[AccessD] Question of Approach

The questions will not change - now where have I heard that before!

And will you be making similar 'adventurous' decisions in the future?

Still, at least you are (I presume) being paid a salary for the hours
(man-months?) you dedicate to helping that user!
 
JimB

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Clark
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 4:10 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Question of Approach



>>> "James Button" <jamesbutton at blueyonder.co.uk> 1/29/2014 9:46 AM >>>
"Contrary to Gary's approach; I would have one table for the answers, or maybe
one table for each of the 'age-group' surveys - where you add columns when new
fields are required, setting the entries in all new entries in existing entries
to null when you change the table. That way the data can still be queried as a
set."
***** Oh, no, the questions will not change...or at least, I'm not even
considering that approach for this. 
 

"As you may have multiple sets of answers for each age-group, maybe have a
date~timestamp on the answer sets so analysis can be done using a VIEW that
excludes any but the latest (max(date~timestamp)) set of each age set for each
client. Maybe a 'deleted' marker and 2 timestamps - entry creation and last
updated if you are going to retain a history of entries/amendments (never a good
idea to physically delete entries, as there is always someone who will select
'delete' by mistake) You could use a sequential counter, to denote the latest
entry but again that requires extra work at data entry time."
 
***** Actually, yes, I've already added a date-stamp for the surveys. This is
one of the things that was missing. 
 
...I've got to tell you how all of this started...sort of an "OT" w/in the
subject, if you will. I was asked by a co-worker, last week, if I'd look at
this...they all think Access is some big magical being...because it, "wasn't
working." Well, our network has completely changed since they've last used this
program, and the link was pointing to an old Novell location, which is now a
Windows Active Directory network. I changed the links to the proper location and
it worked. 
 
I should have ran for cover at that moment. However, during a brief conversation
w/the user, she was a bit confused over the use of this, so I figured I'd whip
up some forms for her...menus pointing to where she wanted to go. Then, while
doing this...which I planned on spending maybe an hour or two (whip up some
reports as well)...I discovered that these entries she was making were basically
useless and were unusable. I brought it to her attention and agreed to help her
out. 

 

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