I need some help designing an Alpha 5 scheduling database

[Will End]

Very new to this and I know this will take months. But I'd appreciate some pointers to get me started.

The goal is to make a system that lets you select a customer from a table of customers, type in or choose a date/time for an appointment, then assign an employee pulled from a separate table to perform that task at that time.


The way I see it, there would be a customer table, an employee table, and a schedule table.



Is there some kind of schedule template I can look at or a chapter of a book I can focus on or something? I'd even go to some classes if its really the most reasonable idea. The sample databases provided by alpha software don't seem to cover my objective.


The system should have filtering criteria so that employees that are already occupied are not listed as available. Further employees that don't meet job requirements should also not be listed.




I'm a bit lost right now. If I have something to chew on then I can probably figure the rest out myself.

[NJG166]

Re: I need some help designing an Alpha 5 scheduling database

Have you looked at Dr Peter Wayne's Xbasic for Everyone ? It is a mine of good ideas and samples. See Chapter 44 for a Calendar Application that might well do exactly for your Appointments.

[martinwcole]

Re: I need some help designing an Alpha 5 scheduling database

Hey Nigel,

Lived in Rochefort a few years, once.

The critical part is whether you want the data presented in a calendar - and by "calendar" I mean something that really looks like a calendar, and with click functionality.

But the basic app would be easy and fairly quick to design and with screening for operator errors and user friendliness. And the "calendar" could be presented as a list, instead of in a calendar.

[Will End]

Re: I need some help designing an Alpha 5 scheduling database

I'll look into that.

The basic flow of the program should work like this:

1. You type in a search to bring up a client record. (There should be a client information table)

2. You either specify a time or worker. Sometimes its very important that something happen at a certain time OR its very important that a specific worker do it. (There will be a worker table. Each record will specify their working days, qualification, etc.)

3. The system needs to then either show a list of workers available at that time slot if you specified time OR it has to show a range of times open if you chose a worker.


Something pretty in calender form would be nice but it isn't required. Drop down menus or some check boxes that show time ranges would be fine.

4. All of the selections made have to be entered into a schedule table.




I'll look at the book you suggested. Where is the best place to find scheduling templates? When I began this project, I knew I was going to have to learn as I went along. But I also thought that any typical action would be something someone else had done that I can just copy or buy for my own use.


I'm using alpha 5 because I don't believe in reinventing the wheel. If someone else has a scheduling module... I'll use it. Is there a book with scheduling templates? Or do I have to buy a module from someone else? How do I go about this part of the project?

[amorris]

Re: I need some help designing an Alpha 5 scheduling database

Will,

If you purchase a module, it will still need to be crafted to your specs. The only tricky part I see is the scheduling and being sure the person is not already taken for the time slot needed.

Over all, it is not a super difficult app to do. I did a similar with a vacation schedule with 80+- workers where the people with in departments could not overlap. There were 5 departments. Then a really cute part was a senior employee could bump a newer employee is done within so many days(90 if I remember). Same principle though. I showed it on a pseudo calendar for management to hang on the wall. With alpha, there is a limit on some things and the calendar ran out at around 22 days, so the report printed had to be 2 reports that was a tricky print operation. No, I did not use the one from Peter Wayne's book(I have it too).

It was time consuming to achieve, but well worth it to the company.

There are prebuilt applications and other on the iadn site that are for sale. Many are web apps and some are desktop.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: I need some help designing an Alpha 5 scheduling database

Hi Will,

Another great recourse is www.learn alpha.com. Search for scheduler.