SQLPage v0.32.0 documentation

If you are completely new to SQLPage, you should start by reading the get started tutorial, which will guide you through the process of creating your first SQLPage application.

Building an application with SQLPage is quite simple. To create a new web page, just create a new SQL file. For each SELECT statement that you write, the data it returns will be analyzed and rendered to the user. The two most important concepts in SQLPage are components and parameters.

components are small user interface elements that you can use to display your data in a certain way.
top-level parameters are the properties of these components, allowing you to customize their appearance and behavior.
row-level parameters constitute the data that you want to display in the components.

To select a component and set its top-level properties, you write the following SQL statement:

SELECT 'component_name' AS component, 'my value' AS top_level_parameter_1;

Then, you can set its row-level parameters by writing a second SELECT statement:

SELECT my_column_1 AS row_level_parameter_1, my_column_2 AS row_level_parameter_2 FROM my_table;

This page documents all the components provided by default in SQLPage and their parameters. Use this as a reference when building your SQL application. If at any point you need help, you can ask for it on the SQLPage forum.

If you know some HTML, you can also easily create your own components for your application.

components

A visually distinctive message or notification.

An advanced component that can be used to create pages with password-restricted access. When used, this component has to be at the top of your page, because once the page has begun being sent to the browser, it is too late to restrict access to it. The authentication component checks if the user has sent the correct password, and if not, redirects them to the URL specified in the link parameter. If you don't want to re-check the password on every page (which is an expensive operation), you can check the password only once and store a session token in your database. You can use the cookie component to set the session token cookie in the client browser, and then check whether the token matches what you stored in subsequent pages.

A component to display key metrics or statistics with optional description, change indicator, and progress bar. Useful in dashboards.

A secondary navigation aid that helps users understand their location on a website or mobile application.

A versatile button component do display one or multiple button links of different styles.

A grid where each element is a small card that displays a piece of data.

A carousel is used to display images. When used with multiple images, it will cycle through them automatically or with controls, creating a slideshow.

A component that plots data. Line, area, bar, and pie charts are all supported. Each item in the component is a data point in the graph.

Displays one or many blocks of code from a programming language or formated text as XML or JSON.

A component to display various items in a card layout, allowing users to choose options. Useful for showcasing different features or services, or KPIs. See also the big_number component.

Sets a cookie in the client browser, used for session management and storing user-related information. This component creates a single cookie. Since cookies need to be set before the response body is sent to the client, this component should be placed at the top of the page, before any other components that generate output. After being set, a cookie can be accessed anywhere in your SQL code using the `sqlpage.cookie('cookie_name')` pseudo-function.

Lets the user download data as a CSV file. Each column from the items in the component will map to a column in the resulting CSV. When `csv` is used as a **header component** (without a [shell](?component=shell)), it will trigger a download of the CSV file directly on page load. If the csv file to download is large, we recommend using this approach. When used inside a page (after calling the shell component), this will add a button to the page that lets the user download the CSV file. The button will need to load the entire contents of the CSV file in memory, inside the browser, even if the user does not click on it. If the csv file to download is large, we recommend using this component without a shell component in order to efficiently stream the data to the browser.

Display small pieces of information in a clear and readable way. Each item has a name and is associated with a value.

Visualize any set of values as JSON. Can be used to display all the parameters passed to the component. Useful for debugging: just replace the name of the component you want to debug with 'debug', and see all the top-level and row-level parameters that are passed to it, and their types.

Dividers help organize content and make the interface layout clear and uncluttered.

Renders other components, given their properties as JSON. If you are looking for a way to run FOR loops, to share similar code between pages of your site, or to render multiple components for every line returned by your SQL query, then this is the component to use

A foldable list of elements which can be expanded individually.

# Building forms in SQL So, you have an SQL database, and would like to let users input data into it? The `form` component is what you are looking for. ## Collecting data from users to your database The form component will display a series of input fields of various types, that can be filled in by the user. When the user submits the form, the data is posted to an SQL file specified in the `action` property. ## Handle Data with SQL User-entered data is posted to an SQL file, that will handle the data, and will be able to insert it into the database, search for it, format it, etc. For example, a value in a field named "x" can be referenced as `:x` in the SQL query of the target page. ## Examples - **Data Entry Automation**: Forms for tasks like inventory management. - **Custom Report Builder**: Generate reports based on user-specified criteria. - **Database Management**: Update records or query data. - **Admin Panel**: Manage user roles and permissions. - **Data Analytics with SQL**: Collect data for analytics. - **SQL Query Parametrization**: Build and execute complex SQL queries that depend on user input. - **SQL CRUD Operations**: Perform Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations. - **Web SQL**: Integrate forms into web applications.

Display a large title and description for your page, with an optional large illustrative image. Useful in your home page, for instance.

Include raw HTML in the output. For advanced users only. Use this component to create complex layouts or to include external content. Be very careful when using this component with user-generated content, as it can lead to security vulnerabilities. Use this component only if you are familiar with the security implications of including raw HTML, and understand the risks of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

An advanced component to set arbitrary HTTP headers: can be used to set a custom caching policy to your pages, or implement custom redirections, for example. If you are a beginner, you probably don't need this component. When used, this component has to be the first component in the page, because once the page is sent to the browser, it is too late to change the headers. HTTP headers are additional pieces of information sent with responses to web requests that provide instructions or metadata about the data being sent — for example, setting cache control directives to control caching behavior or specifying the content type of a response. Any valid HTTP header name can be used as a top-level parameter for this component. The examples shown here are just that, examples; and you can create any custom header if needed simply by declaring it. If your header's name contains a dash or any other special character, you will have to use your database's quoting mechanism to declare it. In standard SQL, you can use double quotes to quote identifiers (like "X-My-Header"), in Microsoft SQL Server, you can use square brackets (like [X-My-Header]).

For advanced users, allows you to easily build an API over your database. The json component responds to the current HTTP request with a JSON object. This component must appear at the top of your SQL file, before any other data has been sent to the browser.

A vertical list of items. Each item can be clickable and link to another page.

## Visualize SQL data on a map. The map component displays a custom interactive map with markers on it. Useful in combination with PostgreSQL's PostGIS or SQLite's spatialite, to create custom visualizations of your geospatial data. The map component is also compatible with non-geospatial databases, by manually setting the `latitude` and `longitude` parameters. ### Example Use Cases 1. **Store Locator**: Build an interactive map to find the nearest store information using SQL-stored geospatial data. 2. **Delivery Route Optimization**: Visualize the results of delivery route optimization algorithms. 3. **Sales Heatmap**: Identify high-performing regions by mapping sales data stored in SQL. 4. **Real-Time Tracking**: Create dynamic dashboards that track vehicles, assets, or users live using PostGIS or MS SQL Server geospatial time series data. 5. **Demographic Insights**: Map customer demographics or trends geographically to uncover opportunities for growth or better decision-making.

Redirects the user to another page. This component is useful for implementing redirects after a form submission, or to redirect users to a login page if they are not logged in. Contrary to the http_header component, this component completely stops the execution of the page after it is called, so it is suitable to use to hide sensitive information from users that are not logged in, for example. Since it uses an HTTP header to redirect the user, it is not possible to use this component after the page has started being sent to the browser.

Produces a data flow in the RSS format. Can be used to generate a podcast feed. To use this component, you must first return an HTTP header with the "application/rss+xml" content type (see http_header component). Next, you must use the shell-empty component to avoid that SQLPage generates HTML code.

Personalize the "shell" surrounding your page contents. Used to set properties for the entire page.

A simple component to set the HTTP status code for the response. This can be used to indicate the result of the request, such as 200 for success, 404 for not found, or 500 for server error. The status code should be set according to the HTTP standard status codes. This component should be used when you need to explicitly set the status code of the HTTP response.

Guide users through multi-stage processes, displaying a clear list of previous and future steps.

Build a tabbed interface, with each tab being a link to a page. Each tab can be in two states: active or inactive.

A table with optional filtering and sorting. Unlike most others, this component does not have a fixed set of item properties, any property that is used will be rendered directly as a column in the table. Tables can contain rich text, including images, links, and icons. Table rows can be styled with a background color, and the table can be made striped, hoverable, and bordered. Advanced users can apply custom styles to table columns using a CSS class with the same name as the column, and to table rows using the `_sqlpage_css_class` property.

A paragraph of text. The entire component will render as a single paragraph, with each item being rendered as a span of text inside it, the styling of which can be customized using parameters.

A list of events with a vertical line connecting them.

Defines HTML headings. The level 1 is used for the maximal size and the level 6 is used for the minimal size.

Component for visualising activity logs or other monitoring-related data.