University of Nevada, Reno College of Business Administration What are we going to learn 9/27 – 9/29? 1. Answer questions about MS Access queries. 2. Understand the necessary components of a business application. 3. Understand the role of the application developer for each component. 4. Understand the function served by forms and reports within a business application. 5. Know the basic constructs of creating forms and reports with MS Access. 6. Know how to customize forms with MS Access. 1

Components of a business application 2 Data Storage: Database Initial Data Population Data Maintenance: Ongoing adding, deleting, and changing data (Forms) Data Access: Convert data to information and make it available (Queries, forms, reports)

Data Storage: Database Role of an application developer  Define what data must be stored.  Design the database including tables, attributes, and relationships.  Create the database with appropriate constraints to protect data integrity. 3

Initial Data Population Usually done by importing data from another computer application: Database, spreadsheet, text. Occasionally done through human input (rarely) Role of an application developer:  Decide how to input the data.  Create the methods.  Supervise or actually conduct data population. 4

Data maintenance Add, delete, and change data. Done through: human input, computer connection, automated input devices, or combination of some/all. Role of an application developer:  Choose the appropriate methods.  Design, program and test appropriate methods.  Train.  Rarely does actual data entry. 5

Data access Converting data to information. Referred to as “accessing” or looking at the data: queries, reports, forms, viewing, visualizing, etc. Role of an application developer:  Choose the appropriate methods in conjunction with discussions from the people who need the information for decision making.  Design the methods.  Program, test, and train users to access the information successfully. 6

Data access methods in MS Access Queries  Used to view sub-sets of data.  Used to create information by: Combining data from multiple tables into a single table; Performing, calculations, conditions, and grouped summaries. Forms and Reports  Used to look at data from tables and/or queries.  Used to enhance the formatting of information by: Adding navigation (buttons, combo boxes, list boxes); Adding visually pleasing elements such as lines, colors, boxes, etc. 7

Forms vs. Reports CharacteristicFormsReports Interactivity YesNo Update-ability YesNo Quantity of Information Less informationMore information Level of detailed information Very detailed More columns Few rows Patterns Fewer columns Many rows Media ScreenPaper Immediacy Quick LookSlow perusal 8

Views of a form Available views of a form  Form view: How the form will look and feel to the user of the system.  Layout view: Beginning application developer view. Puts data into the form, but still allows some modification of the form. More visually oriented than design view for application development.  Design view: Advanced application developer view. No data is in the form, allows everything to be manipulated on the form. Much more flexible than layout view. 9

Form Structure Form Header Page Header Detail Page Footer Form Footer Layout and design tools Drawing area Properties 10

Controls A control is an object on a form that passes information between the user and the form. Examples of controls are labels, boxes, buttons. Types of controls are:  Bound control: Connected or bound to a field in the database.  Unbound control: Not connected to a field in the database. Includes labels, lines, pictures, etc.  Calculated control: Displays a value that is the result of an expression. Expressions are just like the ones in queries: IIF, sum, count, mathematical expression. 11

University of Nevada, Reno College of Business Administration Creating a form Simple form Form wizard  Choose table/query  Choose fields  Choose format More forms Blank form 12