When building applications using PeakZebra Blocks, there are three categories of things you’ll be working with.

The PZ database #

While you don’t directly access the database (unless you’re doing custom development), you need to know that it’s there, what the thinking behind it is, and what kinds of data you can store in it (specially, how to reference those pieces of data).

The PZ database lives in the same SQL database as everything else that gets stored in your WordPress installation, but it is completely separate from the WordPress tables. Nothing get stored within the WordPress tables, which has the advantages of keeping things clean internally and, in some instances where queries against multiple tables or fields are involved, it can perform up to ten times faster across large data sets (say, 100k records and up).

The PZ database is preconfigured to store most of the sorts of data you’d typically need to work with in a business application. You can get the specifics here, but the main point here is that you don’t have to do anything to start working with client information (name, email, address, phone… all those usual sorts of things). Furthermore, because we know up front what’s in the tables, we can do a better job of building in functionality around the data. Less work for you.

What if you need to work with data that isn’t already pre-set in the data tables? We’ll discuss ways to add new tables and fields elsewhere, but know for the moment: we’ve got you covered.

Forms and fields #

Unlike all the other WordPress form builders we’re aware of, we let you build forms using native Gutenberg blocks for the fields and buttons. You build forms using blocks like PZ Text Field and PZ Radio Button, wrap them in a PZ Form block, and tell the block which table it should store the data to.

Optionally, you can embed a snippet of PHP code in the form block and it will execute when the form is submitted.

Data grids #

Finally, you can display and manipulate the data that’s been gathered by forms and saved in the database by using the PZ Grid block. You say which table to use and it gets displayed in a responsive, reactive grid with all the modern capabilities like clicking a header to sort the grid, in-place editing, and so on.

How it goes #

Typically, you build (or use pre-built) forms for the data you want to use. Then you display it using data grids that you’ve configured to show the data you want and provide the buttons you need to perform actions you’d like to support. It’s easiest to walk through a build to get the hang of it, so we’d suggestion you try our Quick Demo.