Two Forms for MadamCurry.com

 

Some Background.  Remember, MadamCurry.com is really being motivated by a web database for e-commerce.  But we have compromised, since this a client database course, and modified our situation somewhat to motivate using a client database.  Remember this was done by assuming that all purchases are done either through email or snail mail.  So Madam Curry still has motivation for developing databases and tables.

In our last webpage we developed the data dictionaries for the two tables.  Now we want to develop some forms.  I made use of the the form wizard within Access to develop these two forms.  But I definitely modified things like the layout, the nature of textboxes and labels and plenty of other things.

Remember, there are plenty of reasons for developing forms.

  • improve ease of interacting with the data
    • inputting data
    • modifying data
    • deleting data
  • improve the overall look
  • improve the overall organization of the information

The form for the email_list table looks like the following

 

 

Notice the navigation through the records in the lower left.

You should experiment with developing your own forms.  Eventually I will configure this database so that you can either download it or have me email it to you.

The purchasers form is somewhat more involved since it has billing and shipping information.  I chose to put billing information within one rectangle on the form and the shipping information within another rectangle.  I think this helps the overall organization of the form.

 

 

Notice I have put in navigation buttons so that a user can move more easily from one form to the next.  The basic steps to do this are
  • use the toolbox and draw a command button on the form
  • when the wizard opens up choose Form Operations
  • then within the Form Operations choose Open Form
  • then the rest of the steps are relatively clear since you should be led to select which form to open

As usual, I chose to modify things such as the font size, placement of the command button and its size.  These are the sorts of things you want to experiment with for yourselves.

You should also notice that I used labels that are distinct from those that usually come up when you use a textbox.  This is just personal preference.  Though, it does require more work.

There are also two check boxes that relate to whether

  • someone's shipping information is the same as the billing info
  • someone wants to be included on the email list

I did not write code to try to get it so that when someone selects one of these check boxes the appropriate things are done.  This is done in VB within Access, and might possibly be done with one of Microsoft's pre-built wizards.  If these were web based forms interacting with web databases then these functionalities would likeliest be implemented using some sort of middleware such as ASP.NET, PHP or JSP.

You should also think about what other sorts of functionalities you would want on these forms.  Maybe people want themselves deleted from the email list.  Though, there ar elots of other possiblities.