Fabrik lists can be created in multiple ways:

• By setting your form to "record in database"
• By creating a new Fabrik list that links to an existing database table

When creating from an existing database table, Fabrik will create an element corresponding to the description of each table field, so for example TEXT fields are automatically created as text area elements, and DATE fields are automatically created as date elements.

Fabrik gives you flexibility in where you store your data, by allows you to define connections to other mySQL databases other than your default Joomla database

Seeing your data is one thing, drawing meaningful information from is it quiet another! That's why Fabrik gives you a wide range of methods to search your data.

• Element filters - each element can be set up to be a filter, whether as an free field search, as a drop down pick list or as a range selector.
• Advanced search - shows a pop-up window where you can define searches such as
  • Where NAME is not equals TO 'rob'
    AND
    where date_of_birth is less than 12/01/1980
• Pre-filters - these work in a similar way to the advanced search except that the filter is created in the administration pages, and each filter statement can be assigned an access level - this makes it easy, for example, for registered users to see only records created by themselves, whilst still allowing administrators to see all records.
• Filter submission - tables can be set to filter as soon as a filter is changed or when a submit filter button is pressed
• Ordering - each column can be set to allow ordering upon its data. Ordering is toggled between ascending, descending and none.
• Standard Joomla Navigation - of course Fabrik also provides the standard Joomla navigation to limit the number of records per page and to navigate between record pages.

The real flexibility of relational databases comes from being able to join data from distinct tables together based on a common variable - for example we could link a table containing a list of articles to a table containing a list of users. This type of linking is called a "join". By joining the two tables together you

• can show all the user information for the author of an article.
• have the advantage that if you updated a user record the joined table would show the updated information for ALL articles written by that user.

Fabrik provides a GUI to create unlimited joins for each fabrik table - inner, left and right joins are all supported. Joins are a powerful way to create 'views' on your database data.

Grouping is another enormously useful way to present your data, and can be simply set up from within Fabrik.

Grouping splits your lists into a series of tables, based on a common variable. So, we could group our article list by author, giving the user a quick visual reference to which authors have created which articles.

As well as creating links to edit list records with the corresponding Fabrik form, Fabrik lists can also supply links to view a detailed page containing all the records data. Both the form and detailed view can be modified with the use of templates.

Lists provide you with access control levels for adding, editing, viewing detailed records, deleting and emptying Fabrik lists. Each access option can be independently applied to any Joomla Access level (e.g. public, registered, special)