New form design query

[pytheus]

Good afternoon all,

I have been self teaching myself access for work and i have hit a bit of a brick wall in my design. I want to design a form that is essentially a user interface for the end users.
Essentially i want a single page to be visible and allow the users to keep it on the screen for real time monitoring and updating. As there would be many different users who wont undergo any training i want to avoid changing pages if possible.

For my current idea of the form i want to be able:

To select a date at the top which would auto populate down the left hand side of the screen a list of items (A) and add them to a table if they don't already exist for that date.

For each of those items i want a perpendicular list of 5 values (B) that would read off a different table.

And finally for each of the items i want to be able to have a mini subform that links to yet another table to enter specific details (C). Preferably a + type button that i can use to expand or hide the information.



I am assuming i could create the queries easy enough to list the information the items (A) and based upon that making the 5 values (B) appear...

But i have no idea how to go about the individual linked subform (C) for each of item (A). Or if this actual form in my head is even possible. I made a simple idea of what it should look like underneath.
But essentially my questions are threefold - Is this possible (and in what version(s) of access 03-10) ,
Can you give me any pointers on how to go about designing any of this (or links to a template i can use),
Do you have any better ideas of how to accomplish it?

______Date

(A) (B) (B) (B) (B) (B)
+ (C)
(A) (B) (B) (B) (B) (B)
+ (C)
(A) (B) (B) (B) (B) (B)
+ (C)
(A) (B) (B) (B) (B) (B)
+ (C)
(A) (B) (B) (B) (B) (B)
+ (C)

[June7]

Sounds like a form/subform/subsubform arrangement. Although the 'perpendicular list of 5 values (B)' makes me think data of the (B) table is not normalized and what you want is not practical with non-normalized data.

[pytheus]

Thanks for the reply. I believe from my limited experience the database is currently in 3NF (well the parts that matter to me atm). I probably should have been more specific about what im referring to - sorry.

The database i am referring keeps track of on time running of services. The services (A) i want to list down the side but which services run - depend on the day.

After that i have 5 major timing points (B) which are stored in a separate table linked via the ServiceNo in a 1 to many relationship.

Which in turn links to the delay details (C) table which i wanted to use as a subform that either opens at the bottom of the page or preferably individualized subforms for each service.

I currently have a form that links the timing points to the trains using a query so i should be able to alter that to suit this new form i assume. But my current form only shows 1 service at a time. I am trying to find a way to change it all to one page. But most of my limited experience has been amending things that exist to suit our needs rather than coming up with a completely new concept.

So if i wanted to list services based upon the date - would the best option be to create a new table that links to service number with a yes/no field for each day?

Sigh making databases is easy.. making great databases is an art form - too bad i was never good at art.

[June7]

If you want to provde db for analysis, follow instructions at bottom of my post.