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  1. #1
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
    Windows 7 32bit Access 2007
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    Access Database - could I learn how to make it work myself ?

    Hi there kind people of accessforums.net.

    If I have posted this in the wrong place or missed some of the forum etiquette please accept my apologies, but I do hope you guys can help.

    I was made redundant last July from my employer who went bust and I decided to seize the opportunity and tart on my own so I begged and borrowed off friends and family and bought the assets of the business and approached the suppliers with my business plan. Luckily enough of them agreed to support me and I am now enjoying the fruits of that labour having paid back all monies borrowed and am starting to pay myself.

    enough of my life story !!

    Part of what I purchased was an access database of customers, leads, prospects etc....

    I have I believe all the parts but cant seem to get it to work.

    I spoke to a company online who offered to help, but at £500 an hour and with only a "guide" on how long it will/may take I am loathe to go back into the red if its possible I could crack it myself with some reading/testing/trying out.



    The rep from the company I contacted said it wasn't too complicated and had no macros just a few reports.

    The person who built/invented it was no expert and I believe he read up on what to do.

    so - to cut a long story long - I would like your help/advice on best things to look at, read, study or courses to attempt that may enable me to get this thing to work.

    thanks in advance guys and Gals.

    Leon

  2. #2
    HMEpartsmanager is offline Advanced Beginner
    Windows XP Access 2003
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    Short Answer: Yes.... :-)

    Really, grab a book, and delve into it. You never know. If it is too much, you will know soon enough.

    It doesn't hurt to try.

    Tim

  3. #3
    rpeare is offline VIP
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    I'm guessing this is a single table database with very limited reporting?

    I learned everything I know by doing rather than reading, and when I was really stuck I went to the web and looked for code to adapt to my situation. If you're like me I'd suggest trying to build some simple queries and reports first. For instance let's say you want to target all contacts in a certain area, or in a certain postal code you can build a query to look for a specific postal code FIRST. if you get that working the way you want, then make a query that prompts for the postal code by typing [Enter the Postal Code] in the criteria section. Then when you run the query you will be prompted, start small and work forward. If you have a burning need for something complex right off the bat post the specific question here and you'll get help.

  4. #4
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
    Windows 7 32bit Access 2007
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    Yeah I am tempted to do both, read and have a fiddle myself.

    Can anyone point to a website with tutorials or a book maybe that would help ?

    the thing worked - I was using it myself last July - I just need to work out how/where to knit it back together and then catch up on 8 months of missed call backs !!!

  5. #5
    June7's Avatar
    June7 is offline VIP
    Windows XP Access 2010 32bit
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    What is not working - error message, wrong results, nothing happens? What are you trying when it 'doesn't work'?

    There are LOTS of books and tutorial sites. This question has been asked more than once here, search forum. Here is one https://www.accessforums.net/tutoria...als-34260.html

    Look at the Contacts template provided by Microsoft. You can select it when you open Access and create a new database.
    How to attach file: http://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=70301 To provide db: copy, remove confidential data, run compact & repair, zip w/Windows Compression.

  6. #6
    HMEpartsmanager is offline Advanced Beginner
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    Quote Originally Posted by leonmc0708 View Post
    Yeah I am tempted to do both, read and have a fiddle myself.

    Can anyone point to a website with tutorials or a book maybe that would help ?

    the thing worked - I was using it myself last July - I just need to work out how/where to knit it back together and then catch up on 8 months of missed call backs !!!
    I had a background with using different dialects of the BASIC language from TRS80's, VIC20's, Comm64's, Apple, IBM, all the way up to Visual Basic. Had experience with Flat File databases from the early 80s. With all that said, I bought 1 book and use the Access 2003 Help Files to get proper naming when I didn't understand how something worked.

    I ended up building a database in a few months to do what I needed it to do. Purchasing, Receiving, Employee Time Details, and such.

    If you have a database that you know works, then all you need to do is learn 'how' it is working while still functioning and doing what you are doing. As you learn 'your' database, you can then adapt and modify it. The reason I went with relational database, is flat file was dieing out and the trend was moving forward to coorelate all the data. Sometimes you can't go to the local box store and buy XYZ Database program that does 1,2, & 3. Sometimes you have to start from scratch and develop what you want it to do.

    If you learn how yours operates, you are half way there to modifying it and adapting it to your future needs without starting from scratch.

    Good luck and have fun doing it.

    Tim

  7. #7
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by June7 View Post
    What is not working - error message, wrong results, nothing happens? What are you trying when it 'doesn't work'?

    There are LOTS of books and tutorial sites. This question has been asked more than once here, search forum. Here is one https://www.accessforums.net/tutoria...als-34260.html

    Look at the Contacts template provided by Microsoft. You can select it when you open Access and create a new database.
    It lets me navigate through it so I can view each lead/customer and add or amend details and the like, the thing that doesn't seem to want to work is the reports.

    For example - it allows you to set a "REMINDER" to call back leads, so you would then every day click the "Call Backs" button and it would give you a report of all the ones outstanding up to and including 12 hours in the future from when you do it. this would then be your workload for that day - working through all those call backs.

  8. #8
    June7's Avatar
    June7 is offline VIP
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    So does the report not run? Or does it run but data is wrong?

    Refer to link at bottom of my post for guidelines on debugging techniques.
    How to attach file: http://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=70301 To provide db: copy, remove confidential data, run compact & repair, zip w/Windows Compression.

  9. #9
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by June7 View Post
    So does the report not run? Or does it run but data is wrong?

    Refer to link at bottom of my post for guidelines on debugging techniques.
    Hi June7

    The report runs, but doesnt bring up any results, instead it has "#Type!" in the Date field - which makes me thin kthere is some problem with the date.

    do you need to set the date with an access database ?

    Thanks for the pointer to your link I have tried to have a read but it sounds very advanced (which I guess makes me a total novice)

    Again thanks for the help/advice - its much appreciated

  10. #10
    June7's Avatar
    June7 is offline VIP
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    That error means the value entered does not agree with the field datatype.

    If you want to provide db for analysis, follow instructions at bottom of my post.
    How to attach file: http://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=70301 To provide db: copy, remove confidential data, run compact & repair, zip w/Windows Compression.

  11. #11
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
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    I hope I have done this correctly
    Attached Files Attached Files

  12. #12
    rpeare is offline VIP
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    can't read 2010 files sorry.

  13. #13
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by rpeare View Post
    can't read 2010 files sorry.
    Oh - is this often a problem - because I think that we had an older version that we used, but I now have a newer version ?

    do you think that may be a problem then ?

  14. #14
    June7's Avatar
    June7 is offline VIP
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    rpeare, the posted files are mdb's.

    Access 2010 will run files created with older versions.

    leon, I opened all the reports and not seeing the errors you describe, however, none show any records. The report queries have criteria limiting records for specific employee. Why is that?

    The queries all show INNER JOIN which is preventing record retrieval, need to be LEFT & RIGHT. For instance, CustomerContacts:

    SELECT ContactType.ContactType, Customers.CustomerID, Employees.EmployeeNumber, CustomerContact.Date, Customers.CompanyName, Network.Network, Customers.VoiceHandsets, Customers.EmailHandsets, Customers.USBData, Customers.ContractExpiry, Status.Status, CustomerContact.Notes, Customers.Count
    FROM (Network RIGHT JOIN (Status RIGHT JOIN ((Employees RIGHT JOIN Customers ON Employees.EmployeeID = Customers.EmployeeID) LEFT JOIN Contacts ON Customers.CustomerID = Contacts.CustomerID) ON Status.StatusID = Customers.StatusID) ON Network.NetworkID = Customers.NetworkID) LEFT JOIN (ContactType RIGHT JOIN CustomerContact ON ContactType.ContactTypeID = CustomerContact.ContactTypeID) ON Customers.CustomerID = CustomerContact.CustomerID;

    And CutomerContactsCallBacksDue:
    SELECT Employees.EmployeeNumber, ContactType.ContactType, CustomerContact.Date, Customers.CustomerID, Customers.CompanyName, Network.Network, Customers.VoiceHandsets, Customers.EmailHandsets, Customers.USBData, Customers.ContractExpiry, Status.Status, CustomerContact.Notes, Customers.Count
    FROM (Network RIGHT JOIN (Status RIGHT JOIN (Employees RIGHT JOIN Customers ON Employees.EmployeeID = Customers.EmployeeID) ON Status.StatusID = Customers.StatusID) ON Network.NetworkID = Customers.NetworkID) RIGHT JOIN (ContactType RIGHT JOIN CustomerContact ON ContactType.ContactTypeID = CustomerContact.ContactTypeID) ON Customers.CustomerID = CustomerContact.CustomerID
    WHERE (((ContactType.ContactType)="Callback") AND ((CustomerContact.Date)<=(Date()+1)) AND ((CustomerContact.Notes)="No info entered"));

    Table relationships are set so when building queries the query designer adopts the joins set in relationships. However, as the above query changes demonstrate, the relationship joins are not appropriate.

    Why Contacts and CustomerContact tables? They both relate to Customers.

    Suggest rearranging EmployeeMaster form so it isn't so wide. Maybe put command buttons along top.

    These issues concern basics of database principles and Access functionality. Suggest you spend a few weekends with a tutorial and get a grounding in the basics before diving into modifying your db.
    How to attach file: http://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=70301 To provide db: copy, remove confidential data, run compact & repair, zip w/Windows Compression.

  15. #15
    leonmc0708 is offline Novice
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    June7

    I deleted all the data and simply left the headers in the data and no records - if you want I can upload one with some data if that may help ?

    The report queries having criteria limiting records for a specific employee - essentially the way the system was set up was that each employee had an area (there are 19 different ones on there) and each user/employee had a front end link on their desktop that linked them to the data which was on the server.

    I am afraid I dont understand what INNER JOIN is - I am honestly a total novice in terms of access.

    The for instances you have given have also gone well over my head.

    I didnt design the database - it was done by a director at a company where I worked so I have no idea about the thinking and why he has so many tables when they relate to the same thing.

    I may need to bite the bullet and employ someone to try and fix it as this all seems very alien to me and I dont see how I can possibly get up to your levels of expertise in the near future.

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