Is this possible and How easy?

[Pacifics]

Im very new to Access and am interested in building a database for our companies training.

I just trying to establish how easy things are to set up.

I basically want a training database that can show when people have had training and when they need retraining. Also to have the ability to link to a PDF of certificate.

I would then want a interface for various people, where as they could get the info they wanted but not enable them to change info in the database.

Also in the future set up a system where an email is generated when the employee needs retraining and sent to the appropriate manager automatically.

I know this is probably very very basic for the majority of people on the forum, but i basically know nothing.

 

[namliam]

First: Welcome to AWF and the wonderfull world of Access and Databases

Second: Everything you know, or think you know from Excel and think you can apply to Access or databases, FORGET IT.
Excel and simular is totaly different from a "proper" database!!!

Now...
When people need training, EASY
PDF, EASY-ish
Read only interface, EASY
Email, Pretty tough
Automated Email, Complication upon just an Email

If you know nothing start at the base... Start by learning what is NORMALIZATION, this is what you need to design a proper database, come back in a month when you think you understand it. Then go away for 2 months and try again....

Just kidding offcourse, but seriously... Designing a proper database like this is going to take some doing and will take some time...

I wish you good luck on your project Your going to need it !

 

[Pacifics]

First: Welcome to AWF and the wonderfull world of Access and Databases

Second: Everything you know, or think you know from Excel and think you can apply to Access or databases, FORGET IT.
Excel and simular is totaly different from a "proper" database!!!

Now...
When people need training, EASY
PDF, EASY-ish
Read only interface, EASY
Email, Pretty tough
Automated Email, Complication upon just an Email

If you know nothing start at the base... Start by learning what is NORMALIZATION, this is what you need to design a proper database, come back in a month when you think you understand it. Then go away for 2 months and try again....

Just kidding offcourse, but seriously... Designing a proper database like this is going to take some doing and will take some time...

I wish you good luck on your project Your going to need it !

Could you suggest a good place to start, any books that are an essential read before starting this project?

 

[namliam]

I learned in school a long long time ago... wouldnt know any books of hand...
Google NORMALIZATION, learning that is KEY

Then learning to work with a tool like Access is secondary, many a "access for dummies"-type books out there.

After that you will need to learn VBA, which would be in one of the many "access for advanced"-type books...

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

I think this is not only possible, but it's perhaps the perfect small project to serve as an introduction to Access.

To start, forget the forms and functions for a moment, and just think about the data. What kinds of data will this application have to store. A good way to do this is to write some short sentences describing the way the system will have to work, or what people will want from it. For example:

Starting with: "Someone, somewhere needs training"
That can be expanded to: "Someone, somewhere, needs to go on a training course, somewhere"
Then: "Someone, somewhere, needs to go on a training course, somewhere, tutored by someone"

This process can immediately highlight what might otherwise have been duplication of data structures - we have two lots of 'someone' and two lots of 'somewhere' in the above statement - that's a suggestion that perhaps they can be stored in a common structure.

 

[namliam]

A good way to do this is to write some short sentences describing the way the system will have to work, or what people will want from it.

All this is what is normaly called NORMALIZATION

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

Sure - I wasn't disagreeing with anything you said - just trying to provide a bit of a personal approach to it.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

May I add a suggestion? Look in the "Design" category for some articles on how to perform "entity analysis" (identify the things you need to track) so that you can include them in your tables. I've authored a couple of those but many of the other regulars have done so as well.

As to normalization, here's the advice I usually give.

Start with Access Help on normalization. (There, it is unambiguous).

Now visit www.wikipedia.org and look for DATABASE NORMALIZATION. Outside of Access, normalization is highly ambiguous, but preceding it with Database will make all the difference.

Now do a search with your favorite search engine on the subject of Database Normalization. You'll take only a couple of gazillion hits on that. So limit your reading to the .EDU domain articles from major colleges and universities you recognize. Start reading them, but if the entire article is only a single page with no links, it is an overview and you don't want that.

When you read three articles in a row in which you didn't learn anything new, and when you can define at least to your own satisfaction the general meaning of 1st normal form, 2nd normal form, and 3rd normal form, you are at a level where you could reasonably start looking into the design.

Access fully supports 3rd-normal form databases. If you work at it, you can reach 4th or 5th normal and some of the personal-named forms, but 3rd is enough to get really serious. The bit about reading until you don't learn anything new after three articles in a row simply means you've absorbed enough to recognize it when you read it again.

Work forward from that point.

 

[ByteMyzer]

Way to go, Doc Man! That is the best, most pragmatic approach, with the most realistic perspective, that I have ever seen posted, for self-teaching Access Database Design!

 

[boblarson]

A couple of my favorite training stuff:

Crystal's Access Basics

FunctionX Tutorials (Access 2007, 2007 VBA, 2003, 2003 VBA)

Normalization

Database Design and Normalization