No Title. just need ideas

[thegameoflife]

I'm creating a project that consists of sending surveys to our doctors. The surveys will be sent to the Dr's and returned to our company. I need some way of knowing what Dr. is sending the survey in. We are afraid they wont be honest if their names are on the letters. So I had the idea of using there id number in some way at the end of the report to identify them without them knowing. Some sort of basic encryption???????????

So at the bottom left of the report have a text box that says

C:\Survey\”ABC1234”.xls

Having the “ABC1234” represents their id numb.

Any ideas or thoughts on doing this????

 

[JPeters]

Yeah, we can do all sorts of neat things through code. ... I'd say do this..

Setup their user Id/name/etc.. and use the TransferSpreadsheet command to export their queries/tables/reports whatever to spreadsheets that are in a default directory - Setup the filename to be something like

DoCmd.TransferSpreadsheet acExport, 8, "qryTestPlease", "C:\MyPath\" & Date$ & "-" & IDNumber & ".xls", True, ""

So if their ID number is Abc123 the document they export would be at "C:\MyPath\08-1-2002-Abc123.xls".

then automate Outlook / their email client to send the data to you automatically so they never get to go in and edit the data. I can show you how to do this as well, but it assumes that they are all using Outlook or Outlook/Express.

Just a few Ideas. Need More?

-Josh ------------------
-JPeters
Got a helpful tip for Access Users? Check out and contribute to 'How to Keep Your Databases from becoming Overwhelming!'
thread181-293590
jpeters@guidemail.com
------------------

 

[thegameoflife]

I think you missed what I was trying to say.

I want to "mix-up" their id # so they won't have a clue that we are tracking their response. All they are getting is a 3-page survey via snail mail...

So if their id # is "123456" I want to make some conversion so we can log their response.

I.e.
If id # = "12345" then have it convert to "adifaekji" or any sort of variation of #'s and letters...

 

[jsolutions]

Game - check out the code below. It takes a string of numbers and converts it to alpha characters. It is based on the ASCII chart. Basically it is taking each character of the number string, getting its ASCII numeric value, then adding the ASCII numeric value of the letter "A" then converting back to a character.

Private Sub Command0_Click()
Dim a As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim str2 As String

a = "1234"

For i = 1 To Len(a)
str2 = str2 + chr(Asc(Mid(a, i, 1)) + Asc("A&quot)

Next i
msgbox str2
End Sub


If you take this code and tie it to a button's click event, you will see what happens. 1234 is changed to rstu.

This is a starting point for your code. You will need to put in the logic to read the doctors id into the string variable. Also, you can change the encoding value by changing the "A" to "B" or any alpha character.

Notes This assumes that the ID is a text value (which it should be since no calcuations are being done to the ID.

It also assumes that there are no alpha characters in the Id. If so, you need to change the encoding value to a lower case letter. Otherwise, you will end up with unprintable characters.

Finally, to decode, do the same as above, but subtract the asc value of the encoding value.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Jay

 

[Robway]

So the doctors think their responses are anonymous and are inclined to be honest with their responses. But you are deceiving them by using tricky code that allows you to identify them. Seems to me you don't need help in using Access. You need to do a course in Ethics.

 

[thegameoflife]

"You need to do a course in Ethics."
I'm doing my job. It has nothing to do with Ethics.
If I can improve how my company handles customer service so be it.

In the future if you can provide help on using Access your comments are welcomed. If you feel like you need to give someone a lecture on morals or your trivial thoughts on Ethics try talking to someone that would actually care what you have to say.

 

[markphsd]

Hey,

Now, I found the comment by Robway on ethics quite entertaining. However thegameoflife didn't see it that way, I wonder... when people get so defensive and kind of bitchy, they are usually in the wrong.

People who "just do their jobs" are slaves or automatons. I support this theory by recalling the nazi's.

Here's a thought, don't present your form as anonymous. Then you won't have to worry about your secret little code that’s located in the bottom right hand corner of every report.

 

[khood]

thegameoflife,

Word it however you wish, but you started this thread to solicit the opinions of others. If you didn't want opinions on ethics, then ask a more direct question like "how to scramble an id code" and leave out the details about your planned deception. People are trying to help you with your task, including DOING THE RIGHT THING.

Ethics aside, I would definitely think about the risk/return factor of what you (or your company) is trying to do. If the doctors are your customers and your goal is truly "improving customer service", then lying to them about the anonymous nature of the survey is, at the very least, a risky thing to do.

If any of your customers were to discover that you are saying one thing and actually doing another, then it would be far more damaging than simply not getting a good response to your survey.

My .02, welcome or not.

K.Hood

 

[thegameoflife]

I do appreciate your comments.

I'm sure we can argue ethics till the end of the day, but…….


"People who "just do their jobs" are slaves or automatons. I support this theory by recalling the nazi's."

OK........