Auto-launching a form

[samuel]

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm in a bit of a jam. I was hired to build an Access database, but
now the stuff they're asking for is a bit out of my range. But they're a cool
company and I'm really hoping to come through for them. In a nutshell...

They need a way to enter information on testing of their machines before
shipping. So, when a newly built machine is ready to go through the 300+ hour
testing cycle, a technician sits down and enters the serial number, several
attributes of the machine, and the name of the first test step (let's call it
"inspection"). I have built a form for this no problem.

What I want, though, is for the entry of that first test step, inspection,
to automatically launch a separate, test-step specific form in which the
details of the inspection are recorded. Then, only when this test step is
successfully completed can the technician return to the original form and
proceed to the next test step.

I'm so confused at this point, I don't even know where to begin looking. Any
help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

--In Over His Head

 

[Mr B]

Samuel,

Without knowing a lot more detail of exactly what you need to do, the first
thought I had about how to design something like this would be to build it
like a Wizard. That is, you have one form that opens to receive the required
info for the data. It would have all the required fields and requirements for
acquiring the required information before the "Next" button became available.

The "Next" button would then display the next appropriate form for the next
part of the test. This would continue until all required info had been
acquired and the test was complete.

You would probably want to track their progess in some manner, so that if
they exited before completing, you could retrun them to the appropriate place
in your Wizard when they decided to complete the test.

This is a very general view of a first thought design. Hope you get some
ideas from this.

 

[Jerry Whittle]

You could open the second form with both pop up and modal properties set to
Yes. They will not be able to do anything else with the database until the
form is closed. You could do some checking to make sure that all required
fields are entered before closing the form.

Of course if the test takes a few hours, that effectively locks them out of
the database. Could be a problem if they have to conduct more than one test
at a time. If it becomes a problem, I bet that they soon learn to insert
bogus data into the form so that they can close it. I would.