New user here, well sort of. I've been an Alpha Four user since version 2. I know just enough to do what I've needed to get done, though likely not in any conventional manner I'll wager. I've just acquired Alpha Five a few days ago. Now this is a whole nuther animal!
I have a working Alpha Four database consisting of about ten tables and eight set definitions. In a nutshell it an in-house invoicing system that tracks and reports materials usage and costs by contract number for a small sheet metal (ductwork) shop. Now mind you, this is no finished application. I've only taken it as far as I need so that _I_ (and maybe one other fellow) can use it. Before this the paperwork was tossed in a box and someone went through the box every couple months and figured it all up by hand!! whew!!
I thought I might see if the same tasks could be handled in Alpha Five and maybe in a more finished way such that other personnel might have a shot at learning how to use it. I don't really HAVE to do this, just looking to break into Alpha Five I guess. I may well decide to just stay with Alpha Four for some tasks.
From just a few days look it would appear that differences between the two products might make it impracticle (maybe impossible) to duplicate some of the concepts currently in use in my Alpha Four setup. However, Alpha Five might allow me to go beyond some of the things I couldn't get past in Alpha Four, assuming I can get a grip on what areas I would need to learn. That's what brings me here. I hope that I can explain what I think I'm after well enough to be understood. Here goes;
A few of the items we produce are composites, that is to say the item is constructed of from several different materials. Let's say I ~might~ want the sum of these individual materials listed as line items on the invoice. Additionally there will generally be several of these items, having varying dimensions, to be summarized to single line item entries.
Let's see if I can make a simple analogy to clarify....Lets say I'm a carpenter who is building an addition to a structure. One of the composites items would be WALLS. The materials would consist of 2x4s, 2x6s, drywall, and drywall screws. The user would enter say LENGTH, HEIGHT, and make a selection of Load Bearing or not. (I assume fields would exist for invoice number and such to serve as a link between invoice header and so on.) They would enter a record for each of the walls required. As the records are added, calculations would be made to compute the amounts of the various materials required, possibly in calculated fields, and these materials would be summarized as line items on the invoice line item table. 245 feet of 2x4, 560 square feet of drywall, and so on. The first composite record I suppose would have to create the line item records and subsequent composite records would need to either add to these records or create additional records as required.
This is just one of the areas where I exceed my knowledge and get lost, either in Alpha Four or Five. How to create multiple records in a table (parent?) based on a set of related records in another table (child?)
I ducked the issue in Alpha Four. Field rules in Alpha Four can exist at the set level allowing different rules for the same table dependant on the set definition, as opposed to only the table level in Alpha Five. Also, Alpha Four field rules for sets provide values of User-Entered, Calculated, or SUMMARY, where Alpha Five lacks the SUMMARY as a field "type". So using the features in Alpha Four I chose to NOT itemize the materials but instead to summarize the cost of these items in the invoice table (cost being calculated in the child records). There are just a handful of different composite items we make so I made a SET definition for each of the composites using the same INVOICE table as the parent, but with different field rules and child tables as needed, and list the composite as a single line item on the invoice. No user action is required to update the summary, any change to, or entry of a child record is automatically updated in the parent (summary) record.
All comments welcome,
TJ Baker
I have a working Alpha Four database consisting of about ten tables and eight set definitions. In a nutshell it an in-house invoicing system that tracks and reports materials usage and costs by contract number for a small sheet metal (ductwork) shop. Now mind you, this is no finished application. I've only taken it as far as I need so that _I_ (and maybe one other fellow) can use it. Before this the paperwork was tossed in a box and someone went through the box every couple months and figured it all up by hand!! whew!!
I thought I might see if the same tasks could be handled in Alpha Five and maybe in a more finished way such that other personnel might have a shot at learning how to use it. I don't really HAVE to do this, just looking to break into Alpha Five I guess. I may well decide to just stay with Alpha Four for some tasks.
From just a few days look it would appear that differences between the two products might make it impracticle (maybe impossible) to duplicate some of the concepts currently in use in my Alpha Four setup. However, Alpha Five might allow me to go beyond some of the things I couldn't get past in Alpha Four, assuming I can get a grip on what areas I would need to learn. That's what brings me here. I hope that I can explain what I think I'm after well enough to be understood. Here goes;
A few of the items we produce are composites, that is to say the item is constructed of from several different materials. Let's say I ~might~ want the sum of these individual materials listed as line items on the invoice. Additionally there will generally be several of these items, having varying dimensions, to be summarized to single line item entries.
Let's see if I can make a simple analogy to clarify....Lets say I'm a carpenter who is building an addition to a structure. One of the composites items would be WALLS. The materials would consist of 2x4s, 2x6s, drywall, and drywall screws. The user would enter say LENGTH, HEIGHT, and make a selection of Load Bearing or not. (I assume fields would exist for invoice number and such to serve as a link between invoice header and so on.) They would enter a record for each of the walls required. As the records are added, calculations would be made to compute the amounts of the various materials required, possibly in calculated fields, and these materials would be summarized as line items on the invoice line item table. 245 feet of 2x4, 560 square feet of drywall, and so on. The first composite record I suppose would have to create the line item records and subsequent composite records would need to either add to these records or create additional records as required.
This is just one of the areas where I exceed my knowledge and get lost, either in Alpha Four or Five. How to create multiple records in a table (parent?) based on a set of related records in another table (child?)
I ducked the issue in Alpha Four. Field rules in Alpha Four can exist at the set level allowing different rules for the same table dependant on the set definition, as opposed to only the table level in Alpha Five. Also, Alpha Four field rules for sets provide values of User-Entered, Calculated, or SUMMARY, where Alpha Five lacks the SUMMARY as a field "type". So using the features in Alpha Four I chose to NOT itemize the materials but instead to summarize the cost of these items in the invoice table (cost being calculated in the child records). There are just a handful of different composite items we make so I made a SET definition for each of the composites using the same INVOICE table as the parent, but with different field rules and child tables as needed, and list the composite as a single line item on the invoice. No user action is required to update the summary, any change to, or entry of a child record is automatically updated in the parent (summary) record.
All comments welcome,
TJ Baker
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