Management forms

Management forms let you manage data in your SQL Server or PostgreSQL database tables directly from DataTako, without writing SQL. Use them to maintain master data like budgets, account managers, or any manual input needed for your Power BI reports.

Enable the feature

1. Go to Settings.
2. Open the Features tab.
3. Turn on Management forms.
4. Reload the page after enabling. This is required for the feature to activate.

Set up a database connection

Before creating a form, you need to connect DataTako to your database.

1. Go to Management forms in the menu.
2. Switch to Configuration mode.
3. Open the Connections tab.
4. Click Add.

Supported databases

SQL Server

• Default port: 1433
• Authentication: username/password or service principal (Entra ID)
• For service principal, you also need the Azure tenant ID

PostgreSQL

• Default port: 5432
• Authentication: username/password only

Connection steps

1. Allow incoming traffic from DataTako’s IP address on your SQL Server or firewall. You can find the IP address on the connection setup screen.
2. Select the database type (SQL Server or PostgreSQL).
3. Choose the authentication method.
4. Fill in host, port, username, and password.
5. Select or enter the database name. You can click Retrieve databases to automatically load available databases.
6. Click Test connection to verify everything works.
7. Save the connection.

Make sure the database user has access to the tables you plan to manage.

Create a management form

1. Go to Management forms > Configuration mode.
2. Click Create management form.
3. Enter a name for the form. This is how it will appear in the menu.
4. Select a database connection.
5. Select the table you want to manage. DataTako will automatically detect the columns and their types.
6. Assign user groups and/or individual users who should have access to this form.
7. Click Save configuration.

Once created, the connection and table cannot be changed. To use a different table, create a new form.

Column types

DataTako automatically detects column types from your database and maps them to form field types:

Form type	Database types
Text	varchar, nvarchar, char, text, character varying
Number	int, smallint, bigint, decimal, numeric, float, real, double precision
Date	datetime, datetime2, date, time, smalldatetime, timestamp
Checkbox	bit, boolean

Additional column behaviors:

• Primary key columns are used to match rows when saving. Rows with matching keys are updated, new rows are inserted, and missing rows are deleted.
• Auto-number columns (identity/serial) are read-only. The database generates these values automatically.
• Required columns are highlighted if left empty. You must fill them in before saving.

Using the form

Open a form from the Management forms section in the menu. The data is displayed in a spreadsheet-like grid.

Editing data

• Click a cell to edit it.
• Use Add row or press Ctrl+U (Cmd+U on Mac) to insert a new row.
• Right-click a row to delete it.
• Drag rows to reorder them.
• Click Save to push your changes to the database.

Filtering and sorting

• Click a column header dropdown to filter or sort by that column.
• Multiple columns can be sorted at the same time.

Excel download and upload

You can also edit data offline using Excel.

Download

Click Download data file to export the current data as an .xlsx file.

Upload

1. Click the upload button and select your .xlsx file.
2. Choose how to handle existing data:
   • Overwrite – replaces all existing data with the uploaded file.
   • Keep – merges uploaded data with existing data (updates matching rows, inserts new ones).
3. Click Upload.

The column headers in your Excel file must match the column names in the form.

Access control

Who can configure forms: organisation admins and editors. This includes creating connections, creating forms, and assigning access.

Who can use forms: depends on the per-form access settings. When creating or editing a form, you assign specific user groups and/or individual users. Only those users can see and edit the form data.

Users with the viewer role can view form data but cannot make changes, provided they are assigned to the form.