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10/13/05 |
I asked my Access students to send me their
feedback - and ideas for what they want to see in upcoming classes. I've
gotten a lot of great feedback. Thanks! I wanted to share some of it
with everyone here. My replies are in blue.
If you have ideas for topics to cover in
future classes, please SEND
THEM TO ME. |
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I would like to see 599CD develop advanced feature rich enterprise
applications using ADO, ADOX and even a few API calls. Perhaps this
would be for a 500 or 600 level series.
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Who to take old data out of access with
out deleting it and add to this data yearly
So, like ARCHIVING your data in a different table
once a year? You don't need to keep mountains of sales data in the same
table, right? This would be good to cover with the ACTION QUERIES
section!
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Using Access for a web site search facility
I like to use Access for web sites JUST to hold
the data (basically using an Access table). For the actual WORK, I like
to write the pages in ASP (Active Server Pages) which I plan to get to
very soon! Thanks for the feedback.
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I receive data entries for new and revised data via email in excel
format. Is there a way to import this data and correct existing entries
as well as new data?
There's ALWAYS a way, Wes. It would be very
helpful if you could send me some of the sample data that you get, and
explain what some of the problems are that you have with it. Perhaps (as
long as none of it is sensitive) I could even use it for an upcoming
class or seminar.
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Bless you!! I love Access, but I do have some special needs. I am using
it for 2 databases which I designed and keep up as a volunteer. Both of
these databases are basically "members" and they change from year to
year. My problem is that I would like to be able to delete last years
members (in other words, delete the data, but keep the structure.) For
the life of me I can not figure out how to do that. So I have to
reinvent the wheel each year. On one database (Community Concert
Membership) I have been able to retain the old structure by changing the
renewal date and performing a query to get rid of the old non renewed
members.
It sounds to me like you need to use ACTION
QUERIES. You can basically create two tables in your database... a
CurrentMembersT and a PreviousMembersT. Once a year, run a query that
copies all of the CurrentMembers to the PreviousMembers - and then
delete them out of the CurrentMembers. Based on the feedback I've gotten
so far, a LOT of people want to learn how to do this, so I think I'll be
covering Action queries in the next Access class... so HANG IN THERE!
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1. Access SECURITY, in depth explanation of the different types;
benefits & pitfalls of each.
2. MULTI-PAGE REPORTS!! I have documents that are up to 50 pages long
that must be merged with my database. Keeping these documents in Word
leads to all sorts of problems; the most basic being that a user can not
push a single button and print a merged document for a single client. I
would like these documents to be a report so that I can alleviate the
problem of a user having to understand how to use Word to merge with a
database.
3. Although we strive not to - inevitably we must go back into
previously constructed tables and add new information as we expand on a
current, working database. Explain how to keep current items working
while you are expanding forms. ie: I have a macro that sets certain
criteria on new clients. I want to add fields that do not currently
exist that will track the sales person and the manager of that account.
(using foreign fields from another table) but if I add these fields, my
macro does not work. I can't hardwife code this into the other table
because sales people can work for many managers, but only for one
manager per sale).
4. Invoice - Accounts Payable - Late payment tracking for accounts that
invoice at different intervals. ie: some of my accounts are paid yearly,
some quarterly, some semi-annually, some monthly. I must build a system
that tracks when each is due; who is late, how much is left owing on the
yearly amount due and how much is left owing on their current balance.
5. Can we talk about who's property a database is? My boss pays me a
secretary's wage but has me building a database that he may one day
market and sell. Do I have any rights to my work and if so, how do I
protect them?
6. Help us understand how to read other people's CODE so we can alter it
and make it fit our own needs. There are many places online that will
help you with code-bulding but I find myself unable to always convert
the code to my own needs so their help --- doesn't always help! (smile)
7. HOW do you find bad code? I spent three days looking for where I went
wrong... things were fine... I have a split db and make MDE's for the
general use of others in the office. The MDE is on a peer-to-peer
network that they access in order to get my upgrades. One day I couldn't
make an MDE. I knew it was bad code, but the compiler worked and didn't
show my a problem. After three days, I found that I had capitalized two
words that should not have been capitalized. (go figure) Now it works
again... I still don't understand the significance of my error or why
the capitalization made a difference.... so please do a segment on 'When
good code goes bad' and help us to find ways to FIND that booger!
Rick - the biggest problem is that for someone who is in the learning
process -- we don't know WHAT to tell you we need to know.... it's like
asking a third grader what types of math he will need when he grows
up... (smile) The bottom line is that I need you to give us the basics
needed to continue growing and to understand -- really understand the
coding process, when to tie things to events and when to tie them to
macros (ever a good idea??) How do you "clean up" items after a database
is built? ie: my field names can be hopelessly LONG... I put them that
way so I could know EXACTLY what they were.. I actually had one query
where the field names were so long the program would only show me the
design view in SQL mode. I finally found a way to shorten the field
names without destroying the remaining parts of the database that used
those names but it took me forever - I'm sure there was a better way
than my monkey-rigging... so as I grow and learn and look back at my
database and think, "There's a better way to do that..." how do I go
back and FIX it without destroying it?
WOW! That's some awesome feedback. Some of these
things I will DEFINITELY be covering in classes.
1. Security - YES. This is a big one. I'll probably do a whole class on
this.
2. What kinds of reports are you generating that are 50 pages long? Is
this like a 50-page contract with a couple of merged fields, or 50
actual pages of REAL DATA? You're right - you can make buttons in your
Access database to just LAUNCH Word documents - OR you can put the whole
document right inside of Access. I'd need to know more about what you're
doing to tell you which way to go.
3. Working between a NEW, properly built database and older databases
that were built when you didn't know a lot about Access is TOUGH. I
started my first company database way back when Access 2.0 was new (this
is like, 1996) and I still have parts of it floating around to this day.
For the most part, however, it's EASIEST to just create a new database
and pull all of your data in. Probably NOT what you want to hear, but it
will save you lots of work in the long run. I would need to see more
(and poke through your database) to give you specific advice on this
one... but I will tell you it's a nightmare.
4. Invoicing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, late notices, and
all that stuff will be a BIG PART of the Access 300 series.
5. Intellectual Property Rights... OUCH! I'm not a lawyer, but I can
tell you what I know. Having been in this situation as an employEE, a
contract employee, and as an employER, I can tell you that if you are a
normal employee, everything that you create ON THE JOB belongs to your
employer. Unless you have a SPECIFIC, written contract that gives you
other rights, you've got no prayer. Everything you build on the job -
regardless of how much you're getting paid - belongs to the company. My
advice: ask for a raise. If you're being paid a secretary's wage and
you're doing (what sounds to me like) advanced-level Access design work,
explain this to your boss and say, "hey, either you pay me what I'm
worth, or you can get a programmer in here to do this, and you'll be
shelling out $50, $60 bucks an hour!"
6. How to read other peoples' code? Ha ha ha. You're funny. No...
seriously, this all depends on how well that code was written. I've seen
code that was pretty and well documented and easy to read. I've seen
other code that was like looking through spaghetti for the meatballs. I
don't know how much of this I could "teach" you. This kind of just comes
from experience. Generally, programmers who are being paid by the HOUR
or by the LINE tend to document their code better. (Snicker). You'll
probably understand more about READING code once you've become an expert
in WRITING code... which I WILL help you do do.
7. How do you find bad code? We'll be spending a good amount of time on
debugging. This will probably be a whole class, if not two.
Thanks for all of the EXCELLENT feedback.
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Access fascinates me and I found your courses easier to understand than
most. Since completing the Intermediate courses last year, I have taught
myself quite a lot and built a Books-Authors database and a
Health-Plants database. Junction tables is something you did not cover
and I actually got them right, but maybe you have a better way?
I haven't covered junction tables yet
(many-to-many queries). At least, I don't think I have? Did I? It's been
so long since I worked on those last courses I don't remember. If not,
I'll definitely be covering them soon.
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Dear Richard -- I'll start again by saying that your courses have been a
god-send for me.
Here are my suggestions:
Yes, I think the concept of specialized seminars that are outside of the
model database would be great. Some topics that I would like to suggest
for seminars are:
Using multi-table queries in figuring averages/other calculations that
span table data. (Is that clear enough? -Although I have figured this
out on my own after much research and experimentation, it was far from
intuitive.)
A primer on the strange "Chart Wizard" - another aspect of Access that
remains opaque to me to this very day.
A primer on Cross tab queries, and whether this wizard is another of the
"evil wizards".
A concise primer (this would go back to 101 series, I suppose) that has
to do with structuring databases in general (ie. when to create a
separate table, and when not to do so, and why).
A concise seminar on "Access Pitfalls/Useful Features" (such as the
dreaded wizards vs the helpful wizards). For example, as I have worked
with Access and googled newsgroups, etc., I have perceived a universal
"Acch! Pooey!" response from DB designers about lookup fields. I think
it would be great if you could give a brief and concise exlanation of
how and why such fields can go wrong.
In your next series dealing with VBA, I would, personally, love to see:
Information about:
What happens to VBA that you write but do not use, and how this might
affect DB size (in other words, if you start with a VBA string, then
decide to use a macro instead, how/when should you purge the VBA string
-- where to start and where to end with the string, etc. -- I know, I'm
a complete newbie, so this may sound rudimentary).
When (if ever) a macro might be preferable to VBA, and why.
That's all I have for now. Thanks for all you do.
Carol, thanks for the feedback.
When you say "multi-table queries in figuring averages/other
calculations that span table data," could you give me an example? Do you
mean something more than just joining two or more tables together in a
query and creating some calculated fields?
Chart Wizard - I don't use this much myself, although I used to have
quarterly sales charts that I had pop up on a form inside of Access -
mostly to have people go "ooooh, ahhhhh."
Crosstab queries are actually pretty cool. I'll be covering them soon in
my advanced queries lesson.
Structuring databases in general. Oooohhh... you want DATABASE THEORY!?
Wow. Most people just want nuts and bolts, hands-on stuff. Perhaps I'll
dust off some of my old computer science (Database Concepts 101) books
from college.
Thanks again for the feedback!
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I have found the course to be excellent. I am going through each unit
twice if not three times to gain as much knowledge as I can.
At the moment I am having a little trouble with relationships but I know
that with your guidance it will come. If not I will try one of your
agents.
I am a cub leader and there are lots of different tables I would like to
use in the data base for exampe.
Personal details, different badges gained as each badge has to be
covered over a different period and has several dates, these need to be
kept separate.
I know that eventually these will become clear.
Keep up the good work and I will certainly give you more feed back when
I have completed a few more units.
Well done to you and your team.
PS My company are interested in putting a few more employees through the
course, the only thing they are concerned about is that there is not a
recognised qualification. Anything you could do about that?
Thanks for the feedback.
No, we don't have any "recognized" certifications or anything like that.
Our courses are strictly for personal enrichment. We are working on
updating our online tests which will let you print out a Certificate of
Completion - but that's about it.
In my personal opinion, most of the certifications that are available
are meaningless anyway. I can teach anyone just enough to pass a
certification exam - that doesn't mean they know what they're doing!
I've interviewed people for job positions that were "certified" that
didn't know squat. On the other hand, I know people (myself included)
who refuse to play the certification game that really know their stuff.
Thanks again for the feedback.
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First of all I want congratulate you for the clear, concise, and
friendly training courses. As a matter of suggestion: I find the
instruction screen too small. Can you wide it a little bit??
Is there a way to perform simple aritmetical operations in the reports??
Thank you for your help. You've made our work easier.
Widening the video area. There's a request I haven't heard before for
Access users. I've had some complaints from the Photoshop users - but
they're picky anyhow. (Just kidding).
Seriously, it would be VERY difficult to widen the viewing area because
our video player software is hard-coded to that size. So I'd not only
have to change the videos, but also the VB software that powers them.
PLUS - our courses are usually around 10 MB or so each - so they're
quite manageable to download and we can squeeze a lot of them on one CD.
If we made the videos bigger, the file sizes would get much larger.
We have thought about offering "high resoultion" videos for an
additional price - but that would involve me recording two sets of
videos. Right now, I'd like to spend my time making MORE courses.
So to answer your question... nope. Ha ha ha. Seriously - it's a GREAT
idea, but so few people have brought it up that it probably won't happen
in the near future. Watch - now EVERYONE will complain to me about it.
Huh.
Performing arithmetic in reports? Yes - it can be done depending on what
you're doing. If you're in the DETAIL section, you really want to put
your calculations in the underlying QUERY. If you're in one of the
footers, yes, you can do SUMs and averages and all that good stuff right
there.
We'll get more into this in the next couple of classes. I haven't spent
that much time on reports... when we generate INVOICES in the upcoming
series you'll learn a lot of new report tricks.
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Visual Basics is a BIG must please.
Also intergating access in web pages for e-commerce. Not much to ask!!!
But for beginners please in plane old english.
Yes, I've gotten a lot of feedback about VB and Web Pages.
VB will be coming very soon... in the 300-level series we're going to
begin the order entry system (invoicing and such) and we'll start
getting into VB.
Building eCommerce solutions is something we're going to do in ACTIVE
SERVER PAGES (ASP) which will use Access tables on the server, and VB
code VERY similar to what we're going to learn in Access. That's coming
after the next Access series... so hang in there!
Oh... and you know me! Everything I do is in plain old English. If not,
be sure to yell at me! If you ever catch me doing something you don't
understand in a video - if I haven't gone at an appropriate pace, be
sure to complain! So far almost NOBODY has complained that I'm moving
too fast, so I'll keep up the pace I'm at until I get yelled at.
:)
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Building a Sales EPOS system which links
Customers, Suppliers, Sales, stock, Repairs, Special Orders and
enquiries.
Complete with To do lists, outstanding items and stock/sales reports.
Encountering problems with payments, part payments & balances to pay as
part of a past sale.
You and me are on the same page! This is all great
stuff - and all of which I have planned for the 300-series.
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Personalized bulk e-mailing with photo's in the mail. And how to analyse
incoming mail, so i can automatically put it in my database, example:
this feedback, automatically attached to the client information, with
one press of a button (or almost!). Thank you, keep up the verry good
work!
Personalized bulk emailing - this is something we
can do with Outlook, or with other SMTP tools. It's a good idea. Perhaps
we'll cover this in the 300 series. Text mail is no problem... PHOTOS
add some complexity.
Analyzing INCOMING mail is a little harder. It can be done, but I don't
know if enough people would want to see this... perhaps this would be a
good topic for a side seminar!
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KEEP THE FEEDBACK COMING! |
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