New to the whole DB world
in [Tables]
|
From: freddy on 1 Dec 2009 10:48 I am a desktop support person and I have a vbscript to inventory all the computers on the network. I use the script to gather information like username, memory, hard drive space, and I am thinking about getting installed software. I have the script writing to an excel file, which is ok for now. I would like to use Access 2003 but my problem is the design. Do I create one table and have a field for username, computer name, memory, and so on or do I create more than one table like for username and one for computername. Plus how do I handle the installed software? My idea was to have three tables: one for username which will have full name, one for computername which will have all the computer stuff like memory, hd, etc and one for software which will have software name, version, installed date, etc. Please someone help me out. Thanks Freddt
From: Keith Wilby on 1 Dec 2009 11:17 "freddy" <freddy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:C937C8A6-45C1-4224-915B-45060BE6B795(a)microsoft.com... >I am a desktop support person and I have a vbscript to inventory all the > computers on the network. I use the script to gather information like > username, memory, hard drive space, and I am thinking about getting > installed > software. I have the script writing to an excel file, which is ok for now. > I > would like to use Access 2003 but my problem is the design. Do I create > one > table and have a field for username, computer name, memory, and so on or > do I > create more than one table like for username and one for computername. > Plus > how do I handle the installed software? > My idea was to have three tables: one for username which will have full > name, one for computername which will have all the computer stuff like > memory, hd, etc and one for software which will have software name, > version, > installed date, etc. Please someone help me out. > > Thanks > Freddt Think about entities with attributes and try to model them with your tables. For example, can a user have more than one computer? If so then you need a table for user (attributes: name, department, etc) and one for computers (attributes: asset number, make, model etc) and there will be a one-to-many relationship between them. If a computer can have many users then there may be a many to many relationship. That's the kind of thing you need to establish first because your tables are the foundation of your app. Keith. www.keithwilby.co.uk
From: Bernard Peek on 1 Dec 2009 12:10 In message <C937C8A6-45C1-4224-915B-45060BE6B795(a)microsoft.com>, freddy <freddy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> writes >My idea was to have three tables: one for username which will have full >name, one for computername which will have all the computer stuff like >memory, hd, etc and one for software which will have software name, version, >installed date, etc. Please someone help me out. That's a plausible starting point but it will pay you to do some groundwork with the traditional HB pencil and a large sheet of paper. Don't forget the eraser, you will need it. Start by plotting all of the entities on your paper, those are the types of things that your system will know about. Machines will be there but you may need to separate them into groups, for instance by physical location. If so then locations will be another entity. Once you have the entities, sketch in the relationships between them. One location has many machines so draw a 1:many arrow from Locations to Machines. The traditional format is a line with a crows-foot symbol at the many end. Now start detailing what attributes each entity has. That's the data that your system needs to know about each instance of that entity. One of those data items, or a combination of them, will uniquely identify each instance of that entity. That attribute, or combination of attributes becomes the Key of the entity. At this stage you shouldn't be thinking about a Primary Key. Put all of this design onto a clean sheet of paper, with the entities arranged in some logical fashion. Go fishing for the weekend. Come back and see whether the design still makes sense. Now you can start turning each of those entities into an Access table. -- Bernard Peek
From: John W. Vinson on 1 Dec 2009 14:47 On Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:48:01 -0800, freddy <freddy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >I am a desktop support person and I have a vbscript to inventory all the >computers on the network. I use the script to gather information like >username, memory, hard drive space, and I am thinking about getting installed >software. I have the script writing to an excel file, which is ok for now. I >would like to use Access 2003 but my problem is the design. Do I create one >table and have a field for username, computer name, memory, and so on or do I >create more than one table like for username and one for computername. Plus >how do I handle the installed software? >My idea was to have three tables: one for username which will have full >name, one for computername which will have all the computer stuff like >memory, hd, etc and one for software which will have software name, version, >installed date, etc. Please someone help me out. > >Thanks >Freddt You'll need more tables than that - in particular, you'll want one table for Software (with one record each for Microsoft Word 2007, Zork-1, etc.), and another table for SoftwareInstalled, with links to the table of computers and the table of software, and fields for date installed, etc. Here are some resources to get started. The tutorials at the end of the list may be particularly helpful: Jeff Conrad's resources page: http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html The Access Web resources page: http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html Roger Carlson's tutorials, samples and tips: http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/ A free tutorial written by Crystal: http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html A video how-to series by Crystal: http://www.YouTube.com/user/LearnAccessByCrystal MVP Allen Browne's tutorials: http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials -- John W. Vinson [MVP]
From: jacksonmacd on 2 Dec 2009 01:08
I know this is an Access newsgroup, and you are looking for an Access answer, but have you considered that you might be reinventing the wheel? Perhaps an off-the-shelf solution like Spiceworks (spiceworks.com) might save you a lot of work. But then again, you might be looking to improve your Access skills. PS. I have no affiliation with Spiceworks or any other similar software. On Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:48:01 -0800, freddy <freddy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >I am a desktop support person and I have a vbscript to inventory all the >computers on the network. I use the script to gather information like >username, memory, hard drive space, and I am thinking about getting installed >software. I have the script writing to an excel file, which is ok for now. I >would like to use Access 2003 but my problem is the design. Do I create one >table and have a field for username, computer name, memory, and so on or do I >create more than one table like for username and one for computername. Plus >how do I handle the installed software? >My idea was to have three tables: one for username which will have full >name, one for computername which will have all the computer stuff like >memory, hd, etc and one for software which will have software name, version, >installed date, etc. Please someone help me out. > >Thanks >Freddt -- jackmacMACd0onald(a)telus.net remove uppercase and number for true email |