one-to-one meeting organizer

[DGH]

Hello everyone,



I am very new to databases in general and Access in particular, and am a little lost regarding a particular question.

I would like to design and build a database that can match one to one meetings between companies with specific time slots.

For example, we have two sets of people: buyers and sellers. A buyer could specify which sellers they would be interested in meeting. The database would then work out which buyers could meet with which sellers, and when.

A bit like a dating matchmaker I guess.

If anyone has any ideas or pointers, I'd be very grateful to hear them!

Daniel

[June7]

Check out this product http://www.accesstogo.org.uk/Appointments_Planner.html

[DGH]

June7, thanks very much for the link - it looks interesting. I have downloaded the demo and am trying it out. A couple of issues rear their head...

I have created 5 Assets, call them Company 1, Company 2 etc. Now I want to match these companies with customers, let's call them Customer 1, Customer 2 etc. How can I input the preferences for which Company each Customer would like to meet? And how do I set it so that if Customer 1 is meeting with Company 2 at time X, it should be impossible for Customer 1 to be anywhere else, e.g. in a meeting with Company 3?

I hope that makes sense!

Daniel

[June7]

The demo version is not editable. It is accde compiled runtime version. You would have to buy the full package to get edit capability. So I can't answer your question. Ask the seller if your needs could be met with some modification. Looks like the cost is just over $100. Might be worth buying just so you could explore the structure.

[DGH]

I would buy the full version, but I'm afraid I'd probably be lost if I tried to modify it.

To simplify my question (now that I've had a chance to reflect on it a bit more), this is how I envisage my database:

Table_Buyers
Buyer_ID
Buyer_Name
Buyer_Pref1
Buyer_Pref2
Buyer_Pref3

Table_Sellers
Seller_ID
Seller_Name

I would like to find out where there is a situation where

Buyer_Pref1 = Seller_Name OR
Buyer_Pref2 = Seller_Name OR
Buyer_Pref3 = Seller_Name

In this situation, I would like a query to show me the Buyer_Name AND Seller_Name.

Is this possible? If so, how?

Many thanks!

Daniel

[June7]

That table structure makes the search harder because have to check all three fields for the name but can be done. If you want to search for a single seller name, put that name under each preference column. Put the second and third on different rows so the OR operator will be applied. The buyer and seller name parameters can be references to controls on form where user makes selection of criteria. The SQL statement would look like:

SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE Buyer_ID = Forms!formname!buyer_ID AND (Buyer_Pref1 = Forms!formname!Seller_ID OR Buyer_Pref2 = Forms!formname!Seller_ID OR Buyer_Pref2 = Forms!formname!Seller_ID);

If you had a junction table that normalized the preference data, search would be in one field for seller ID.

BuyerPreferredSeller
BuyerID
PrefRank (1, 2, 3)
SellerID