New from New Zealand

[Marlene]

Hello all
I've been dabbling in Access for years, but at a very basic level. Currently working on a dairy farm daily management system on an 800 cow farm. Its working well, but could work a lot better! Its about to be trialled on two other farms, before hopefully going to a professional db developer to construct a commercial version. It has a touch screen interface which has posed some challenges. Looking forward to perusing the forums and perhaps even contributing.
Marlene
Pirongia, New Zealand

 

[pbaldy]

Welcome! My younger daughter moved to NZ early this year, and we visited in April. Lovely country, though I've only seen the Wellington area so far. Next trip we'll see more of the country.

 

[Marlene]

Thank you Paul. Our youngest daughter also lives in Wellington and I was there for a conference last week. About 7 hours driving from here... We certainly have a diversity of scenery and experience to offer down here and I hope you will get to see more of it on the next visit.

 

[john_y]

Hello all
I've been dabbling in Access for years, but at a very basic level. Currently working on a dairy farm daily management system on an 800 cow farm. Its working well, but could work a lot better! Its about to be trialled on two other farms, before hopefully going to a professional db developer to construct a commercial version. It has a touch screen interface which has posed some challenges. Looking forward to perusing the forums and perhaps even contributing.
Marlene
Pirongia, New Zealand

Hi Marlene,

I am also a fan of NZ having travelled around the North island in 2008.
It sounds as though your not a beginner developer having constructed a touch screen interface - does this work on an x / y axis plotting basis?

Best wishes,

John

 

[Marlene]

Its not as complicated (or well done) as that John! I've simply made the large arrows combo boxes and large buttons! The plan was originally to have 2 screens - one in the office for data entry (mouse and keyboard) and the other in the dairy shed for quick data retrieval and/or simple checkoff options. However, the cost of the dairy shed screen has proven prohibitive, it requiring high levels of protection from damp, poo etc, and in summer the flies moving on the screen change it, so the touch option is turned off. However the touch interface is one that is popular and useful so as the project develops, all the combo boxes will have a large arrow overlay etc. Check boxes are also large. I have a huge issue with making the date picker big enough to use with ones finger, but will no doubt sort that one in due course.

 

[john_y]

Its not as complicated (or well done) as that John! I've simply made the large arrows combo boxes and large buttons! The plan was originally to have 2 screens - one in the office for data entry (mouse and keyboard) and the other in the dairy shed for quick data retrieval and/or simple checkoff options. However, the cost of the dairy shed screen has proven prohibitive, it requiring high levels of protection from damp, poo etc, and in summer the flies moving on the screen change it, so the touch option is turned off. However the touch interface is one that is popular and useful so as the project develops, all the combo boxes will have a large arrow overlay etc. Check boxes are also large. I have a huge issue with making the date picker big enough to use with ones finger, but will no doubt sort that one in due course.

It seems were are both on the path of RAD - a techy acronym for rapid application development, or as I like to call it trial and error followed by small success - John

 

[Marlene]

Thats it in a nutshell!

 

[Lightwave]

This is really a great story - I learn't like this - a combination of curiosity and necessity.