Databases - MS Access - Inventory Control Demo

MS Access provides a number of demo databases. I stongly suggest using these as learning aids.

This page discusses the pros and cons of the

(Caveat: The analysis presents my opinions, not facts. Others may disagree.)


Creating the Demo

From the menu, select You will be presented with a list of possible tables and optional fields. You can specify the basic form and report styles. When you select Finish, the wizard will create On my system, the mdz files are located at


Overview

If you elected to have sample data, you can see how it all plays together.

Right click on the list of tables and select Relationships... (or use Tools / Relationships...). This will display the links between the 7 main tables. (One additional table controls the switchboard and the other stores company informatiion.)


Navigation

Application navigation is based on the Switchboard. Basically, this is a data-driven menu system - the menu text and related forms are stored in the Switchboard Items table. With very little effort, you can customize this for other applications (mainly, get rid of the hideous graphic).

There are several command types

As it stands, the switchboard handles up to 8 selections. It also calls a start-up form the first time it is executed.

I personally prefer menus to buttons (faster, easier to see the total picture), but these should also be data-driven.


Analysis

The concept of an Inventory Transaction record is a good idea, however, several of the fields should be combined into a pick list. The requirement to have individual tracking numbers for all items greatly modifies the data architecture.


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Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org
URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Databases / MSAccess / InventoryControlDemo.html