Form design

[eacollie]

I'm asking for suggestions on how to do the following: I need to design a form(s) to input who will attend meals (B/L/D) each day.

This is for a group of individuals, some of whom are assigned to a facility. Most of the individuals assigned to the facility attend all meals, but it is possible that others (not assigned to this facility) can attend meals at this facility. An individual may also attend one meal and not others on that day. I'm focused on one facility only. The person who will input this information is not experienced with computers, so I need to make it as simple as possible.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you

 

[Ranman256]

I'd say the tMealHistory table:
FacilityID (where the meal was eaten)
PersonID
MealDate
MealType. (B,L,D)
Etc...

And the regular tables:
TPersons
TFacilities
TMealTypes

 

[eacollie]

Thank you Ranman256. What about the form to input this data? I've got maybe 20-30 individuals assigned to this facility and about 150 individuals total. I need to make it as simple as possible as the person who will input the data daily is not highly experienced with computers.

 

[Gasman]

Thank you Ranman256. What about the form to input this data? I've got maybe 20-30 individuals assigned to this facility and about 150 individuals total. I need to make it as simple as possible as the person who will input the data daily is not highly experienced with computers.

PMFJI
I would use combos for Facility,Person and MealType. Default to current date for mealdate for new record.
How are the individuals known? If by first name then create combo with First & Last name, then one can start typing eacoll and the combo will find the first in the list, then it is just a few arrow keys down to get the correct one if a lot are called George for instance.

Same logic with Facility and mealtype. Mealtype is easy a B,L or D will get the correct value.
Whilst you present meaningful data to the users, I would be storing the respective ID for that record.

Tabbing through the controls and on to a a new record will be very quick.
I know as I created this structure and linked 4000 crew of 107 different ranks for 22 dates and 59 ships, and I was copying the data from paper records. That produced over 20,000 link records.

Your requirement is much the same

HTH

 

[eacollie]

Thank you Gasman! This would require the person inputting the information to go through this form at least 60 times daily (given 20 individuals and 3 meals/day). I'm trying to come up with an idea where perhaps all the individuals "assigned" to this facility (there is only one facility I'm using) can be the default and then additions/subtractions can be made from that, and the person inputting the info can see all three meals for that day on a single form. I think this might be the most time-efficient way, no?

 

[Gasman]

Ok, fair enough. My requirement could not entertain that.

How about this.
A listbox for all the clients. A date From and To, defaulting to a week/month whatever and 3 checkboxes for B,L & D

User selects all relevant clients in the listbox and I would assume all the checkboxes for the meals. If that is always the case might not need the checkboxes. They could also be a listbox in case you end up haveing afternnon tea or supper?

Then a button would generate all the records, then a form to show all meals for a client and delete non required meal records?
mainform woul be the client and subform (datasheet or continous) would hold all their meal records. When date has passed,possibly lock all meal records so they cannot be deleted by accident or design.

You really need to give this some thought.? I'd have a client table with dates they came in and left, so that you only present those in the list that are still with you. You could even store their preferences, as I am not much of a breakfast person, so you woul be createing 7 records for me and then having to delete them for a week.?

Get your structure correct first, ten worry about inoput method. Plenty of member here, much more qualified that I am, to assist with a good basis to start with. I will help where I can of course, but I am off on holiday soo, so will not be checking in quite as much.

Good luck with it.

Edit:
I have done something similar where I generated all the work records for employees for the coming week, with their default hours and then just needed to amend the hours or set to zero if not working that day, or even delete that particular record.

 

[jdraw]

eacollie,

For additional context can you tell us a few things:
- how is this info recorded now?
- who uses/will use the collected info and for what purposes?
- try to focus on WHAT is needed, and once that is clear, then
-let's look for options as to HOW the approach can be implemented efficiently.

Some sample data you intend to input/have inputted to the proposed database and some samples of the expected output would be helpful to you and readers.

Good luck with your project.

 

[eacollie]

Thank you jdraw!
This information is currently not recorded now. I need to set up a form for it.

The information will be part of a display (Access report) that shows how many meals/day for the kitchen staff.
As well as how many meals/dining room/meal type, it displays any "special meals" including diet restrictions and allergies, etc.

I've got this worked out for all the other meals. It's just this subset of people that I'm working on. The current table (tblMeals) has data from events happening at the facility. tblMeals contains: MealsID (key), Meal, EventID, NumberOfPersons, PerPersonCost, NumberOfDays, MealContents, Location, MealTime, MealDate, Comments, SM, SMAllergies, SrvingType, MealType.

This new subset is for individuals living at the facility (not guests) who will be eating all their meals at this facility. so don't need all the above information, just Meal Date, person's ID, meal. I thought I'd set up another table for this.

Hope this gives a better idea and more information.
Thanks!

 

[jdraw]

Can you post a screen capture of your current tables and relationships?

Can you walk us through a few of the processes and events mentioned in your

The current table (tblMeals) has data from events happening at the facility. tblMeals contains: MealsID (key), Meal, EventID, NumberOfPersons, PerPersonCost, NumberOfDays, MealContents, Location, MealTime, MealDate, Comments, SM, SMAllergies, SrvingType, MealType.

 

[eacollie]

Thank you jdraw. Here are the tables I will be using for this process. I need to create a table to hold the meals.

 

[MajP]

If I understand you correctly it is easier to demo than describe. If this makes sense I will describe it. Based on you description, this is one very rare case where I am fine with the not normal design. The reason is that the normalizing query is simpler than making a normalized solution. Then just use the normalized query for all other queries. I demo this at the bottom where I can do simple group by queries to get your daily totals.

 

[eacollie]

Thank you MajP! I like your form design. I think someone not very familiar with computers would be able to fill this out very easily. Thanks again!

 

[MajP]

We probably need to understand you table design better, and potential future changes. My biggest question is do you really need to store all of this information and for how long. You are doing a record each day for ~150 people. In 100 days you will have 15,000 records and about 100K in 2 years. The table is small and that is not a huge amount of data, but it is a lot to manage. Do you really need to know each person and what meals they took 100 days ago, or can this be summarized and written to a summary table. IE. (MealDay, EmployeeCount, Total Breakfeast, Total Lunch, Total Dinner..)

The information will be part of a display (Access report) that shows how many meals/day for the kitchen staff ... This new subset is for individuals living at the facility (not guests) who will be eating all their meals at this facility. so don't need all the above information, just Meal Date, person's ID, meal. I thought I'd set up another table for this.

It almost reads as once you have the totals for that day, there is no reason to keep the detail information as long as you save the summary information. If that makes sense then I would add a button to save summary information to the table and then give the user an option to clear out the daily details. Would not have to be done everyday, but every once and a while.

 

[eacollie]

Good point MajP. Summary information is all that is needed.