Ok... the product of all the recent question asking =D

[Woodman650]

Hey all,
Thanks so much for helping out with all my questions in the past few days (I feel like I've been asking a lot). So, I'm pretty much done with this database project, but I've got a few minor snags... 3 actually.

1) get error when use delete button and select any option other than "yes"
2) my listbox selection does not load the record in the main subform area as it is supposed to (but I think I just don't know how to set this one up)
3) the frmAdd does not allow user to enter values into the fields for some reason, don't know what's up with that one

If anyone could take a peak, check it out, let me know if there is anything I need to fix, or more importantly, how to get those above things sorted out. It would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance =D

http://www.thepixelsink.com/other/demo.zip

Woody

 

[Woodman650]

i would have done everything out of one table, but I wasn't sure how to create a list of predetermined values for the genre selection options. geez. this is super tricky. I was hoping to have it all working by tonight... boohoohoo, haha. =\

 

[adalger]

Have a tblActors which lists information about actors. PK will be a numeric ID for each actor.

Have a tblMovies which lists information about movies. PK will be a numeric ID for each movie.

Have an intermediate table with no PK which contains only two fields: MovieID and ActorID.

This is the conventional way to model a many-to-many relationship.

Note that tblMovies won't have *any* information about actors.

TMTOWDI - it's not just for Perl any more

 

[adalger]

For a predetermined list of genre options of options in a drop-down, select the Row Source Type as value List, and in the Row Source you type your allowed values seperated by semicolons.

TMTOWDI - it's not just for Perl any more

 

[Woodman650]

oh geez, I tried setting it up and now, well... yeah, nothing works. I'm so confused.
Adalger, I hate to ask, but is there any way you could make the changes and post the file? (if the changes are simple for you... I don't want to ask you to put time into this). I have no clue where to even begin reworking this after changing the table structure. =/ *sigh*

 

[Woodman650]

or is there a way to salvage what I've got at this point?

 

[adalger]

Welcome to the hard part of being a developer. ;-)

Really, once you've defined what your tables and relationships are, the forms are almost completely self-designing.

The first thing you need to decide is what information to store about each movie. Probably you'll want the year and the title at a minimum. Maybe you'll want a boolean field to indicate color vs. B&W. Or maybe you'll want a "Color" field that contains identifiers into a colors table with values like 0 for BW, 1 for Technicolor, 2 for Chromacolor, 3 for "colorized" ...

Likewise for actors, directors, producers, studios ...

This is a somewhat involved project, and I don't really have the time to do it. Let me ask you this, though: What's the purpose of this project? Is it a hobby? Is it a learning experience? Is it a business tool?

TMTOWDI - it's not just for Perl any more

 

[Woodman650]

it's actually a learning tool... but also because I've got a dvd collection at home with upwards of 200 dvds and my wife suggested a nice way to figure out what movies we already have... so we don't buy duplicates anymore. haha

So I found an example dvd database online, but the author didn't make the source available or the actual db, so I was thinking... maybe I can create my own. The whole thing looked good until this one "create new" snag. that's why I wondered if there was a way around, instead of recreating the whole db.

 

[adalger]

I'd suggest that this is a very valuable learning experience. You've learned the importance of proper planning. ;-)

It really doesn't matter what line of work you're in, you always throw the first one away. That's a well-established truism. Start over and use the information you've gained to create tables that will make the forms easier to design.

TMTOWDI - it's not just for Perl any more

 

[Woodman650]

I'm gonna buy a book on my way home from work... any suggestions? And as a developer, how much would you charge for a project like this Adalger?... just out of curiousity ;D

 

[Woodman650]

I got it working!! aha! ... I did what you suggested adalger. I just remapped the tables and such. Now the only problem I have has to do with selecting items from comboboxes. You've certainly helped me enough today, so don't feel obligated to answer this, as I'm sure it's probably complex (give the other things we went through today). haha.

How do I create a table with a list of genres and then have various forms in the document look-up that list to show in combobox, and then when selected, write that value to the FrmMain in a specified field? hope that makes sense. I think I will have things under control if I can figure that out and I will share my final product with ya =D thanks so much again! life saver.

 

[Woodman650]

... or if it's easier... just list the values in a combo box like you said earlier. but I don't know how to write those to the table once selected in the combo.

 

[Woodman650]

nevermind. how do I delete posts. this is ridiculous... hahaha, figured it out.

 

[lespaul]

My coworker and I always wish there was time to do a project a second time. It's not that the first one doesn't do the job, but you really don't know until you finish it EXACTLY what you want it to do and how.

For future reference, read the fundamentals document linked below to see the accepted standards for database structures.

Good luck!

Leslie

Anything worth doing is a lot more difficult than it's worth - Unknown Induhvidual

Essential reading for anyone working with databases: The Fundamentals of Relational Database Design

 

[Woodman650]

I stayed up until 2am this morning rewriting the thing and it works. I have to get some comboboxes behaving the way I want them to, but everything else is formatting. Just wanted to thank you again Adalger.

It's funny, Les Paul and Adalger... I was thinking back on the days I was learning html and css. How my first couple of projects, I thought I had nailed and I was just a quick learner. Oh boy, was I wrong. Haha. I had to throw those away and it hurt. I'm even sure my now functioning database probably has some huge underlying flaw... but for it's purpose and given that it appears to work, I'm gonna leave it at that for this project (until I decide I want to make it flawless later down the road and come back to it... it always happens) =D thanks guys. turned into quite the long post in under 24 hours didn't it? haha, take care!