Re: Example database

Frank Schönheit - Sun Microsystems Germany wrote:

>>I have not heard much about a scenario for the database, does anyone
>>have any ideas on this or comments on what I have proposed so far.
>>    
>>
>
>I'm not sure I'd call "Plato Total Health Systems" a small company,
>given the complexity of their business processes, as I understand them.
>(But hey, what do I know how businesses really look like from the inner? :)
>  
>
Trust me on this, it is not very complicated at all as compared to real, 
real world business.

>What I, ehm, wanted to say with this: I'm not sure this scenario isn't
>too complex already. While it might be realistic, I'm not sure that all
>bells and whistles of the current scenario are useful for explaining
>something to the user. That is, if we can't use a certain piece of the
>business process particle of this company to answer at least one common
>"How can I do ..."-question in Base, then should we really introduce
>this particle to the scenario? Not sure.
>  
>
I agree pretty much..in fact I figured that what would happen is that 
only a particluar piece would be implemented to any large degree, 
Contact management say, or order entry.

The next scenario I had in mind was for Queen City Supply. Even though 
this ficticious company might be larger then Plate how Base would fit 
into might be a better fit. Here is what the user on the forum was 
looking at. They have business systems in place already - multi-user and 
all that. However, the current route drivers ( they deliver consumables 
to local businesses [ paper bags, napkins, etc..] use paper based forms 
when they make their deliveries. Product is left at the customer site as 
needed, so when the drivers return the paper trial is turned in. The 
next day someone has to hand enter all the data into the current system 
and genrerate invoices and the like.

The idea here was to user OO.o on laptops. The Base database would just 
be used to generate invoices at the time the delivery is made. Later 
when the drivers return the laptops would be docked into the network and 
the data from each merged into the main systems.

It is a fairly concise use of Base.

>For instance, I'm not sure about the actual benefit of the external web
>hosting company.
>  
>
Ah, that just a rouse to allow me to interject a daily import file, and 
show off how to use the HSQL text table feature.

>Also, I think I already touched this somewhere: Do we want to have a
>single database file, or a bunch of files which comprise the whole
>"business intelligence application"? I tend to the former, but again
>might not have enough insights into real-world usage scenarios to know
>whether this is sufficient. Do others here have opinions?
>  
>
Honestly I don't know how we are going to get away from needing ancilary 
files. I do have a few ideas on how to handle that, after all it is a 
database...we can have our own config tables and these can have columns 
of type varbinary, so we can bring our files along with the database. 
There is no reason why the database library can't use the API methods to 
create its own directory under the users lcoal directory. Once this is 
done the files can be moved from the database to the file system, this 
allows us to construct a path to them at runtime.

So far I have only tested this with graphics files, for use in controls. 
The transfer code is rather crude, but the concept works. At runtime the 
on load event for the form simply calls a function the checks for 
controls with graphic file methods and if there is an entry it fixes up 
the path information to match the currnent users installation.

I have not tried this with writer and calc templates yet, but I can' see 
why it shouldn't work.

On the other hand this might be too much for the demo, but I would still 
thin it worthwhile..even if we don't make a big part of the help file 
explanations.

The bottom line for me is this - If we don't want any graphics on forms 
fine...but reporting is problamatic..this is a big issue to users and 
the wizard just isn't going to take us very far. I suppose the other way 
to go would be to completely generate any words or calc files via code - 
but it would be so much easier using templates.

Not too mention...using templates and user defined variables in the 
templates I have an idea for a good way to allow the users to customize 
the reports and still have the applications basic procedures generate 
their custom reports. It will be limited, mostly playing with the 
appearance of the report but I think it would be a really nice thing to 
show.

LOL...maybe I am over reaching here...let me know.


Drew