solutions wanted In search of a Scheduling Solution

[Mike-LI-NY]

I work for a summer camp company and we create individual daily schedules for our 500+ campers. Does anyone know of any good scheduling solution that would allow me to set parameters such as "from this time ot this time X kids can go to horseback riding" and then refuse entry to the X+1 kid? And also have the ability of generating schedules by day per camper or by age group? It's a tall order, but if someone can point me in the right direction, it'd be greatly appreciated!

Edited October 20, 2005 by Guest

[Søren Dyhr]

Hi

I would guess that assigning children to activities at a summer camp, carries a lot of similarities with assigning volunteers for tasks at a music festival.

This is going to be the next task I'm going to do after figuring out a shift scheduling thingy for a brewery in close collaboration with their IT-person.

But lets mutually interpolate our views on the matters, because a lot of in my present solution is very likely to be used in the festval-thingy as well..

Let's make a, lets see what you have and I'll show you what I have!!!

--sd

[David McQueen]

I work for a summer camp company and we create individual daily schedules for our 500+ campers. Does anyone know of any good scheduling solution that would allow me to set parameters such as "from this time ot this time X kids can go to horseback riding" and then refuse entry to the X+1 kid? And also have the ability of generating schedules by day per camper or by age group? It's a tall order, but if someone can point me in the right direction, it'd be greatly appreciated!

I have done this sort thing. In my case it is scheduling therapists into families, counting hours, refusing conflicts etc.

I am assuming you are on FMP7/8. This makes conflict detection easier in some ways. However, if what you need requires compound keys linking both people and times, you are probably back into a smart ranges type set up.

If you go to my site and download "Little Helper" it will give you some interface ideas. It has a multi user sheduling module. As it sits though it only catches simple conflicts ie conflicting start times. I am trying to keep the file sizzes down with this one.

You can reach me directly at:

[email protected]

(705)720-9022

The web site is:

http://www.lichen-software.com

I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have to try to get you started or give you things you should be looking for.

HTH

Dave McQueen

Lichen Software

[Fenton]

I have also done this sort of thing; but yours is little different. Most of the work normally involved in "scheduling" files is caused by having to show the data within a layout view such as a "calendar" (monthly) or "timeslots" (weekly, daily). These are really just viewing tables, with (several) portals and their relationships. The main reason these tables and layouts exist is to show "empty" dates/times. The data itself is in another simple table, "appointments", "classes" or whatever. So, if you do not have to show empty slots, and I don't think you do, you greatly reduce the work needed.

It sounds as if you are not going to be looking for "conflicts" per se (more like the opposite). You will be looking to see if chosen dates are within the parameters of activities. You will certainly need a table of the Activities, with dates (if restricted; could be a multi-line field), start time and end time.

You need to calculate a count of participants for each activity on each date. This could be done with a compound self-relationship on the Date & Activity in the Schedule table.

The Activities table would have a field for the maximum limit of participants. This could be auto-entered into the Schedule table at sign-up time, and compared to the self-related count of participants. A relationship "through" the Activities could filter a value list or portal to only "available" activities, or show the current count.

You can use compound relationships, with >= or <=, etc. to see if any proposed date and times are within the activity's parameters. The proposed start time must be on or after the activity's start time, and the end time must be on or before the activity's end time.

I don't see much problem with generating reports, as all the data is either in the "Schedule" table, which is like a join file between the campers and the activities, or accessible to it (names, ages, etc.).

[David McQueen]

It sounds as if you are not going to be looking for "conflicts" per se (more like the opposite). You will be looking to see if chosen dates are within the parameters of activities. You will certainly need a table of the Activities, with dates (if restricted; could be a multi-line field), start time and end time.

He is probably still going to need some sort of conflict detection. He does not care if 15 people are scheduled for horse back riding at the same time ... As long as there are at least 15 spaces for that session.

He is however going to want to check that Little Johnny is not scheduled for horse back riding and csanoeing at the same time. The assumption here is that the camp is large enough that more than one activity sat a time is going on.

So he will need a counter for the number of people in an activity and may need a conflict detector for individual people so that any person is not scheduled to be in two places at the same time.

If it is a camp where everyone does thing in a herd so to speak, you are probably right and conflicts are not really a factor.

I see an activities table or even a drop down list of activities, a people table and a table of events that brings together person, activity,start and finish time and date. Reporting can be as simple as calling an activity and then getting a list of the people involved as well as date, start and finish time.

Dave McQueen

[Mike-LI-NY]

Thanks for your input everyone.

We're a sleepaway camp that has everything imagineable: Soccer, Baseball, Swimming, Boating, Water-skiing, Outdoor Adventure, Horseback-Riding, etc etc. We have 500 campers. For most of the time, campers are scheduled by Division or Bunk (groups ranging from 8-30). Larger activities like Soccer can accomodate 30 kids, while water-skiing can only handle 8 in one "period". So, we have to make sure that we're not double booking a time slot at a certain activity, while also making sure that we're not surpassing our capacity. On top of which, we have to make sure that everyone is regularly scheduled for certain activities, while also incorporating individual request s- additional tennis instruction, etc.

I'm open to tons of ideas - I'm definitely not a pro, but have taken a few courses and managed to build some great, funcitonal databases with some neat features. Also, if someone knows of a program that would do this for me, aside from having to create this from scratch - whether it be a FM solution or a stand-alone APP, that'd be awesome as well.

THANKS!

M

[David McQueen]

Send me your email addrdess so I can get in touch with you.

Dave McQueen

[email protected]