|
| |
We can develop a complete database
system for you from scratch. This usually begins with development of the
requirements specification itself, followed by delivery of the database in
two or three phases. A phased delivery schedule benefits everyone,
building your confidence in the end result and providing us with valuable
user feedback to improve the design. Fixed prices would usually be agreed for each
phase of the development, reviewable only in the case of major
specification changes. Alternatively, if the requirements are not well
understood a "time-and-materials" approach may be more suitable.
A delivery schedule would be agreed for each stage.
Key Benefits
- Fully normalized relational schema, designed to
industry best practices
- Consistent, well structured and maintainable design
throughout
- Based on pre-built and tested code and forms wherever
possible
- Standard modules for error handling, security, table
attachment, etc
Capabilities
- The "Project
Wizard"
- For brand-new designs we have developed a suite of
forms and code which we use to get your projects off to a flying
start! A template design provides a range of functions: browser-style
forward/back form navigation; forward/back record navigation;
searching; hyperlinks between related data on different forms, etc.
- Standard error handler
- Forget the armfuls of visual basic spam that the standard Access
wizards create. A one-line call to a centralized error handler logs
errors for later analysis, and the errors can even be emailed back to ourselves
if you wish. The standard error handler enables the developer to drop
instantly into debug mode and to step straight to the line of code
which created the error, for rapid diagnosis and correction during
development.
- Front-end / back-end configuration
- For new designs we would usually split the design between a
front-end (containing forms, code, reports, queries, etc) and a back-end
(containing data tables only). This architecture allows the front-end
to be developed without affecting live operation of the system. When
the new front-end is ready for distribution it takes just a few
minutes to swap it for the old version (a little longer if there
are changes to the back-end as well).
- Back-end database management
- Our standard
Back-end Re-linking Utility allow the front-end to be switched
between test data on the local drive and live data on the server in
just a few seconds. A Back-end
Database Maintenance Utility enables the backend database design
to be saved as a baseline, validated and corrected if necessary. If the database schema is large
(say 50+ tables and 100+ relationships) these utilities are vital to
ensure that the schema containing the client's live data exactly matches the development
schema, particularly after design changes.
- Design version control
- For maximum performance and minimum network traffic
it is often best to install a separate copy of the front-end on each
PC. We have a version control system to ensure that only the latest
version of the front-end will load and run, ensuring front-end /
back-end compatibility at all times. The error logger stores the
version number with each error to aid analysis.
- User-management form
- A standard form and code module in the "Project
Wizard" allows users to be added and deleted from the Access
security workgroup and their passwords to be set, changed and cleared.
This utility is essential for multi-user databases where there may be
100+ account holding users. The system allows users to be assigned
membership of different groups (for example - "read-only",
"basic-user", "manager", "administrator")
with database permissions assigned accordingly.
- Individual user-profile
- One of the most useful features that comes for free
with our "Project Wizard" template design is an individual
profile for each user. As each user logs in, opens and closes forms
the forms will re-open each time showing the record last accessed by
that user. Dates, combo selections and other settings are saved and
restored in the same way, saving time and effort for the
user.
|
