Summary and Setup

Welcome to the Carpentry for relational databases with NocoDB in the humanities! This course is designed to introduce you to the fundamental concepts of relational databases through practical, hands-on experience with NocoDB, an open-source platform that transforms your database into a smart spreadsheet. With this you can use a database, without coding experience and confusing files.

Although the course is primarily aimed at humanities scholars, the principles are easily transferable to other subjects, which means that the course can also be relevant and interesting for other disciplines.

In this lesson, you will:

  • Understand the principles of relational database design.
  • Turn a database into a smart spreadsheet with NocoDB
  • Explore how to create, read, update, and delete data with NocoDB.
  • Learn how to use the API from NocoDB for analysing or upgrading your data.
  • Gain insights into relational databases and how NocoDB can simplify them.

Why NocoDB?

NocoDB is presented as a revolutionary tool that converts traditional databases into a smart spreadsheet interface, merging the robustness of databases with the simplicity and accessibility of spreadsheets. Suitable for developers, data analysts, or the simply curious, NocoDB makes data management accessible and enjoyable.

Prerequisites

This course is ideal for students, developers, and any professionals looking to get a basic understanding of relational databases and how to use them with NocoDB. Whether you’re a beginner or someone looking to refresh your knowledge, this course offers valuable insights and practical skills. You dont need any prior skills to take part in this lesson. Everything will be learned and explained from scratch. Maybe you should know how to use an internet browser and a computer, but everything else you need you will learn here.

In the end of the lesson, you will find a few episodes, which are more complicated and technical advanced. They are more of a “nice to have” addon and an outlook of possibilities you can do with NocoDB. The features presented there wont teach you exactly how to use them, but will show you what is possible.

Course Structure

The course is structured into modules, each focusing on different aspects. Hands-on exercises and real-world examples will help you apply the concepts you learn directly in NocoDB.

We’re excited to have you join us on this journey to mastering relational databases. Dive into the modules, experiment with NocoDB, and transform the way you work with data!

About

This lesson is being developed as part of the joint project HERMES – Humanities Education in Research Data and Methods. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to establish a data competence centre for the humanities and cultural sciences.

Authors

FIXME: Setup instructions live in this document. Please specify the tools and the data sets the Learner needs to have installed.

Data Sets

Download the data zip file and unzip it to your Desktop

Software Setup

Details

Setup for different systems can be presented in dropdown menus via a spoiler tag. They will join to this discussion block, so you can give a general overview of the software used in this lesson here and fill out the individual operating systems (and potentially add more, e.g. online setup) in the solutions blocks.

Use PuTTY

Use Terminal.app

Use Terminal