Working with Data Types in Adalo and Xano

Working with fields in Xano is akin to working with properties in Adalo, but there are some differences and unique situations to consider.

Skill Level: Expert

Before You Begin

Make sure to complete the Other Collections guide first.
You must have a Team or Business Adalo plan to use this feature.

Walkthrough

In Xano, properties are called fields and while some of the types will be the same, there are some differences in how they should be stored, depending on your use case. Use the table below to learn more.

Adalo Property Type	Xano Field Type
Text	Use a text field - it can hold numbers, symbols, letters, and even emojies.
Number	Use an integer field to hold numbers that you foresee never needing decimals (ex. 1, 500, 4379, etc). Use a decimal field to hold numbers that you foresee needing to hold a decimal point (ex. 3.14, 6.2, 134555483.1, etc.)
True/False	Use a boolean field. When performing update and create actions, note that you may need to use literal text "true" and "false" in the action inputs if not using available screen data.
Date	Use a Date field. This is stored as a simple string in Xano, not as a valid timestamp. You cannot calculate dates based on this field type.
Date and Time	Use a Timestamp field. This is stored as a UNIX timestamp in milliseconds in Xano. Use this field to calculate datetimes. When performing update and create actions, this field will appear as a Text field. Be sure to send and date or datetimes with "No Formatting" selected. Xano will auto-translate this format to the proper UNIX timestamp for storage.
Image	Use a text field to store the URL of the uploaded image. It's important to note that the image is still stored in Adalo, but it's URL is stored as a text property in the Xano database.
File	Similar to the Image property, you should use a text field to store the URL of the file.
Location	Use either two integer fields for latitude and longitude, or you can use a Point field to hold a JSON object containing the latitude and longitude.
One-to-Many Relationship	Use a Table Reference field for the relationship along with Add-Ons in the API call to lookup and return the properties you need from the related field. Note that in Xano, Table References are only created on one table, but the data is available on either side of the relationship.
Many-to-Many Relationship	The easiest approach is to create a shared table between the two tables that need the relationship. For example, instead of having a relationship between many posts and many users to represent "Likes", you would create a literal Likes table to hold two table reference fields - one to users and one to posts.

Adalo Property Type

Xano Field Type

Text

Use a text field - it can hold numbers, symbols, letters, and even emojies.

Number

Use an integer field to hold numbers that you foresee never needing decimals (ex. 1, 500, 4379, etc). Use a decimal field to hold numbers that you foresee needing to hold a decimal point (ex. 3.14, 6.2, 134555483.1, etc.)

True/False

Use a boolean field. When performing update and create actions, note that you may need to use literal text "true" and "false" in the action inputs if not using available screen data.

Date

Use a Date field. This is stored as a simple string in Xano, not as a valid timestamp. You cannot calculate dates based on this field type.

Date and Time

Use a Timestamp field. This is stored as a UNIX timestamp in milliseconds in Xano. Use this field to calculate datetimes. When performing update and create actions, this field will appear as a Text field. Be sure to send and date or datetimes with "No Formatting" selected. Xano will auto-translate this format to the proper UNIX timestamp for storage.

Image

Use a text field to store the URL of the uploaded image. It's important to note that the image is still stored in Adalo, but it's URL is stored as a text property in the Xano database.

File

Similar to the Image property, you should use a text field to store the URL of the file.

Location

Use either two integer fields for latitude and longitude, or you can use a Point field to hold a JSON object containing the latitude and longitude.

One-to-Many Relationship

Use a Table Reference field for the relationship along with Add-Ons in the API call to lookup and return the properties you need from the related field. Note that in Xano, Table References are only created on one table, but the data is available on either side of the relationship.

Many-to-Many Relationship

The easiest approach is to create a shared table between the two tables that need the relationship. For example, instead of having a relationship between many posts and many users to represent "Likes", you would create a literal Likes table to hold two table reference fields - one to users and one to posts.

Learn More

Keep in mind that whenever you make changes to fields in Xano, you must also update the collections in Adalo.
It can be very helpful to have some basic knowledge of data types and their definitions in terms of traditional coding. With Adalo and Xano, all properties/field types can be represented by JSON data types.

Help

As with all integrations, Adalo is only able to provide support for the Adalo side of the integration. For assistance with your Xano account, dashboard, or implementation, please use the Xano documentation, Xano community, Xano University, or contact Xano Support directly.

If you need additional help with this article, you can always ask in our community forum! Be sure to paste the link to this article in your post as well! We also have a Xano Course on the Adalo App Academy that you may find helpful!

Do you have a tutorial or help doc request? Let us know!

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Last updated 8 months ago