For Customer ID I decided to select Auto Number, as this would enable the computer to automatically type in the customer ID and prevent me from doing the same action for each customer. For the Surname, Forename, Postcode, and Flower ID I decided that the most appropriate selection was Text. For the Gender I decided to do ‘Lookup Wizard’ and then request to type in my own values, I then typed in M and F which stand for Male and Female so its easier to select and so I did not have to type in male and female each time. For the House number, Tele 1, Tele 2, and the Mobile number I chose number as my data type, as it would only consist of numbers. Lastly I chose Date/Time for the Customers Date of Birth and for the Date that the customer joined.
The next task I had was to select the field sizes, I started with the Customers Surname which I set the field size to 20 as it is highly unusual to have a name which surpass 20 letters as your surname the same thing I did for the forename. I then set the field size to 1 for the gender as the choice is only between 2 letters. For the Date Of Birth and Date joined I selected the Medium date as I felt this was the most presentable and would be the easiest for my client to understand. For the Telephone numbers I kept them all at 20 characters because it is not usually possible to exceed this.
My next table I created was the Flowers table, for this I carried out the same tasks and the table above shows the field names of the contents of the table. This table consisted of the flower packages what they were called, the price of that package, and what they included. The flower ID’s data type I had to look up wizard for and type in my own values as I wanted the packages to be shown and allow the user to choose which ever package they pleased. The Price was written as text as this was most suitable because it had to include the pound sound as the currency. The data type for the flowers was the Yes/No tick box as this would be very helpful instead of typing in the contents of each package the user would just need to tick the box whether it includes it or not. The field sizes were fairly straightforward too and I just decided that for the price I would keep the field size as 6 characters. I felt this table would be the most convenient while entering data and very helpful to my client.
The last table I created was my Sales table which had the headings written above, this was quite essential as it held the ID’s of each sale records the customers ID, the Flower Id, the Date sold, and the Amount Sold. This table was the most straightforward and easiest to do. The first thing I did was name all the field types, then chose the data types, for the ID’s I chose Text and for the date I chose the preferred medium date and the amount sold as number not allowing it to go higher then two characters.
Here is a screenshot of one of my tables in design view; I have labelled all the relevant sections, which I talked about above.
Processing required
After I had created my tables, this provided with the titles of all the information needed, I would then need to insert the relevant information into my database. This I would do by creating individual forms, into which I would insert the information. Forms are very a quick and efficient way of entering data. It also prevents me from making minor errors. This is also very helpful as it ensures all information is filled out. There is also another very helpful advantage as if there are many employees working in the same place and a risk of confidentiality being abused it will prevent any problems, as the personal details of each client would not be seen while adding a new member etc.
How will this work meet the needs of a database system?
This work will meet the needs of the users because it will provide them with the most important efficient uses of a database. The reason that my database is being created is because there is a great deal of information, which needs to be protected, as it is confidential. The way that the information can be protected and it can be made sure that only the necessary people view this information is to sort and organise the information using the tools and also searches which allow the user to search or make a simple query for one particular piece of information without having to view the full database. Another use is to allow the user to move swiftly between the tables this may be through links inserted on each table. Above are all the criteria, which my database will have.
