This is supposed to be something very common in access: Say you have a table Employees with a many-to-many relationship with a table Workdays. As in, A day of work is a record in Workdays, and for any day of work there can be multiple employees who worked that day (Which is shown with a third table, I think it's called a junction table?).
Now, say you want to create a form that the user inputs the employees who worked on a certain day. There is a changing number of employees per day, therefore a changing number of text boxes/combo boxes to input the employees in.
I want to ask if there's a conventional/convenient/acceptable way to do this. I've thought of 2 ways: Having a certain maximum number of text boxes invisible, and every time one receives input set the visible property on a new one to Visible=True, and second way by using the CreateControl method. Both ways seem a little pointlessly complicated for something that should be very common.
You don't have to mess with dynamically creating or showing/hiding individual controls. All you probably need is a main form for the Workday with a Subform Control for the Employees who worked that day, something like this:
Design View:
Form View:
The subform control contains a Continuous Forms form that is bound to the junction table [TimeCards].
Workday EmployeeID HoursWorked
--------- ---------- -----------
9/10/2014 1 7
9/10/2014 3 6
9/10/2014 4 9
The "child" subform linked to the "master" form by the [Workday] value. You can enter a variable number of entries for a given Workday by simply adding new rows to the subform (via the "New Record" row with the asterisk beside it).
For more information, see
Create a form that contains a subform
Related
I have a table in tableau with say 4 columns (Say Employee ID, Name, Address, Email).
I want to provide the users an option to select single/multiple columns from a drop down list (assume in the drop down list we have columns headers, Customfield1, Customfield2.....,Customfield10) which would be added to the table as a separate columns.
Say for Instance if the user selects CustomField1, CustomField2, CustomField3 from the drop-down list then the table should have in total of 7 columns (4 Emp fields + 3 Custom Fields)
Though I stated a simple requirement, my idea was to extrapolate that to something complex.
I think some version of this could be done, albeit in a hacky way. What you're looking for is 'Dynamic Parameters.' They don't technically officially exist in the product, but can be created with the combination of parameter and calculated field.
Here is a link to a method on such creation.
The idea here would be to re-order columns in a custom manner. Each calculated field would have to have its own logic for which dimension it was to display when a user selected a parameter. (ie: With parameter selection A Column 1 goes to [Name] and Column 2 goes to [Address], and with parameter selection B Column 1 goes to [Address] and Column 2 goes to [Name].) The caveat here is that each potential layout would need to have the same number of columns - there is not a way to add columns dynamically. Consider that each column is represented here with a calculated field.
Good luck on it.
Big question: How can I make Access automatically fill in a cell in a form based on previously entered data?
I need to enter leave details for members of staff. I tend to enter these by date, and in one to two week chunks. Is there a way to have the next new record automatically fill in the date part of the record with the previously entered one?
Table structure
Staff: StaffID, Name
Absences: ID, StaffID, Dateaway, OtherDetails
I want it to automatically fill in DateAway with the entry of the row above it, or the previously entered row, as I will enter say 10 dates in a fortnight, but 50 entries over those dates. I enter them chronologically, and after the fact (So just defaulting to TODAY() won't work).
There's a shortcut Ctrl+' that does pretty much what I need, wondering if there's a way to do that with the generation of a new record.
You have to be careful with this. If your form is bound to a table/query, you're going to insert a junk record every time you're done with the form. However, if it's unbound you can do this using DMAX, in the After Insert event of the form.
Private Sub Form_AfterInsert()
txtDateaway.Text = DMax("Dateaway", "Absences", "StaffID = " & Me.txtStaffID)
End Sub
This is, of course, assuming your Dateaway field on your form is called txtDateaway and your StaffID field is called txtStaffID.
I been putting a lot of thought into the logic behind this, and I can't seem to figure out the best way to handle this problem.
1 - Afterinsert
2 - unbound fields + button to insert X times
3 - I am open for suggestions
The form
The relationship
I was debating on using AfterInsert to handle everything. Since NoOfBoxes will decide the amount of records and I would only need to duplicate the value of MergeNo and isCommission to the subform. But the problem is, I need to also auto fill the item, which made me think of solutions number 2.
The reasoning behind going with number 2 is; my receive report header doesn't contains the item information and since a subform can only have 1 type of item but multiple of them. I was hitting toward number 2.
Solution number 2 would be multiple unbound fields which pulled the information into a combo box, or enter the information needed and hit a button which will then transfer all that data to the subform and create the correct amount of records.
unbound fields = itemcode, mergeNo, isCommission, and NoOfBoxes.
I think you need a Numbers table with integers from 1 or 0 to an appropriate number, you can then say something like:
INSERT INTO ATable ( MergeNo, IsCommission )
SELECT [Forms]![aForm]![MergeNo] AS MergeNo,
[Forms]![aForm]![IsCommission ] AS IsCommission
FROM Numbers
WHERE Numbers.Number<=[Forms]![aForm]![NoOfBoxes]
Do not forget that if the numbers table starts from 0, it is less than, not less than or equal to.
I have a problem with a BIRT report I'm working on where I have a nested table in the report. The outer table contains data to do with an item on an invoice, while the inner table contains stuff to do with price banding for labor charges. I've written a separate DataSet which gets the inner data, bound by parameters to data in the outer table. Now, when I preview the inner DataSet in BIRT using the defaults I've given it, it returns two rows of data for that bill number & item number - a normal rate & an overtime rate if you like. When I run the report in full over the same data, the outer table stuff is fine, but the inner table just repeats the same row over twice - it's just the first row repeating.
This is sorta what the table looks like in layout view:
Item Description Rate Quantity Item total
[item] [desc] [rate] [quantity] [total]
...where the price & quantity are in the inner table.
I'd have expected to see something like:
Item Description Rate Quantity Item Total
1 Callout $40 1 $40
2 Labor $30 4.5 $185
$50 1
but instead I get more like:
Item Description Rate Quantity Item Total
1 Callout $40 1 $40
2 Labor $30 4.5 $185
$30 4.5
...even though querying the database & previewing the inner data set based on the same input criteria show the expected result.
Has anyone else had experience like this? I have a hunch it's to do with bindings, but not sure what.
One way to get this behavior is by accidentally replacing a table-level binding with a column-level binding.
For example, define a table by dragging a data set into the report. Select the entire table (use the outline view, or select something in the table and then click on the "Table" button that pops up just below the grid.) Then go to the Binding tab. Note that the data set and column bindings are all filled in.
Now select just one field in the Detail row. On the Binding tab, note that the Data Set is blank, and no column binding is shown. Someone who is confused by this (as I was) might then edit the column's binding and specify the same Data Set that was used to create the table. If you do this you will only see a single value repeated in that column when you run the report. (I believe the overridden column is binding to a second instance of the data set, not the one the table is iterating over.)
Not sure your question can be answered withou looking at the data and the design. But it is important to note that the results you see in the dataset preview, and not neccisarly what you would see if the query was run fully. I have seen difference with 7 records returned. I thought as it was only 7 it would be the same on full run, but it's not. The preview is not just a top 500 query, it has some other (not sure what) filters also.
To problem solve if it is your query or your binding.
If you are using a SQL database. Run the SQL in a SSMS query and see if you get the same results you do when run in the innner table.
Altentively, create a new test report, copy over your dataset and use with a stand alone table.
I think I sorted it, & this is the most bizarre thing: On the child table I'd been deleting the header & footer row & just leaving the detail row in, in the layout view. Last thing today, just before I was going to go home, I tried again - deleted the table for about the 70th time that day, replaced it, re-did the parameter bindings all exactly as before, but this time I left the header row & footer intact. Clicked the preview tab, voila, all shows up correctly. So, since I didn't need the header or footer on the child table, I went into properties, clicked Hide this element, preview again - all good. No difference to the data bindings, no difference to mappings or anything else, no change to the data sets - the only difference was leaving the header & footer in place but hidden.
Contemplating making a bug report, tbh.
I'm building a database in FileMaker 12 that will, among other things, keep a list of jobs (indicated by numeric ID) and the employees who had billable time for that job.
Given three tables:
Employee ( empName, empID, salary, ... )
JobHours ( empID, jobID, hrsWorked, ... , refID)
JobCost ( jobID, expenses, profit, ... , refID)
Where:
Employee is my personnel roster matching names to numeric employee IDs and stats (salary, et al) ;
JobHours is a list of employee participation -- whenever an employee spends time on a job, this table has a line that shows their ID, the job ID, hours worked, and a few other things;
JobCost is a daily record of jobs. One entry in this table refers to the activity for a single job on a single day. Additionally, each entry gets a system generated unique ID (since neither jobID nor date is unique) to relate to JobHours (resulting in a list of who worked on a particular job on a particular day).
I have a form showing records from JobCost. For each record, I can see in a portal, showing records from JobHours, who worked on that job on that day.
Now, the issue.
In my portal, I want to have a drop-down list of employee names pulled from a value list to create records in JobHours with the following criteria:
1) I need it to be a drop-down rather than a pop-up so it will respond to auto-fill from the keyboard. A drop-down will show the secondary value (employee name) from a value list while dropped down, and will respond properly to keyboard autocomplete on the secondary value, but once you've made your selection, it only displays the primary value (employee ID).
2) I need it to display names, not IDs, at all times. The pop-up does this perfectly. However, it doesn't seem to respond to the keyboard for typing autocompletes.
3) I need to store the numeric ID rather than the name.
I know how to satisfy any two of these criteria at once, but that's all. The whole database is working beautifully otherwise. Is this behavior possible?
One common technique is to use two fields, one directly on top of the other.
On the bottom, put your JobHours::EmpID field. Set it up as the drop-down list with the value list that you've specified.
On top of the JobHours::EmpID field put the related Employee::EmpName field. Set the field so that it cannot be entered in browse or find mode.
Now your users will see the Employee Name, but when they click that click will go through the top field and into the Employee ID field where they will choose the name from the value list.
pft's solution is one that I have long used, but I do still find it inelegant because the user still sees an existing id number in the field when changing the value.
If the type-ahead is important, I would use the popup menu. Once the menu has been activated either by tabbing into it or by clicking into it, the user is able to type from the keyboard and the selection will change based on what's entered.
I came to this thread looking for a solution to this same issue (allowing the user to pick from a list, show their choice, but store a related value instead). For example, choose a plant species name from a dropdown, show the plant species name in the dropdown field, but have it store the taxonomic serial number (TSN; which is more likely to stay the same over the years). This is easy to do in MS Access, but took a litlte more messing around to do it in FMP12.
How I solved it:
I created two fields in the table that would be storing the values: Plant_TSN and Plant_SciName. A relationship must exist between the values in these two fields. In my case, I store a SciName for each TSN in a lookup table. I then created two fields in my layout, one for each new field.
For the value you wish to store (ex. Plant_TSN):
Make the corresponding layout field a dropdown and include the show/hide arrow. Edit the value list you will populate the dropdown with to show the second (reader friendly) column but store the first column value. In the layout shrink the field to only show the arrow.
For the field you wish the user to see (ex. Plant_SciName):
make the other layout field a Edit Box and prevent field entry in either Browse or Find mode. But it up against the dropdown arrow created in the previous step to make what looks like one field.
Finally, back in the first field (arrow-only drop down) write a script to push the user friendly number (Plant_SciName) to the edit box when the user-ugly (Plant_TSN) value is picked in the drop down. I used the OnObjectSave script trigger of the dropdown formatted field. Script should be something along the lines of 1) Freeze window, 2) Go to Related Record (based on relationship in lookup table 3) Set Field (i.e. the edit box) and 4) GotoLayout[original] to offset the Freeze.
Probably not an entirely clear explanation, but I bet you will get it on your third read through! I would have posted a screenshot, but I apparently need 10 "reputation points".
Cheers.