Question Application Design

[Erdemin]

Good day!

I'm currently looking to redesign a laptop tracking application we use at the helpdesk I work. It's an excel sheet with some macros that basicly allows us to make reservations for people that needs laptops when they go on mission.

In cell A1 you have the dates going from when they started to use the excel sheet untill a few years in the future (easily extended further). The top row has all the laptop id's.
Right now, when a person wants a laptop we basicly check which one is available for the period of time and simply put the persons name on each of the dates for that specific laptop.
The sheet is causing some issues right now and my boss asked me to check out what can be done in Access.

I'd like to keep the same 'look' in Access. I realise this will be hard to do. They way I see it I'll have to create a record where the first field is each date, starting from now, untill, oh let's say, Jan 1st 2020. Then create additional collumn names for each laptop. Then write some funky vba code to get things working in a similar way the excel sheet did.

It sounds too messy to me so I thought I'd ask your views on this. I made some litte demo's with form/subform setups, but it does not offer the easy viewing of the laptops status and history like the excel sheet does.

Is there 'good' way to make this happen in Access?

Thanks,
Johan

 

[Singh400]

I'd start with several sheets of A4 and some pencils. Draw your basic database design out. I'd start with

tblLaptops (contains all the Laptops that you are able to book out)
tblUsers (everyone who requests use of a laptop)
tblBooked (contains details of booking, who, when, where and for how long)

I'd go from there mate.

Edit* As for keeping the same look. I supose "Datasheet View" could do that.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Search this forum for "Reservations" and "Booking" and "Scheduling" - with the warning that two types of articles pop up on "Scheduling." The kind you DON'T want will talk about running some task at a specific time. This problem pops up often.

Here is my thought. If you want it to look and feel like Excel, use Excel. Access is a whole different animal for which your stated goal, while possible, is bending the intent and style of Access to make it work.

I'd like to keep the same 'look' in Access. I realise this will be hard to do. They way I see it I'll have to create a record where the first field is each date, starting from now, untill, oh let's say, Jan 1st 2020. Then create additional collumn names for each laptop. Then write some funky vba code to get things working in a similar way the excel sheet did.

This is a DRASTICALLY non-normalized database. Your "each column names a laptop" creates what is called a "repeating field" that violates First Normal Form. If you do not understand normalization, now is the time to read up on the subject before you drag yourself into a quagmire.

I'm going to be honest with you. If you presented us a database of that design and asked us to help you with it, our first thought would be to tell you to chuck it out the window and redesign it to be normalized.

Search Access Help on "Normalization" and Wikipedia.ORG on "Database Normalization." You can also search the Internet (pick your favorite search engine) on the database normalization topic. You'll get a gazillion hits. Pick a couple of good .EDU domain sites - colleges or universities you recognize. Read up on it before trying to build a database that, in your current design, will only come to grief due to inherent limitations and incredibly tedious programming requirements.