Unit 18 - D2

Database Evaluation

The original intention of the assignment was to create a database that could be used to store records for the film club. I have created a database capable of doing so.

At first, the data required for the database was in 2 separate notebook documents, I had to import this data into my database tables using the ‘Text File’ option in the ‘External Data’ section of my database. I imported the correct data into my tables, Films, Members, Reviews and Payments. I then created several forms to allow database users to put their own details into the database.

Forms:

·         Members form – the members form allows new users to register their information and submit it, when they press the submit button on the form, a query runs to append that data into the database.

·         Payments form – the payments form allows the user to enter payment details into the database, again, a query are run when the data is submitted, appending the data into the database.

·         Reviews form – the reviews form allows database users to write a review on a film that they have watched and they can also give the film a star rating from 1 to 5.

Validation Rules and Macros:

I performed tests to make sure that the database was working correctly, for instance, I entered valid information into my forms and submitted the data to check that it was being correctly appended into my tables. I also checked that all my validation rules for my forms were working correctly by submitting incorrect data, error messages appeared to show that the validation rules had worked, and the data was not appended into my tables, an example of this is my Star Rating validation rule that only allows a value between 1 and 5 to be entered. For one validation rule, I used a macro that would cause an error message to appear if any of the fields in the members form had been left blank.

Buttons and Queries:

I added multiple buttons onto my forms that ran one of several commands; some opened or closed a form, others ran a query to append data from a form into the database. I ensured that all of these buttons were working properly simply by clicking them and seeing if the desired outcome was achieved, when appending data from the form into the database, I checked my data tables to make sure that the correct data was in the table.

Reports:

A report is used to show data from a specific area of the database, for example, I created a report that will only show film reviews from January to April, reports are useful if you only need to show a small selection of your database for any purpose, as they prevent the need to scroll through an entire table looking for the information your require.

Suggested Improvements:
Two improvements were suggested to make my database easier to use, these were a switchboard to allow users to easily navigate the forms, and a payments form that would allow users to enter payments into the database. I added both of these along with a reviews form that would allow users to write a review on one of the films that they had watched, screenshots of all three additions are below.