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Hostel Database Setup



 
 
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  #21  
Old July 24th, 2006, 03:33 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Amy Blankenship
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 539
Default Hostel Database Setup

In that case, she would need to know more about the clients to distinguish
them...

"Jamie Collins" wrote in message
ups.com...

Amy Blankenship wrote:
Since she hasn't specified any need to know more about the client than
nationality, I'm not sure this is significant. One Jean Dupont from
France
is as good as another


I disagree. The OP specified "I want to know how many different
individuals have walked through my doors".

Jamie.

--



  #22  
Old July 24th, 2006, 03:34 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Craig Alexander Morrison
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 88
Default Hostel Database Setup

Gees Louise. All she wants to do is track what countries her clients are
from...


Well no what the OP actually wants is....

To present real and true financial and marketing data to perspective
buyers
of my business.
To answer my guests questions, eg, "How many guests have you had?" "What
country are the majority of your guests from?" "How many Swiss visitors have
you had?" "Are most of your guests under 30?" etc.

Did you read that, I think the OP is more concerned about data consistency
than you are.

She's not running Fort Knox.


Who gives a .... if it is a small business it is very important to the OP
every bit as important as data is to an international bank.

Any database that has financial implications is VERY important to the owners
of that data, you may not care but they do.


--
Slainte

Craig Alexander Morrison
Crawbridge Data (Scotland) Limited

"Amy Blankenship" wrote in message
...





  #23  
Old July 24th, 2006, 03:43 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Jamie Collins
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,705
Default Hostel Database Setup


Amy Blankenship wrote:
In that case, she would need to know more about the clients to distinguish
them...


That's the point I was trying to make when I said, "Another approach
could be to record their passport number, with perhaps a different
identiifer for locals."

Jamie.

--

  #24  
Old July 24th, 2006, 03:58 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
andreainpanama
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 40
Default Hostel Database Setup

When I woke up this morning and saw that there were over 20 postings to my
op, I thought, Oh no, what have I done, asking for professional help on this
site and now I have many developers offering me services and others
reprimanding them for advertising on this site!

Imagine my surprise and glee when I saw that all of these responses where
still actually related to my original post!

Thanks guys, but now I am more confused than ever. My original post said
what I want, but it didn't go into detail about what I currently have. I
will post back with a better description of my current set up, and hopefully
get some help in real world language. Are any of you available by phone?
It's really cheap to call from here.

Thanks so much,

Andrea

"Jamie Collins" wrote:


andreainpanama wrote:
I want a way that every single person has a
client ID number.


Clients
=======
ClientID
LastName
FirstName
NationalityID


How do you know whether today's Jean Dupont from France is the Jean
Dupont from France who stayed here in July last year or is the Jean
Dupont from France who stayed here in July last year e.g. do you
require them to quote their ClientID number when repeat booking?
Another approach could be to record their passport number, with perhaps
a different identiifer for locals.

Also note that NationalityID might be better as country of residence
using the ISO 3166 standard country codes.

Jamie.

--


  #25  
Old July 24th, 2006, 03:59 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Amy Blankenship
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 539
Default Hostel Database Setup

That's one way to do it. What if someone changes his/her citizenship :-)?

"Jamie Collins" wrote in message
ups.com...

Amy Blankenship wrote:
In that case, she would need to know more about the clients to
distinguish
them...


That's the point I was trying to make when I said, "Another approach
could be to record their passport number, with perhaps a different
identiifer for locals."

Jamie.

--



  #26  
Old July 24th, 2006, 04:02 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Amy Blankenship
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 539
Default Hostel Database Setup

I could talk by Microsoft Messenger. E.mail me at amy at magnoliamultimedia
dot com, and I'll send you details.

-Amy

"andreainpanama" wrote in message
...
When I woke up this morning and saw that there were over 20 postings to my
op, I thought, Oh no, what have I done, asking for professional help on
this
site and now I have many developers offering me services and others
reprimanding them for advertising on this site!

Imagine my surprise and glee when I saw that all of these responses where
still actually related to my original post!

Thanks guys, but now I am more confused than ever. My original post said
what I want, but it didn't go into detail about what I currently have. I
will post back with a better description of my current set up, and
hopefully
get some help in real world language. Are any of you available by phone?
It's really cheap to call from here.

Thanks so much,

Andrea

"Jamie Collins" wrote:


andreainpanama wrote:
I want a way that every single person has a
client ID number.

Clients
=======
ClientID
LastName
FirstName
NationalityID


How do you know whether today's Jean Dupont from France is the Jean
Dupont from France who stayed here in July last year or is the Jean
Dupont from France who stayed here in July last year e.g. do you
require them to quote their ClientID number when repeat booking?
Another approach could be to record their passport number, with perhaps
a different identiifer for locals.

Also note that NationalityID might be better as country of residence
using the ISO 3166 standard country codes.

Jamie.

--




  #27  
Old July 24th, 2006, 04:37 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Amy Blankenship
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 539
Default Hostel Database Setup


"Craig Alexander Morrison" wrote in
message ...
Gees Louise. All she wants to do is track what countries her clients are
from...


Well no what the OP actually wants is....

To present real and true financial and marketing data to perspective
buyers
of my business.
To answer my guests questions, eg, "How many guests have you had?" "What
country are the majority of your guests from?" "How many Swiss visitors
have
you had?" "Are most of your guests under 30?" etc.

Did you read that, I think the OP is more concerned about data consistency
than you are.


And I think you're not at all concerned about actually answering Andrea's
question. If you were, you would address her and her question rather than
expending a lot of energy trying to demonstrate that I gave her a wrong
answer.

If you are SO concerned for her and her data integrity, post a solution she
can use rather than nitpicking at mine. Otherwise stay out of the way so I
can direct my energy to helping her fine tune rather than responding to your
posts which have ZERO point in the context of this thread other than to hear
yourself talk.


  #28  
Old July 24th, 2006, 04:39 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Amy Blankenship
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 539
Default Hostel Database Setup

I am not aware if there is something like an Access Jobs board. Maybe
someone else has more information on that.

"andreainpanama" wrote in message
...
Thank you for such a detailed response but I must admit that I got lost.
I
will try to get a little further along in my thinking process and post
again.


The truth is that I think I am going to need some professional help with
this project. (someone to do it for me!) Any recommendations of how I can
get cheap development help on line?

"Amy Blankenship" wrote:

Try this:

Clients
=======
ClientID
LastName
FirstName
NationalityID

Rooms
=======
RoomID
RoomNo
NumberofBeds
etc.

RoomStay
========
StayID
RoomID
StayBegin
StayEnd

ClientRoomStay
=========
StayID
ClientID
IsMainClient

Nationalities
=========
NationalityID
NationalityName
etc.

Then you want to make a Rooms form. Insert a new subform into your Rooms
form that uses RoomStay as a data source. That will need controls for
the
stay beginning and the stay end, but the RoomID will be set by the
LinkMaster/LinkChild relationship between Rooms and RoomStay. If you
used a
wizard, it would have inserted a visible control for that field. Leave
it
on the form, but set its visible property to false. Also hide the StayID
field, since users won't need to set it.

You'll also want to insert a subform control on the RoomStay subform.
Use
ClientRoomStay as the data source for it. Its StayID will be set by the
LinkMaster/LinkChild relationship between it and RoomStay. Again, hide
the
StayID field. Leave the IsMainClient check box as is.

Now things get a little tricky. If you inserted the subform with a
wizard,
it probably gave you a control for ClientID. Select FormatChange To,
and
change it to a combobox control instead. Open the properties sheet for
the
combobox and go to the data tab. Click the ... on the row source line
and
then show the Client table. Double-click ClientID, LastName, and
FirstName
to move those fields to the query grid. Close the window, saving the
change.

Switch to the Format tab and set the column count to 3. Set the column
widths to 0"; 1"; 1".

Now click in the little box in the upper left of your ClientRoomStay
Subform. Change its default view to continuous form.

What you have will now allow you to select your clients from the combobox
and associate them with a particular stay in a room as well as specifying
if
a client is the main client. You can manually enter clients in a
different
form, or you can use the not in list event of the combobox to
automatically
pop up a new client form if the name you enter in the combobox is not in
the
database. I am not going through the steps for that here, as it has been
covered on many occasions.

HTH;

Amy
"andreainpanama" wrote in message
...
Thanks to all of you for all of your help.

I have a small backpackers hostel and I am currently working on a
database
to help me keep track of all of my guests.

These are the two basic design issues that I am running into.

Issue 1. Sometimes, there are 2 or 3 guests staying to gether in a
private
room (as opposed to individuals staying in dorm beds which are always
registered separately). Since we rent the private rooms by the room,
groups
are considered to be one booking and one stay in one room, even though
there
are three individuals. I want to keep track not only of the guest that
is
the official guest in my register (the one who pays for the room), but
the
2
people who are accompanying him. Why? Because I a) want to know how
many
different individuals have walked through my doors b) I want to know
the
nationalities of every individual and c) Many times one of the people
who
have stayed as a friend of a guest in a private room, will come back on
their
own a few days later, and then they might become the paying guest or an
individual in a dorm. Therefore, I want a way that every single person
has a
client ID number.

I have managed to do this rather haphazardly...by having a table with
the
following fields,

MAIN GUEST 1(TITLE)
clientid1
lastname1
firstname1
nationality1
etc1
FRIEND2 (TITLE)
clientid2
lastname2
firstname2
nationality2
etc2
FRIEND 3 (TITLE)
clientid3
lastname3
firstname3
nationality3
etc3

And I just go in and manually assign a number to each person. Tried
using
subforms, could't get them to work. Didn't use autonumbers because I
wasn't
sure how to deal with the following Issue 2 below.....

Issue 2. Repeat Bookings. I currently have a booking table which
allows
each guest to have a booking with dates, prices, room choice, etc. How
do
I
deal with repeat bookings of the same person? How do I structure
tables
and
forms to deal with the infinite amount of booking data that might apply
to
one guest since I have no idea if a person will come back 0 times, or 3
times
or 65 times, or if they will be in the same room the next night, etc.
How
do
I limit my table and form size? How can I pull up a client number say
55,
and then enter new booking records? Should I do this with individual
booking
tables? And once again, are my problems solve with autonumbers?


Finally, let me explain why I want this data...

To present real and true financial and marketing data to perspective
buyers
of my business.
To answer my guests questions, eg, "How many guests have you had?"
"What
country are the majority of your guests from?" "How many Swiss visitors
have
you had?" "Are most of your guests under 30?" etc.


I would really appreciate someone's opinions.


(PS, I am a relative newbie, and know nothing about programming
language.)

AndreainPanama

you can see my webpage at www.purplehousehostel.com











  #29  
Old July 24th, 2006, 04:54 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Craig Alexander Morrison
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 88
Default Hostel Database Setup

I am of the "published" opinion the database design by email is dangerous if
not actually irresponsible.

I am also quite happy to point out when someone is giving information that
will harm a design, such as your lack of measures, which I had initially
only suspected, to prevent data duplication and endanger integrity and
consistency.

I have since had to correct a series of further errors from you and me (g).


--
Slainte

Craig Alexander Morrison
Crawbridge Data (Scotland) Limited

"Amy Blankenship" wrote in message
...

"Craig Alexander Morrison" wrote in
message ...
Gees Louise. All she wants to do is track what countries her clients
are from...


Well no what the OP actually wants is....

To present real and true financial and marketing data to perspective
buyers
of my business.
To answer my guests questions, eg, "How many guests have you had?" "What
country are the majority of your guests from?" "How many Swiss visitors
have
you had?" "Are most of your guests under 30?" etc.

Did you read that, I think the OP is more concerned about data
consistency than you are.


And I think you're not at all concerned about actually answering Andrea's
question. If you were, you would address her and her question rather than
expending a lot of energy trying to demonstrate that I gave her a wrong
answer.

If you are SO concerned for her and her data integrity, post a solution
she can use rather than nitpicking at mine. Otherwise stay out of the way
so I can direct my energy to helping her fine tune rather than responding
to your posts which have ZERO point in the context of this thread other
than to hear yourself talk.



  #30  
Old July 24th, 2006, 04:56 PM posted to microsoft.public.access.tablesdbdesign
Craig Alexander Morrison
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 88
Default Hostel Database Setup

Andrea,

Database Design by Email is dangerous.

I would suggest you consider a few approaches:

1. Learn a bit about Relational Database design. (The main thing to
concentrate on is the process of Relational Data Analysis (aka
Normalisation))

Come back to the newsgroup with specific questions about particular
problems with the database AND the application(s)

2. Consider employing a local developer.

3. Consider employing a developer who can at least make a personal visit to
collect the user requirements and collate the data sources (current forms,
reports, spreadsheets, register) and sit down and talk through your
requirements.

4 Consider employing a remote developer

In cases 2, 3 and 4 get references, check with their previous clients and
look at samples of the work they have done. There are many many cowboys
around who be little more than users themselves who think they know what
they are doing.

Whatever approach make sure you own the source code so that you can tweak
the design in future either in-house or with another developer.

5. You could try the newsgroups but they are really best suited to an answer
to a specific question

If you go with this approach make sure you evaluate all the answers and note
any disagreements between other posters, this will assume that you have
learnt a little bit more about Relational Database Design.

If you are fairly confident in the process of creating forms and reports you
may just get the developer to create the database and you can do the
applications.

6. Check to see if anyone in the same line as you has done something similar
and see if you can make a mutually acceptable arrangement.

BTW Concentrate on getting the database design correct (or as correct as you
can) before worrying about Forms, Reports etc. You cannot get out of a
database what you do not put in.

Let your watchwords be Data Integrity and Data Consistency and ensure that
the developer is as concerned as you about the accuracy of your data.
Duplicate data is a killer to any system, and more so if it contains
important financial information.

BTW Keep this a secret, designing a good relational database is actually
rather straightfoward, if you understand the business (or rather the data
and how the business uses the data) and how to normalise data.

Using Access to create the applications becomes so much easier once you have
a good relational database design . Access is still one of the best tools to
design applications that use relational databases.

--
Slainte

Craig Alexander Morrison
Crawbridge Data (Scotland) Limited


"andreainpanama" wrote in message
...
When I woke up this morning and saw that there were over 20 postings to my
op, I thought, Oh no, what have I done, asking for professional help on
this
site and now I have many developers offering me services and others
reprimanding them for advertising on this site!

Imagine my surprise and glee when I saw that all of these responses where
still actually related to my original post!

Thanks guys, but now I am more confused than ever. My original post said
what I want, but it didn't go into detail about what I currently have. I
will post back with a better description of my current set up, and
hopefully
get some help in real world language. Are any of you available by phone?
It's really cheap to call from here.

Thanks so much,

Andrea

"Jamie Collins" wrote:


andreainpanama wrote:
I want a way that every single person has a
client ID number.

Clients
=======
ClientID
LastName
FirstName
NationalityID


How do you know whether today's Jean Dupont from France is the Jean
Dupont from France who stayed here in July last year or is the Jean
Dupont from France who stayed here in July last year e.g. do you
require them to quote their ClientID number when repeat booking?
Another approach could be to record their passport number, with perhaps
a different identiifer for locals.

Also note that NationalityID might be better as country of residence
using the ISO 3166 standard country codes.

Jamie.

--





 




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