Database?

[Keith Nuttle]

I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows 10.

I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from being
one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.

I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.

It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and then be
able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the end of each
month generate a list of maintenance activities for the month.

One last consideration and a big one, we are a small church operating on
a shoestring and do not have any money for fancy software.

Could any one recommend software or a system to do this task in Windows
8.1/10 that could be easily transferred to the next chair of the
trustees, when my term ends.

[VanguardLH[_2_]]

Keith Nuttle wrote:

> I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows 10.
>
> I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from being
> one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>
> I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>
> It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and then be
> able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the end of each
> month generate a list of maintenance activities for the month.
>
> One last consideration and a big one, we are a small church operating on
> a shoestring and do not have any money for fancy software.
>
> Could any one recommend software or a system to do this task in Windows
> 8.1/10 that could be easily transferred to the next chair of the
> trustees, when my term ends.

Not really a Windows 10 issue other than consideration that the software
(not the OS) will be compatible with Windows 8 (and may be compatible
with Windows 10 but really isn't a mission-critical OS if Win8 that has
already been paid for and deployed is the OS now in use).

For suggestions on a "church maintenance system" (whatever that is, so
you might want to better describe its purpose) and especially on
freeware then ask in the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup. There are lots of
free database programs but some are geared towards SQL-like usage while
others have more targeted functions which might better match your use.

[Nil[_5_]]

On 05 Aug 2015, Keith Nuttle > wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-10:

> I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows
> 10.
>
> I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from
> being one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>
> I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>
> It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and
> then be able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the
> end of each month generate a list of maintenance activities for
> the month.

Your post suggests more questions to me than it answers.

- Is this all to be done on one computer, or do you want a central
database accessed by other networked computers?

- must the database be kept secure? IOW, do you trust the users to not
try to sabotage or subvert the database?

- are the users computer savvy, or must you limit what they see to a
foolproof form to fill out?

- are you looking for a generic database program that you will then use
to create your application? Or are you looking for a specialized
package made for this kind of situation?


Your description reminds me of a program I created many years ago to
track product returns at the company I worked for. You would input the
customer name, original order numbers, items they were returning. It
would assign an RMA number. The item's arrival, subsequent treatment,
and outcome was logged. This used a Microsoft Access database with a
Visual Basic front end. It was a relational database with several
tables, like one for the customer info, one for the return ticket, one
for the activity, etc. The company eventually sprung for a commercial
product that did basically the same thing, but we used my little
solution for several years.

I'm thinking that the best fit for you would be a relational database
that would tie in a particular task with another table that contained
the activity in that task. Back in the day, I would have done it with
MS Access, since it's easy to link databases and it included a
reporting module.

So the question is, do you know how to do this kind of thing or are you
interested in learning? I'm sort of out of the loop, so I don't know of
many free or inexpensive relational databases except for MySQL.
Libreoffice Base can be used as a front end for it. It would take some
time and effort from you to set it all up, but you would end up with
the perfect fit for your situation.

If that sounds like more work than you want, would a simple spreadsheet
do?

[John Szalay]

Keith Nuttle > wrote in news:mpu5i8$620$1
@speranza.aioe.org:

> I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows 10.
>
> I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from being
> one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>
> I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>
> It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and then be
> able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the end of each
> month generate a list of maintenance activities for the month.
>
> One last consideration and a big one, we are a small church operating on
> a shoestring and do not have any money for fancy software.
>
> Could any one recommend software or a system to do this task in Windows
> 8.1/10 that could be easily transferred to the next chair of the
> trustees, when my term ends.
>

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice/

https://www.libreoffice.org/

[Keith Nuttle]

On 8/5/2015 8:20 PM, Nil wrote:
> On 05 Aug 2015, Keith Nuttle > wrote in
> alt.comp.os.windows-10:
>
>> I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows
>> 10.
>>
>> I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from
>> being one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>>
>> I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>>
>> It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and
>> then be able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the
>> end of each month generate a list of maintenance activities for
>> the month.
>
> Your post suggests more questions to me than it answers.
>
> - Is this all to be done on one computer, or do you want a central
> database accessed by other networked computers?
>
> - must the database be kept secure? IOW, do you trust the users to not
> try to sabotage or subvert the database?
>
> - are the users computer savvy, or must you limit what they see to a
> foolproof form to fill out?
>
> - are you looking for a generic database program that you will then use
> to create your application? Or are you looking for a specialized
> package made for this kind of situation?
>
>
> Your description reminds me of a program I created many years ago to
> track product returns at the company I worked for. You would input the
> customer name, original order numbers, items they were returning. It
> would assign an RMA number. The item's arrival, subsequent treatment,
> and outcome was logged. This used a Microsoft Access database with a
> Visual Basic front end. It was a relational database with several
> tables, like one for the customer info, one for the return ticket, one
> for the activity, etc. The company eventually sprung for a commercial
> product that did basically the same thing, but we used my little
> solution for several years.
>
> I'm thinking that the best fit for you would be a relational database
> that would tie in a particular task with another table that contained
> the activity in that task. Back in the day, I would have done it with
> MS Access, since it's easy to link databases and it included a
> reporting module.
>
> So the question is, do you know how to do this kind of thing or are you
> interested in learning? I'm sort of out of the loop, so I don't know of
> many free or inexpensive relational databases except for MySQL.
> Libreoffice Base can be used as a front end for it. It would take some
> time and effort from you to set it all up, but you would end up with
> the perfect fit for your situation.
>
> If that sounds like more work than you want, would a simple spreadsheet
> do?
>

Basically I am looking for a single user system that could easily be
transferred to the next church trustee, It would help us track the
maintenance project at the church. Ideally there are Canned church
maintenance programs available that are way beyond my budget. A system
like MS access would be great but then again we come to the cost and
transferring it to the next person thing.

With MS access it would be easy to write; with a vendor database, and a
tracking database, etc and several forms that would input the data into
the database. Possibly one to Input the original request, one form to
monitoring from the task point of view, and form from the completion
point of view. Report could be written to pull the information from
databases to fit the needs of the user of the report.

It could be done in dBase IV, but I suspect that will no longer run on
Windows 10. I know I could do in dBase as I wrote a complete Quality
Assurance system for the collection of assay data, monitoring assay
results vs specifications, printing of Assay reports, control of
documents, Audits, etc. There was over 24000 lines of code, I don't
remember how many individual database, and many different programs that
was all accessed from a common interconnect menu system. It severed
the company well for almost 16 years.

[Keith Nuttle]

On 8/5/2015 7:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> alt.comp.freeware newsgroup

This newgroup seems to have been taken over by aliens. I downloaded all
of the headers, and seached the messages. Some of the stuff was scary.

[Vitalic]

On 8/5/2015 8:58 PM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
> On 8/5/2015 7:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> alt.comp.freeware newsgroup
>
> This newgroup seems to have been taken over by aliens. I downloaded all
> of the headers, and seached the messages. Some of the stuff was scary.

Nicodemus is the devil in disguise

[Peter Jason]

On Wed, 5 Aug 2015 19:17:21 -0400, Keith Nuttle
> wrote:

>I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows 10.
>
>I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from being
>one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>
>I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>
>It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and then be
>able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the end of each
>month generate a list of maintenance activities for the month.
>
>One last consideration and a big one, we are a small church operating on
>a shoestring and do not have any money for fancy software.
>
>Could any one recommend software or a system to do this task in Windows
>8.1/10 that could be easily transferred to the next chair of the
>trustees, when my term ends.

I use Microsoft Access10, and this has many standard templates
possibly suited to your purpose. The included ''Wizards'' make it
easy to use. I started with Access97 and gradually upgraded it to
the current one.
It has also an importing function so that you wont lose anything. I
started long ago with dBaseIII but Access is better. It is endlessly
upgradable & adjustable.

[Peter Jason]

On Wed, 5 Aug 2015 20:58:45 -0400, Keith Nuttle
> wrote:

>On 8/5/2015 7:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> alt.comp.freeware newsgroup
>
>This newgroup seems to have been taken over by aliens. I downloaded all
>of the headers, and seached the messages. Some of the stuff was scary.

It dumped a virus on to my machine that security essentials detedted &
removed.

[VanguardLH[_2_]]

Keith Nuttle wrote:

> On 8/5/2015 7:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> alt.comp.freeware newsgroup
>
> This newgroup seems to have been taken over by aliens. I downloaded all
> of the headers, and seached the messages. Some of the stuff was scary.

Some newsgroups require defining filters in your client to reduce the
noise. Often just a few filters really quiets the noise. If you think
that newsgroup is bad, you should visit the 24hoursupport.helpdesk
newsgroup. If you want to see really bad, visit the kooks newsgroup.

[Char Jackson]

On Thu, 06 Aug 2015 12:34:00 +1000, Peter Jason > wrote:

>On Wed, 5 Aug 2015 20:58:45 -0400, Keith Nuttle
> wrote:
>
>>On 8/5/2015 7:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>> alt.comp.freeware newsgroup
>>
>>This newgroup seems to have been taken over by aliens. I downloaded all
>>of the headers, and seached the messages. Some of the stuff was scary.
>
>It dumped a virus on to my machine that security essentials detedted &
>removed.

Newsgroups are a text-based medium, so you must have downloaded and executed
an attachment.

[Bill[_40_]]

In message >, Peter Jason
> writes
>I use Microsoft Access10, and this has many standard templates possibly
>suited to your purpose. The included ''Wizards'' make it easy to use.
>I started with Access97 and gradually upgraded it to the current one.
>It has also an importing function so that you wont lose anything. I
>started long ago with dBaseIII but Access is better. It is endlessly
>upgradable & adjustable.

I fell out with Access many, many years ago when a different version
appeared and I had a message that I should alter some files. This
corrupted all my existing databases on the machine, so anything I write
may be riddled with prejudice.

I currently "support" a small company who use a CRM system based on
Access. It has involved a lot of fiddling over the years as the version
of Access used has been updated and the underlying OS changed from W98
to XP to W7. We had to track down the original writer from the defunct
company that wrote the scheme, and he has been invaluable in keeping it
going. We have had some problems with AVG and data transfer with Access.

Personally. after Access, I moved to DBaseIV, which I used for many
years in spite of problems, but then I changed to MySQL.
All my current databases are in MySQL, and are used on different
machines with different, primitive front ends. I haven't found
interfacing with LibreOffice to be very easy or satisfactory.

With a view to tidying things up and getting something flexible, I've
been looking at the probably stupid concept of running Apache locally as
an interface to MySQL and then accessing the database through a local
browser front end.
--
Bill

[John K.Eason[_2_]]

In article >, (Keith
Nuttle) wrote:

> *From:* Keith Nuttle >
> *Date:* Wed, 5 Aug 2015 20:51:31 -0400
> Basically I am looking for a single user system that could easily
> be transferred to the next church trustee, It would help us track
> the maintenance project at the church. Ideally there are Canned
> church maintenance programs available that are way beyond my
> budget. A system like MS access would be great but then again we
> come to the cost and transferring it to the next person thing.
>
> With MS access it would be easy to write; with a vendor database,
> and a tracking database, etc and several forms that would input
> the data into the database. Possibly one to Input the original
> request, one form to monitoring from the task point of view, and
> form from the completion point of view. Report could be written
> to pull the information from databases to fit the needs of the user
> of the report.
>
> It could be done in dBase IV, but I suspect that will no longer run
> on Windows 10. I know I could do in dBase as I wrote a complete
> Quality Assurance system for the collection of assay data,
> monitoring assay results vs specifications, printing of Assay
> reports, control of documents, Audits, etc. There was over 24000
> lines of code, I don't remember how many individual database, and
> many different programs that was all accessed from a common
> interconnect menu system. It severed the company well for almost
> 16 years.

You could try using the database program in LibreOffice (which is free).
https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/base/
You also get a MS-compatible spreadsheet program and Word-compatible word processor
in the bundle.

Regards
John

[Good Guy[_2_]]

On 06/08/2015 00:17, Keith Nuttle wrote:
> I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows 10.
>
> I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from
> being one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>
> I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>
> It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and then be
> able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the end of each
> month generate a list of maintenance activities for the month.
>
> One last consideration and a big one, we are a small church operating
> on a shoestring and do not have any money for fancy software.
>
> Could any one recommend software or a system to do this task in
> Windows 8.1/10 that could be easily transferred to the next chair of
> the trustees, when my term ends.


It can easily be done in Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition. It is
free to download and develop but you haven't told us what is the level
of your expertise in developing databases?

The alternative is to use Access database and then it can be up
up-sized/up-scaled to Sql Server (express edition) but you can continue
using Access as front end for day-to-day tasks (data resides in SQL
server). SQL server is multi-user platform so it meets your criteria
very well indeed. SQL server can be accessed in Excel as well using
Microsoft's ODBC drivers (which access also uses).

Looking at this, I think it is pretty easy as long as you are talented
Computer nerd and I have no reasons to doubt your ability.

[Neil]

Keith Nuttle wrote:
> On 8/5/2015 8:20 PM, Nil wrote:
>> On 05 Aug 2015, Keith Nuttle > wrote in
>> alt.comp.os.windows-10:
>>
>>> I am currently on Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to Windows
>>> 10.
>>>
>>> I am in the process of bringing the church maintenance system from
>>> being one person, to being triaged and done by multiple people.
>>>
>>> I am looking for an easy way to monitor the maintenance activity.
>>>
>>> It would be nice to enter the maintenance task. assign it and
>>> then be able to monitor it until the problem was resolved. At the
>>> end of each month generate a list of maintenance activities for
>>> the month.
>>
>> Your post suggests more questions to me than it answers.
>>
>> - Is this all to be done on one computer, or do you want a central
>> database accessed by other networked computers?
>>
>> - must the database be kept secure? IOW, do you trust the users to not
>> try to sabotage or subvert the database?
>>
>> - are the users computer savvy, or must you limit what they see to a
>> foolproof form to fill out?
>>
>> - are you looking for a generic database program that you will then use
>> to create your application? Or are you looking for a specialized
>> package made for this kind of situation?
>>
>>
>> Your description reminds me of a program I created many years ago to
>> track product returns at the company I worked for. You would input the
>> customer name, original order numbers, items they were returning. It
>> would assign an RMA number. The item's arrival, subsequent treatment,
>> and outcome was logged. This used a Microsoft Access database with a
>> Visual Basic front end. It was a relational database with several
>> tables, like one for the customer info, one for the return ticket, one
>> for the activity, etc. The company eventually sprung for a commercial
>> product that did basically the same thing, but we used my little
>> solution for several years.
>>
>> I'm thinking that the best fit for you would be a relational database
>> that would tie in a particular task with another table that contained
>> the activity in that task. Back in the day, I would have done it with
>> MS Access, since it's easy to link databases and it included a
>> reporting module.
>>
>> So the question is, do you know how to do this kind of thing or are you
>> interested in learning? I'm sort of out of the loop, so I don't know of
>> many free or inexpensive relational databases except for MySQL.
>> Libreoffice Base can be used as a front end for it. It would take some
>> time and effort from you to set it all up, but you would end up with
>> the perfect fit for your situation.
>>
>> If that sounds like more work than you want, would a simple spreadsheet
>> do?
>>
>
> Basically I am looking for a single user system that could easily be
> transferred to the next church trustee, It would help us track the
> maintenance project at the church. Ideally there are Canned church
> maintenance programs available that are way beyond my budget. A system
> like MS access would be great but then again we come to the cost and
> transferring it to the next person thing.
>
> With MS access it would be easy to write; with a vendor database, and a
> tracking database, etc and several forms that would input the data into
> the database. Possibly one to Input the original request, one form to
> monitoring from the task point of view, and form from the completion
> point of view. Report could be written to pull the information from
> databases to fit the needs of the user of the report.
>
> It could be done in dBase IV, but I suspect that will no longer run on
> Windows 10. I know I could do in dBase as I wrote a complete Quality
> Assurance system for the collection of assay data, monitoring assay
> results vs specifications, printing of Assay reports, control of
> documents, Audits, etc. There was over 24000 lines of code, I don't
> remember how many individual database, and many different programs that
> was all accessed from a common interconnect menu system. It severed
> the company well for almost 16 years.
>
Your problem is the need for an app, and not likely to be tied to the
choice of database engine. The design of a "front end" that regulates
usage is critical to meeting your needs, and that is where the bulk of
the effort is most likely to occur. If you're comfortable with that
aspect of the development, Access may be one of the better choices since
it is low-cost, stable across decades of OS "upgrades", and has both
form-based UI with user-set criteria for the front-end and reporting
generating capabilities built-in.

You can just give the database to the new person. But, you may consider
having the church buy the computer to manage all this and just hand it
off when you're term is up, since it will be fully operational without
having to set up the works on a new system.

--
Best regards,

Neil

[Peter Jason]

On Thu, 6 Aug 2015 09:24:56 +0100, Bill > wrote:

>In message >, Peter Jason
> writes
>>I use Microsoft Access10, and this has many standard templates possibly
>>suited to your purpose. The included ''Wizards'' make it easy to use.
>>I started with Access97 and gradually upgraded it to the current one.
>>It has also an importing function so that you wont lose anything. I
>>started long ago with dBaseIII but Access is better. It is endlessly
>>upgradable & adjustable.
>
>I fell out with Access many, many years ago when a different version
>appeared and I had a message that I should alter some files. This
>corrupted all my existing databases on the machine, so anything I write
>may be riddled with prejudice.
>
>I currently "support" a small company who use a CRM system based on
>Access. It has involved a lot of fiddling over the years as the version
>of Access used has been updated and the underlying OS changed from W98
>to XP to W7. We had to track down the original writer from the defunct
>company that wrote the scheme, and he has been invaluable in keeping it
>going. We have had some problems with AVG and data transfer with Access.
>
>Personally. after Access, I moved to DBaseIV, which I used for many
>years in spite of problems, but then I changed to MySQL.
>All my current databases are in MySQL, and are used on different
>machines with different, primitive front ends. I haven't found
>interfacing with LibreOffice to be very easy or satisfactory.
>
>With a view to tidying things up and getting something flexible, I've
>been looking at the probably stupid concept of running Apache locally as
>an interface to MySQL and then accessing the database through a local
>browser front end.

I was sold a dud called "Premier", an English invention with a Bill of
Materials (rare a that time for a small system) and I had no end of
trouble because it lacked a floating decimal point and only two levels
in the Bill. I soon discovered the need for a database that the end
user could expand and adjust with out the swarm of consultants that
are usually attached to a commercial system. These ''consultants''
are/were young men who are constantly ''moving on'' leaving one
completely confused, and with a need to re-explain all to these
ephemeral successors. The crunch came with the Y2 bug warning in the
late 90s and the hint I'd be up for a fortune to ''configure'' the
system for the year 2000. I rushed out and bought Access97 and
started to convert everything over. The Wizards, GUI, and the
cut/pasting of the VBA thing took a lot of time, but my resolve was
steeled by the thought of sacking the ''Premier'' gaggle and their
infernal ''consultants''. And so it came to pass. I has to rent a
consultant only once thereafter because the self-join query thing is
beyond me and this was needed for a 4-level Bill of materials.
Anyway, I came up with my present system, and it works just fine....
http://tinypic.com/m/ixs50l/1
I recommend this system independent persons.