Law Office Database

[Fenton]

Post deleted by Fenton

[CeeEssGee]

Yeah, this is a lot cleaner than mine, and actually works (which is definately a bonus). I really wish I could figure this stuff out, though. I finally understood how you are using the global variables on Friday, heh. Now I'm going to concentrate really hard, and try to figure out how to make the aliases function .

Is this database really complex? Moreso than most?

Oh, also, how would I go about putting a display of the range of Closed "IDs" in each box? That would be *very* useful for the list view. I'd have to somehow find the minimum value of all related records, and then a - (or equivalent), and the maximum value, right? (Edit: Nevermind, I figured that one out)

[Fenton]

The global fields are needed to pass data. Because a global field is the same for all records in its table, and is therefore accessible from other Table Occurrences, without having to worry about the exact relationship (which may not be valid yet).

"Aliases"? I imagine you mean "Table Occurrences" (TO), the boxes and lines in the relationships graph?

Notice that when we finally add all the needed tables (Boxes), the graph becomes simpler. I don't think this is a complex database so much as it has unusual business rules. Requiring a user-entered Box Code is unusual, but is needed to mesh with an external filing system.

There's also the "Move" script, which is cool :-). But it wouldn't be needed if people weren't moving things around in the storage boxes (which sounds a bit loony, but that's what you said they did).

The other reason that it seems complex is that I've tried to eliminate errors which could break the relational integrity, while making it easy to choose from what may be long lists.

The Boxes_self_gCaseID TO, for example, is just to check and see if the Case being processed is already in a box. It actually is not necessary, I see now. Because I added a checked for that, in the Close File script, which happens first. That was your script, and I worked on it last; so now we're checking twice. I thought about for a second, then ignored it. I was a little over-cautious. I'm going to remove the global check and TO. Simpler is better.

LawCases8.zip

[CeeEssGee]

I haven't seen your latest attachment yet, but I'm about to open it. Here's the one that I made (updated to take in to account aliases).

LawCases8.zip

[CeeEssGee]

Okay, I fixed it up with what you did on the last file, and now I'm pretty much ready to go. I put in most of our database, and it seems to be working fine. One problem though, is that when I add an alias to a client, if I look under the alias, it doesn't have that client listed under it's aliases.

For example, if Bill has an alias Tom, and I add that, if I go to Bill's record, it will show an alias of Tom. If I go to Tom's record, though, it will not show that his alias is Bill.

How do I fix this? Can this be solved by a few more script steps, or do I need to make a new TO?

LawCases9.zip

[Fenton]

I think that all you need to so is to create a New Record at that time, but reverse the fields; set the ClientID to the AliasID_g and AliasID to ClientID_g. I put it in both "New Alias" scripts. If you don't want to do this all the time, then you're going to have to ask them with a dialog before.

Your Show All/Sort script was ignoring my instructions, which I wrote at the top of the scripts menu! You MUST check the AllowUserAbort state on EVERY VISIBLE script. Otherwise the user can break the Choice window scripts, leaving the window open, which could cause someone to set the wrong record.

It is also not a very smart script. Because: 1. It has no meaning unless you're in Cases, and 2. It uses 2 related fields in the sort. That's going to be slow as molasses with a large number of records. Show All and Sort is usually not a good idea. It's slow and has little point, except in certain situations.

Show All can be a button on a List view. Sort by a field can be a button NEXT to its field. They should not be tied together, or else you can't do them separately. If you really want such a button, have it separate, and label it as such. This is my opinion anyway.

You forgot to reassign the portals on the Alias to Client layout. You did the fields, but the portal are still plain "Phones" and "Addresses." Strangely enough it still works though :-?

LawCases10.zip