Quickstart Guide

This tutorial will show you how to create an employee directory application in minutes using ToolJet. This app will let you track and update employee information with a beautiful user interface. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Create Your First Application

2. Create a Database Table

3. Fetch Data

4. Bind Data to the Table

5. Create a Query to Add Data

6. Use Events to Trigger Queries

7. Preview, Release and Share

1. Create Your First Application

Once you have created your ToolJet account, follow the steps below.

• Go to the dashboard and click on the Create new app button. Name your application as "Employee Directory". Once your application is created, you can see an empty canvas.
• Click and drag a Table component on the canvas.

Optionally, you can also create a header by placing Text components over a Container component and styling them.

2. Create a Database Table

Now, create a new table in ToolJet’s Database to store employee records.

• Name the table employees and add the following columns: firstname, lastname, email, phone, department, position, joining, and status.
• Add a few employee records in the table as dummy data.

3. Fetch Data

To display employees in the application, we first need to fetch data from the database using a query.

• Click on the Add button in the Query Panel to create a new query.
• Select ToolJet Database as the data source for the query.
• Rename the query to getEmployees.
• Choose employees as the Table name, and List rows as the Operation.
• Toggle Run this query on application load? setting to automatically run the query when the app starts.
• Click on Run to fetch data.
• Click on the Run button or Preview button to see a preview of the fetched data.

4. Bind Data to the Table

Now, we need to bind the data returned by the getEmployees query with the Table created in the first step.

• Click on the Table component to open its properties panel which is visible on the right.
• Under the Data property, enter the below code:

{{queries.getEmployees.data}}

Now the Table component is filled with the data returned by the getEmployees query.

5. Create a Query to Add Data

In the bottom-right corner of the Table component, there is a + (Add new row) button that opens a form to add new data to the Table. Follow the steps below to create an addEmployee query and execute it when you click the Save button on the add new rows form.

• Click on the Add button in the query panel, and select ToolJet Database as the data source.
• Select employees as the Table name, and Create row as the Operation.
• Rename the query to addEmployee.
• Click on Add Column to add required columns.
• Enter code below for email and firstname column keys:

{{components.table1.newRows[0].email}}
{{components.table1.newRows[0].firstname}}
...

Frame all the remaining keys in the same format.

6. Use Events to Trigger Queries

The addEmployees query should run when you click on the Save button on the + (Add new row) form. And the Table component should reload and display updated data each time a new employee is added. Follow the below steps to use events to setup this functionality.

• Under the addEmployee query settings, Scroll down and click on New event handler.
• Select Query Success as the Event, Run Query as the Action, and getEmployees as the Query.
• Click on the Table component, go to Events in properties panel and add a New event handler.
• Choose Add new rows as the Event, Run Query as the Action, and addEmployee as the Query.

Now when you click the + (Add new row) button, enter the employee data, and click Save, the addEmployee query will execute, adding the data to the employees table in the ToolJet Database. This will be followed by the Table component reloading with the new data.

7. Preview, Release And Share

The preview, release and share buttons are at the top-right of the App-Builder.

• Click on the Preview button on the top-right of app builder to review how your application is coming along during development.
• Once the development is done and you are ready to use the application, click on the Release button to deploy the app.
• Finally, share your application with your end users using the Share button.

Congratulations on completing the tutorial! You've successfully built an employee directory application and, in the process, learnt the fundamentals of ToolJet.

To learn more about how ToolJet works, explore the subjects covered in ToolJet Concepts.