Restricting Duplication?

[Broyles]

Hi Everyone,

Hope someone can help. My question is this. I'm trying to set up a file

for checking out a/v equipment. So, there's an equipment list, name field,

from date, to date, from time, to time, returned?, etc. My problem is how

do I keep Jerry from checking out hte same equipment as Tom when Tom already has it?

ie: LCD Projector - Tom - 10/5/2001 - 10/5/2001 - 10:00am - 11:00am - No

How can I keep Jerry from entering data that would show him having the projector during the same time?

In a similar problem I'm trying to set up a room reservation system. How can I keep someone from reserving a room during the same time as someone else?

Presently I'm using FileMaker Pro 4.1. Would upgrading to 5.0 or greater better facilitate this function?

[LiveOak]

The first question you have to answer is structural. What is a record in your file? A contract with a client with multiple associated pieces of equipment? A single piece of equipment with an inventory number?

The general answer to your question is that you will use some field to mark a piece of equipment as checked out and not allow anyone else to check it out. This is only a problem if you were thinking about manual operation of the file. If checkout is done using a script, the script can easily test to see if a piece of equipment is available.

-bd

[Broyles]

Thanks LiveOak for your help. The structural question is minor. A single piece of equipment with identifying number. So, as you suggest, I should be able to write a fairly simple script to do what I want once I learn how.

With the Room Reservation System I'd like to be able to write a somewhat complex 'If-Then-Else' statement to say 'If a certain room is already reserved on X date during time interval Y to Z, Then any attempt to reserve it on the same date during the same time interval is invalid (which would return a message "Room previously booked" to the user), Else the reservation is valid' (which would enter it into the datebase). Is this something that can be done with scripting, and are there any examples at which I can look?

[Ocean West]

Plug-ins!

oAzium Date & Time

They have an example that does just what you ask...

http://www.wmotion.com

[LiveOak]

This is a simple scripted operation in FM. The exact script depends upon how you store the information for when the room is in use.

A good reference on scripting is Scriptology by Matt Petrowski and John Mark Osborne (www.isoproductions.com or www.scriptology.com).

-bd

[Broyles]

Thanks for everyone's help! I'll be working to implement the solutions as I get time over the next few days.