complex database

[wheresthomas]

Thank you for answering everyones questions in a timely manor.  Hopefully you can do the same with mine.

What I want to do is a create a place to store information for each of my clients and send messages to indviduals via email if needed from the program.  What I would like to do is have the program to be able to create new information screens for each client and store the messages and possibly have them editable.  Would something like this  be able to be done?  

Basically it would look like this 1) Client A - 2) Information on Client A  3) Send messages to client A via that message box to client A
The clients would be looked up via name or they're account number.  The program would also have to store those messages.  Thanks!
I would also want a seperate part of the program to put in new clients when needed.

[Malkom]

What I want to do is a create a place to store information for each of my clients and send messages to indviduals via email if needed from the program.  What I would like to do is have the program to be able to create new information screens for each client and store the messages and possibly have them editable.  Would something like this  be able to be done?

Yes you could do this with HyperNext and there are already a few demo projects on our projects web page related to this:-
Projects 20 and 21 show how a book database works and could be modified to store client information.
Project 35 is an emailer application.
Perhaps have a look at these and experiment with them before you start building your own program.


 

Basically it would look like this 1) Client A - 2) Information on Client A  3) Send messages to client A via that message box to client A
The clients would be looked up via name or they're account number.  The program would also have to store those messages.  Thanks!
I would also want a seperate part of the program to put in new clients when needed.

A few points about this:-
1) An easy way to get started would be to use the home card (1st screen) as the entrance to your client program and put most options on it, email setup, data backup, client stats, search etc. Then a few buttons could direct you to the relevant page/card.
2) Also look at the two Books database programs and choose the method you feel most comfortable with.
Project 21 (The Hypercard approach) probably is easiest to understand but it takes more resources and I wouldn't use it for a database with more than a few hundred records.
Project 22 is the most reliable way to go for critical data storage as it uses far less memory and computing resources.
3) You definitely need a backup option to save your client information to a separate file - just a button with some code to loop over all your client data and send it to a file. HyperNext has the option to save its data to the stack when quitting but if the stack were ever corrupted due to hard disk problems etc then your data would be lost. You could even use the backup option on quitting and still save your client data in the stack.
4) Should be first point - but be clear about how your data is organized - but if you also store your data in an external file then you will easily be able to re-import it if you improve or redesign your program and add extra client fields.

These posts might help:-
http://www.tigabyte.com/smf/index.php?topic=45.0
http://www.tigabyte.com/smf/index.php?topic=43.0
http://www.tigabyte.com/smf/index.php?topic=29.0

[wheresthomas]

Thanks for your quick reply.  I saw a post about storage to EXCEL so I think that's where we will backup the data.  Also, is there a way to have login & pwd for individuals say I am an ADMIN and my secratary wants to use it so we know who is in the software making changes to the database or things like that?  

Like a list of users?

[wheresthomas]

I forgot to add, thanks for your quick reply and also, forgot to ask that if I wanted to say bring all the data to another computer could I save it somewhere instead of reinstalling something fresh?  Like the data talk to eachother?  Or is that asking to much in a network environment for each client?  So front office can keep back office notified.  Say, I'm out to lunch but I can see what Secratary did when I come back.

[Malkom]

Thanks for your quick reply. I saw a post about storage to EXCEL so I think that's where we will backup the data. Also, is there a way to have login & pwd for individuals say I am an ADMIN and my secratary wants to use it so we know who is in the software making changes to the database or things like that?

Like a list of users?

Yes you could export your data from HyperNext in an Excel format - here is a post on this:_
http://http://tigabyte.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=14

Yes its possible to have a list of users, clearance level and passwords etc then limit them to certain areas of your program.
Basically just use an array in the home card with a predefined password for the admin and allow the admin to update access lists, change passwords etc.
When someone tries to press a button or go to another card their login status is checked for permissions etc.

I forgot to add, thanks for your quick reply and also, forgot to ask that if I wanted to say bring all the data to another computer could I save it somewhere instead of reinstalling something fresh?  Like the data talk to eachother?  Or is that asking to much in a network environment for each client?  So front office can keep back office notified.  Say, I'm out to lunch but I can see what Secratary did when I come back.

Yes its easy transfer your data to any computer that can run HyperNext and let the program there load your stack, data file etc

If you need to communicate between 2 or more HyperNext programs there is an Internet Chat example on our projects web page showing how to do this - it is Project 12.

Once you have a database on different computers then it can become hard to keep the data consistent so perhaps locating the database on just one central computer might be better.

With a personnel access list in place then logging users would be very easy - just write every action to a file along with their username, or else send it to a monitoring program.

[wheresthomas]

Thanks for your always quick replies.  One last two part question if we create on the previous version of this software will it work with version 4.  And any time on when it might be ready I read that internet databases would be available with the next version and that would really help with our project time frames.  i THINK were gonna use this , I wish I was the programmer I'd get started much sooner.

Thanks

[Malkom]

Thanks for your always quick replies.  One last two part question if we create on the previous version of this software will it work with version 4.  And any time on when it might be ready I read that internet databases would be available with the next version and that would really help with our project time frames.  i THINK were gonna use this , I wish I was the programmer I'd get started much sooner.

Thanks

Yes, v3 project/stacks/plugins do certainly work with version 4 although the final version is not ready yet but the suggestions i gave earlier will all work including using HyperNext data structures as a database. For v4 the external database functionality has now changed so I can't promise anything in that department.

Finding a competent programmer who knows HyperNext and will deliver what you need is another matter - I wish you best of luck.
I don't know which platform you are on but if you are on Windows you might be better off looking for a Visual Basic or other mainstream programmer. They would probably have most of this already worked out in code examples and would save you a lot of time and money.
Of course if you could find the spare time then you could write it yourself and be certain it worked to your own specs.