
Workflow & Automations
Add Stages to Your App
Using Mailchimp
Add Status Indicators to Your App
Add Assignments to Your App
Notify a User That an Item is Ready for Review
Create a Registration Form with Limited Availability
Add a Pipeline to Your App
Create a Button or Link that Updates a Field to a Custom Value
Add Notification & Reminder Emails to Your App
Approve New Records Before Displaying Them
Store Multiple Images or Files for Individual Records
Use Multiple Image Sources for a Single Image Field
Workflow Tools
Work with Connected Records
How to Show Multiple Fields in Your Connection Drop-Down
Showing Parent-Child Records in the Live App
Logic, Equations & Formulas
How to Display Multiple Date Formats Using a Single Date Field
How To Number Line Items
Show Upcoming Birthdays
How to Set a Random ID
Display a Message When a Deadline is Approaching
Generate Simple Numeric Barcodes Automatically
Calculate Age in Years from a Birthday
How to Extract the Start and End Dates from a Date Field
Start an Auto Increment Field from Any Number
Customize Views
How to Add Inline Editing to a Table
Create a Print-Friendly Invoice Page
How to Click on an Image to Go to Another Page
How to Add Connection Links to Views
How to Add a Map to a Details View
How to Add Groupings to a Table
Reports, Queries, and Summaries
App Walkthroughs
Build a Quiz App
Build an Inventory Manager App
Build an Orders App
Build a Warehouse Manager App
Build a Member Directory
Build a Map Directory or Store Locator App
Forms
Create a Multi-Part Form
How to Change the Layout of Forms
How to Add Instructions to a Form
How to Customize the Text on a Submit Button
How to Limit an Uploaded File’s Size
How to Automatically Capture a User’s Location on a Form
How to Allow Users to Add New Options in Forms
How to Use URL Variables to Pre-Populate a Form
Add Read-Only Fields to a Form
How to Create Dynamic Dropdowns in Forms
Manage Your Account
Table of Contents
- All Categories
- Get Started
- Design Your Database
Design Your Database
Updated
by Danielle Kellogg
Behind each Knack app is an online database - this stores all the data that your app will use.
The first step in building your app is to define the data is will store and how it will work together. This happens in the Schema section of the Knack Builder.
How does Knack organize your data?
In Knack, each piece of data you want to store and manage is called a field, and similar fields are grouped into objects. You can think of an object like a single sheet in a spreadsheet, and each field like a column in that spreadsheet.
For example, a Products object would have fields for name, part number, and product label. An Orders object would have fields for order total, date, and delivery status.
Each field can be a different type, like text, number, or multiple choice. These types define how Knack views your data and how the field is used in your app. For example, a file field is used to upload and download files, while a text field stores and displays simple text.
How does Knack store this data?
Your data defines what is stored in your database and what type of application you can build.
Once your objects are defined you can add records in the Records section of the Builder. For example, here’s what stored records look like for the Products object:
How does Knack use this data?
In the Pages section of the Builder you can build the Live App to display and manage the records stored in your app.
You’ll use the Product fields you added to build forms, tables, and other tools for viewing and managing these customer records.
For example, each Product field is available to add as a column in a table view:
Connecting your data together
What really makes an app powerful? It’s the ability to define relationships that connect your data together.
For example, instead of each order record existing in isolation, you can connect it to the product record used in that order. If that same product makes used in a second order, you don’t need to keep adding their product details over and over. You simply connect the second order to the same product record that already exists from the first order.
Each object lists its connections in the right column. When you add a new connection it creates a special field that defines the connection:
Knack makes connections easy. You don’t need to worry about mapping fields or managing keys, you simply look-up the record you want to connect to.
Here’s example of an order form where you look-up the product to connect the order to:
Knack uses connections in a lot of powerful ways. For example, using the connection between customer and orders, you could:
- Show all of the order records for a specific customer
- Add up all the order totals for each customer
- Run reports on each customer’s average order total each month
- Let each customer login to view their order history
Learn more on whats possible with connections here.
Special Objects
Knack has two special objects that add functionality on top of a normal object, Users and Payments. Both User Accounts and Charges can be used just like regular Objects in your database. They are listed separately to emphasize their special nature.
Users
User Accounts are objects with special email and password fields that are used to manage user logins. You can choose to require logins to access your Live App, and each user record would represent a user account that can log in.
You can create multiple user objects to represent different roles and permissions. For example, you may have Customer users who can log in to one part of your app to view their order history, and Shipping Manager users who log in to another part of your app to view pending orders and ship for delivery.
There are additional security settings available with user logins to help ensure the security of your Live App pages.
Payments
Payments are objects that include fields for storing E-Commerce transactions like charge total and date. You can choose to add E-Commerce to your app to accept payments. When a credit card is charged, that payment information is stored in a new charge record.
Up next, learn how to manage the records in your in app.
You can find the full documentation on Knack in our Builder Guide, here.