I'm in kind of an odd situation where I'm trying to create a front end Form in Access based on survey questions. What makes this a bit complicated is the Access Database that the survey question answers will be put into is another person's responsibility and incomplete.
What is the best (or is there a best) way to create a front end Form that can then be attached to a database after completion?
Create sample backend database
Create table(s) with sample questions/answers in there
Give sample DB to other person and tell them how to fill it
Build your form based on the sample tables, using a split database (frontend + backend)
When the real data is complete, use that one instead of your sample backend.
If you are using a MS Access database for a survey.
No need to separate the form and the data.
Keep a copy of the empty database.
Mail the database to survey responders.
Responders send the completed database back to you by email.
Forward the completed databases to the other person who collates the answers.
Related
This is sort of a random question but I am building a backend in express and mongodb and I need to store data for a settings page. This would contain random one-off global settings an admin user would input to use. However, it needs to be saved in the DB so it is constant across all users.
Right now I have a single collection/table that just has one record stored and I just updated that specific record whenever the settings are updated.
Just feels a little goofy to do that a create a full schema and collection for one piece of data but I can't think of any other way to do it. Is this the normal way of doing this?
Thanks
We're moving from MS Access VBA to ASP.NET MVC (I know, big jump). One thing we could do in MS Access is paste a list of items into a temp table and then update records in a database based on that list. I'm having trouble determining the best way to go about this in ASP.NET Core.
For example, we have a database of products and users routinely go in to an application and make a comment on a product regarding is supply chain availability. Sometimes, users are provided a list (excel) of products from a supplier with updates for each product that they want to enter into the database. I'd like for them to be able to mass upload those comments, rather than entering them one by one.
I've looked around and can't seem to find a method that is intuitive and doesn't seem like going way out of our way to accomplish something simple.
I have a nicely designed access database, complete with layed out forms and macros behind many buttons that filter through search boxes and do many other functions.
My problem is that I am sending this database to multiple people who want to add new records, however when they give me back their edited database (now with new records", i cant import them, because another person who has also handed me their edited version of the database needs their records added and access doesnt allow me to import these records because unique ID's have been created by both people and clash when i try to import them both in.
I have tried some websites that claim to import my database and allow cloud editing, however i lose all the functionality and layout of my forms / macros as the websites dont support it.
What would be the best solution so that i can get multiple people adding new records at the same time? Are there any websites that offer this? Or is there a way inside access to reassign the Unique ID's if they are already in the system?
Set the field size of your AutoNumber ID fields to Replication ID instead of Long Integer. It is extremely unlikely that two users will create records with the same ID.
Split the database into frontend and backend parts. Backend sits on server and frontend links to backend. Each user runs their own copy of frontend. However, if your users do not have access to same network, you are in a pickle. Have you looked into Sharepoint and Azure?
I have designed a db for users that did not have connection to our network. These were construction site field offices. The main office had the master database. Field offices were given an Access file where they entered records during life of the project and at the end they sent in the file and code in the master imported records. Since all data was new there was no concern for conflicting updates. Simplest way I found to accomplish was to not use Autonumber primary key.
I do have another db that required merging data from multiple Access files and those files did use Autonumber primary key. The import code was more complicated.
We would like to give some of our customers the option to read data from our central database. The data is live and new records are being added every few seconds. Our database is MySQL running on Amazon RDS.
I was wondering what is the common practice for doing so.
One option would be to give them select right from specific tables, in that case they would be able to access other customers' data as well.
I have tried searching for database, interface, and API key words and some other key words, but I couldn't find a good answer.
Thanks!
Use REST for exposing specific tables to do CRUD operations. You can control the access on it too.
My wife works for a medium sized retail chain. Managers from each of the 80 outlets have to fill in one row of performance info for each of their staff (900 in all), but aren't allowed to see the data of other stores' staff.
My wife currently manages this with lots of spreadsheets, because each month the executive change what they want to collect, and their IT team don't have the resources to update their SAS system. She has to manually compile all the data into 1 spreadsheet for analysis which is time consuming and error prone. She's recently gone from having to do this for 20 outlets to 80 outlets and thinks she must be an easier way.
Is there a simple form based system, that can leverage what is already installed (microsoft office and lotus but not MSAccess), or can be run from a network drive. Cloud apps are banned. Excel's security is all wrong. Can word form templates append to a shared data source? Any ideas?
TIA
You could have a single table with all the data, then create 'shadowtables' on this table for each individual store.
in MySQL this would probably be either a 'partition table' (I've never used this so not sure how it works) or the use of temp tables.
You would then need to implement a method whereby when a user logs in at a given location (IP address) a trigger would create the temp table, then populate it with the relevent data for the store at that IP address.
An alternative (probably easier too) would be to have a specied table for each store, then grant users specific priveleges on each table you create. Again you'll need trigers to either populate a single 'master table' with info as it is updated, or you will just send a
select * from outlet1, outlet2... outlet80
again you may decide to create a temp table from the above select, and implement a custom script to create it only when required.
In fact that is probably how I would do it.
Then in you web interface have a button to create the temp table, and display it to the current user (provided they have the required priveleges to view all the tables of course).
I don't know for certain if Lotus is able to implement this, I don't know about its 'database' solution. I know that to do something similar in Access isn't that hard, the only downside would be needing to handle user identification (which Access doesn't do natively), again I don't know about Lotus.
In my experience the 'flat file database systems' don't generally handle user permisions in a native fashion, it is put onto the interface development to hand this.
I'm not sure how helpful the answer is, but it may take you a little way to a solution (even if you end up going for a server/client dbms system)
You can use Lotus for this. A simple start for you:
Create a database with one form and one view
On the form add whatever fields you want but also add a computed-when-composed multi-value field of type "Readers" with formula:
"[Admin]" : #Name( [CANONICALIZE];#userName)
With the exception of those with an Admin role (e.g., your wife), the view will display to each user only the records that the user created. The users will have to create one record per row.
Alternatively you could create an agent in the database that reads the data from an Excel file and builds the documents (records) with the READERS field's value computed as the documents are created.
If that's the route you want to take post a reply here and I'll post some code to (i) prompt a user to select an excel file, (ii) read the excel file data into lotus notes, (iii) implement a READERS field to see that documents are kept confidential between the creator and the Admin role people.
Hope that helps.