ms access conditional formatting statement for recently updated data - database

Is there a way in MS access 2007 to create a conditional formatting rule that will highlight any field that has been updated in the past 7 days?
Currently I have a rule that highlights any information that is added in the previous week by field value is between Now()-7 and Now(). I'd like to open up the option to modifying old entries that week and have those highlighting as well.
Thanks.
EDIT:
Essentially the database dates back from approximately 6 months. It tracks progress on projects and employees enter task details in a subform of the project.
Date Employee Task
3/14/2012 David Talked to Remou *about ms-access*
8/1/2012 John Solved world hunger
** denotes updated information, and although the task happened on 3/14, I would like to display the changes with conditional formatting. Currently the only thing that would highlight is the 8/1 event.

By far the easiest way is to add an update date and a username. It won't give you a highlighted text difference, but it will be much easier to implement. As an aside, I always add a created timestamp, created user, updated timestamp and updated user to any user maintained tables. It saves so much trouble, because Access does not automatically add this information.

Related

Power Pivot - Timeline linked to native Calendar Table can't be inserted anymore

I'm building a model in power pivot, and have so far 2 tables retrieved from API calls. I added a calendar, linked it to my tables, and it was working fine. I was able to add a timeline linked to my Calendar date field (not fact tables date fields).
Link to the Calendar table are seen by Power Pivot
Then I updated the range of dates of my Calendar table, to go further in the past, and further in the future. Since then, when I try to add a timeline linked to the Calendar date field, nothing happens. It's weird, because Power Pivot is seeing the relationship with the calendar table, when I add the Calendar date fields in the power charts (see image 1). It's really the timeline that's not appearing anymore. If I try to add original date fields from fact tables, then the timeline adds correctly but that's not what I want.
Steps to update Calendar date range
Clicking Okay does nothing, when it usually adds a timeline
I don't know if it's a bug in Power Pivot or I broke something?
The Excel model is below
Data model, with relationships to Calendar table
Okay so I found the solution to my problem after 3 days of research. Basically by adding the timeline outside of a pivot chart, linking it to my calendar table, instead of not showing anything, it showed the error message pretty much saying that dates were not supported in Excel. So then I figured my date format was correct as it's the native calendar table, so it was probably a problem linked to the range. After a few tests, it seems anything before 1900 is not supported in the timeline, same goes for after 2099. Adjusting the range fixed it!

Is there a way to add the current timestamp to a Google Data Studio report?

I created a simple report to track the funds raised for our primary school. Just a pie chart that picks data from a Google Sheets being maintained by the treasurer.
There is now a request to add a timestamp on the screen (the report is being shared by taking a screenshot and sharing in various social media platforms to report progress).
After some Googling I couldn't find a function that returns current time. Something like =now() in Sheets. However, it was recommended to try create the time in the source data.
So I created a field that stores the value of the current time in Google Sheets using this function:
=(now()-date(1970,1,1))*86400
I also set the Sheets to refresh every minute. The Sheets works perfectly.
On the Studio side I added a calculated field to display the time in my preferred format:
TODATE(Amount,'SECONDS','%H:%M:%S on %d %b %Y')
Again, this conversion works perfectly.
The problem is that the time refresh doesn't work on the report side. No matter how many times I refresh the data it still doesn't pick the updated time from the source. Yet the source sheet has the updated time.
As far as I can tell, the worksheet time update has to be triggered manually for the report to be updated.
That negates the whole purpose of the timestamp.
Sharing the report directly from Google Studio is not a practical option for now. Still, I have shared the report.
0) Summary
Use either:
#1 New Recommended Approach: Using Scorecards
#2 Original Suggestion: Using Tables
1) New Recommended Approach: Scorecards
It can be achieved using the CURRENT_DATETIME function (released on the 17 Sep 2020 Google Data Studio update to Dates and Times).
The below looks at three use cases using Scorecards which are aggregated by MAX or MIN (in the below scenario either aggregation would display the same Date Time); the fields will automatically update based on the chosen Data Freshness settings (for example, the Google Sheet used in this Report is set to refresh every 15 minutes) and can also be manually updated if required (by clicking on the refresh icon at the top of the report or using the shortcut keys Ctrl + Shift + E):
1.1) UTC
The default function would display a value based on UTC:
CURRENT_DATETIME()
1.2) Time Zone
A Time Zone could also be specified; for example, the below would display the the EST Time Zone:
CURRENT_DATETIME("EST")
1.3) Location
A location can also be specified, based on the TZ database name, for example, Colombo, Sri Lanka would be:
CURRENT_DATETIME("Asia/Colombo")
Added an Editable Google Data Studio Report and a GIF to elaborate:
2) Original Suggestion: Tables
The below looks at three use cases (outlined above) created using Tables.
Added an Editable Google Data Studio Report and a GIF to demonstrate:
There isn't a function to do that yet but hopefully will come soon (see:https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/78200216 which is assigned) however with a little careful design, you could achieve it using date rather than timestamp utilising a date filter.
If you don't have a date field in your data than you could simply set this to TODAY.
If you do have a date field then use the advanced date to set a start date of your field's earliest date and max date of TODAY.
You could then use some shapes / formatting to cover up what isn't needed.
Hardly ideal but maybe a stop gap?
There is a variable TODAY() that doesn't seem to be documented in their Function documentation but that works in calculated fields and may help you

SSRS Report-outputting ''Blank'' rather than 0 for end user

First off, I am new and just learning about databases and reporting functionality.
Background: Let's say that I am an end user and I have requested a report from my IT department. I know that my company uses SQL server and they generate SSRS reports frequently.The SQL Server database is connected to a PIM(product data) application. Within the PIM there is a numeric field holding a quantity of bulbs. In the event that there is no bulb, that field is left blank. I do not have access to our database or the reporting parameters. I am at the mercy of someone else essentially.
When I receive my report, I see zeros '0' for every item that doesn't have a bulb. That is not the desired output, I want to see the field as a 'blank' just as it is in our PIM system. When I expressed this to the report writer, he informed me that this could not be done because that is a numeric field.
Does this seem correct? Please help!! I am fighting an uphill battle. I have a job to do and it relies heavily on IT support. I now have to go to my boss and tell her that this can't be done. I also understand that I can manually manipulate the report myself in excel but this is time consuming and if this can be handled before the report hits my inbox, that would be ideal. If there is a solution that someone out there can relay to me, I would be so appreciative-Thanks!!
If the report is definitely generated in SSRS, it is absolutely possible to set zero values as a blank field. To me, it sounds as if the person responsible just doesn't want to make the change because it's a fairly simple fix. It's as simple as opening the properties window of whatever field needs to be fixed. Since the field is numeric, you would want to format the textbox as a number anyways. The highlighted option displays where this change can be made. There's actually three default options for Show zero as: being blank, a dash(-), or displaying (None).

How to arrange a daily time log entry form in Microsoft Access 2007 with Weekdays & Dates in the column headings

The objective is to create a weekly form, in Microsoft Access 2007, that allows employees to select their name from a list, the date of the first day of the week, and then create all daily time longs for the week in single form. The form needs to have a week view like the form (an Excel mockup) shown here:
Once entered, the data is to be written to the Project Time Log table shown here:
When the employee selects the "Week Starting" value, the column headings in the able below need to update. Is this possible? What also has me stumped is how to enter project hours for the week in a single row that will result in creating up to 6 records in my database. Finally, how does one set up validation on the "Week Starting" field so that the employee can only select Mondays?
I guess this is where I admit that I am just getting started with MS Access. However, with some experience in database design and Excel I am finding everything but advanced form building to be fairly straightforward.
So, can someone point me in the right direction? Do I need to use a Pivot Table to make this work? What is a Modal Dialogue? Could it be useful here? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The easiest way may be to create a table used solely for dataentry that can reside in the front-end for each employee.
DETable
EmployeeID
WeekStarting
ProjectID
Workcode
Mon
Tue
<...>
Sat
You can clear down the table and then append the relevant projectIDs and EmployeeID with a command button or suitable event.
The labels showing Mon, Tue etc can be updated to show the relevant date after WeekStarting is selected.
A suitable set of queries, or a UNION query will allow you to append the data to the main table.

Recommended method to handle record editing with approval in CakePHP?

I haven't been able to find any information regarding the best way to handle record editing with approval in CakePHP.
Specifically, I need to allow users to edit data in a record, but the edited data should not overwrite the original record data until administrators have approved the change. I could put the edited records in a new table and then overwrite the originals when I approve them but I wonder if there is an easier way since this idea doesn't seem to play well with the cake philosophy so to speak.
You are going to need somewhere to store that data until an administrator can approve it.
I'm not sure how this can be easier than creating another table with the new edits and the original post id. Then when an administrator approves the edit, the script overwrites the old record with the edited version.
I'm working on a similar setup and I'm going with storing the draft record in the same table but with a flag set on the record called "draft". Also, the original record has a "draft_id" field that has the id of the draft record stored in it.
Then in the model when the original record is loaded by the display engine it shows it normally. But when the edit or preview actions try to load the record, it checks the "draft_id" field and then loads the other record if it's set.
The "draft" flag is used to keep list and other group find type actions from grabbing the draft records too. This might also be solved by a more advanced SQL query but I'm not quite that good with SQL.

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