Seat Assignments Reservation System

[aircal]

Let me start off by saying I am VERY new to Filemaker and forums. I am using Filemaker Pro 11. I know this sounds nuts but I have never posted in one before, so I hope I am going about this correctly.

I work as a ticket agent for an airline so I know about how some of this stuff works (not in FM obviously) but am trying to make my own system.

Here is the Situation:

I have 2 tables that are part of this issue:

Bookings (Passenger Name, Flight booked, Seat Assignment, etc..)

Seat Maps (different types of aircraft have different seat maps)

I have gotten as far as making passenger reservations, and being able to check them in for their flight (and the connections if there is one), then printing the boarding passes, bag tags etc.)

Each seat on the seat map table is a field named what ever seat it is. (Seat 13C is field 13C) And on the seat map available seats show as "O". When I check in a passenger it will show the seat map in one window and a field in the other to input the seat I want in the other window (in the passengers booking). What I am trying to do is type in the seat assignment and then have filemaker go to the seat map on the and change that seat to show it as an "X" (meaning not available for another passenger)

The Bookings table it related to the flights table by the flight and date as is the seat map for that flight.

My thought was that there would be a way once I type in the seat assignment in the passengers booking that it would then take what I type and go to the seat map and change it from O to X.

I have done some scripting for the other portions of this system, but don't know a whole lot about them.

I figured when scripting this you would have to use the "Set Field By Name" function, but cant figure it out, and don't see how you would tell it that the field is in a different table and how to figure out what table it is. Maybe there is a better way to get this done.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Peter

[Vaughan]

Each seat on the seat map table is a field named what ever seat it is.

I'd suggest that seats should be in their own table, as related records. Otherwise the database structure will have to changed each time an aircraft with bigger seat capacity needs booking. Also, if a person books two seats on the same flight, how will you print then out if they are all in one record? Using related seat records might also make some of your other problems simpler, though it will require a re-think.

Reservation/scheduling/booking systems are the most complex databases that can be built.

I'd probably go about this by having a table with seats for each flight. I'd then create a record in another table that is a booking for each of the seats. A seat record will know whether it is available if it does not have a related record in the bookings table. The database can prevent duplicate booking records from being created so there is no possibility of double-booking.

There are folks on the forums that have spent YEARS working on such systems. Hopefully they will chime in with some suggestions.

[comment]

I don't think it's AS complex as Vaughan described, but you will definitely need more tables.

What I am trying to do is type in the seat assignment and then have filemaker go to the seat map on the and change that seat to show it as an "X" (meaning not available for another passenger)

If you were to succeed in this, then that seat would remain occupied for all flights that use the same type of aircraft. I believe you need (at least) a table of Flights (which would have a field to indicate the aircraft type), and a table of Seats.

I suggest you start by reading a similar thread here:

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/66093-passenger-seating/

[aircal]

Thanks for the advice. Let me clear up my setup a bit. I do have the seats in their own table. When I add a flight to the to the flight table, it then creates a new record in the seat table that corresponds to the flight (based on the type of aircraft specified) So each seat chart has its own record. So if it was say a small aircraft it would only have seats in the record up to row 12 but on a larger plane it has them go up to 22. So basically I need a scrip that when I type in the seat number into the passengers booking for that flight, it then goes to that flight and changes the seat field from O to X. Does this sound like it could work? The seats are all fields named for what ever seat assignment they are.

[bruceR]

Thanks for the advice. Let me clear up my setup a bit.

... The seats are all fields named for what ever seat assignment they are.

And that is the part that needs to change. They should NOT be named fields. This is data.

[comment]

I do have the seats in their own table.

It doesn't sound like you do: having seats in their own table means you have a table where every seat is an individual record. Note that these seats are "reusable" - you do not need to have seats for every flight. It's quite sufficient to have seats for every aircraft type.

Actually, you could settle for no more than the number of seats on the largest aircraft. However, this may be a bit complicated if the seat labels differ among aircraft - e.g. seat #5 could be "2A" in a small aircraft with 4 seats per row, or "1E" in a larger aircraft with 6-seat rows.

So basically I need a scrip that when I type in the seat number into the passengers booking for that flight, it then goes to that flight and changes the seat field from O to X.

No, you do not need to (or should) do that. By assigning a seat to a passenger, that seat becomes occupied. There is no need to replicate the same information elsewhere. All that's needed is a relationship between the booking and the seat (that's one reason why each seat needs to be an individual record), so that the seat record can "see" who's sitting on it.

[aircal]

OK So I set up so each seat is its own record in a table called seats. Seach record has a field for the Seat assignment (e.g. 13A), what class of service it is, status (to show whether or not its occupie), flight/date its for etc.... So is there a way I can set up a layout in filemaker to show it in the form of a map? For instance set up a layout that shows the contents of the the status field for each seat? I want to have one layout for each flight, and have the status field for each seat be positioned on the sceen where it would be on the aircraft.

Exapmple:

...1 2 3

A OOO

B OOX

C OOO

D OXX

E OOO

F OOO

...1 2 3

Is there a way of doing this?

Did i post in the right place now??