Things I Learned About CiviCRM This Week

I was introduced to CiviCRM a few years ago when a new customer needed a replacement for an old poorly designed database solution and needed it quickly. After getting quotes starting at $10,000 for systems supposedly designed for non-profits, I stumbled on CiviCRM which was free, open source and seemed to have a good community behind it. The project became one of my notable success stories as I was able to discover a new product and learn enough about it to implement it in a short time. I even managed some advanced customizing of the system.

The system has worked without any serious issues for the past few years and I hadn’t heard from the customer very often. Then, last week, I got an e-mail stating they’d moved their offices, made some changes to their network and needed me to come in and get the software working again. Everything went smoothly for the first 10 minutes I was there. Then I realized that CiviCRM was running incredibly slow and its top menu had disappeared which pretty much makes it unusable for anyone who doesn’t want to type in a lot of complicated URLs. Again, it had been quite a while since I’d touched CiviCRM or dealt with the specifics of their system so I ended having do do a bit of research to find out what was going on.

In the end, the solution came down to updating the civicrm.settings.php file with the new network information. Once that was done, the system worked great but I ended up taking the long way around to discover it. Along the way, I refreshed my knowledge of CiviCRM and learned a few new things as well. This was just as well as I was able to be even more confident that no other problems lurking in their system when I was done.

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Deploying MS-Access Table Design Changes to Remote Files

A New Challenge for Access

I designed a Microsoft Access database for one of my clients and it’s split into two files – a front-end file with all the forms, reports and code and a back-end file with the tables. That’s pretty standard.

During the development process, I needed to make adjustments to the table design – new indexes, fields need to be added and removed, relationships changed. That’s usually no problem if I have remote access to the client’s system and can login and make the changes. In this case, I don’t. Even to deploy a new program version, I have to send it to the client and let them unpack the files to their desired locations.

It’s not the ideal situation but it’s what I have to work with. When it comes to making design changes in the back-end tables, I could try to guide the client rep through the process but I’m not risking that. I’d rather have a routine that will automate it and ensure that everything is done as painlessly as possible.

Do you need help with Microsoft Access?

Comeau Software Solutions specializes in the development and enhancement of Microsoft Access applications. We can also rescue Access projects that have gone off-track and help you decide when it's time to move to another solution. Please contact us for more information on how we can help you with your database needs.

Also, check out our online course Managing Your Data with Microsoft Access. You can learn how to build and manage your own applications and work with your data more efficiently!

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New Video Series – Microsoft Access: The Nickel Tour

My new series of YouTube videos is an introduction to Microsoft Access for absolute beginners who have never used Access before. If you are in the position of needing to learn Access fast or are curious about what you can do with Microsoft’s desktop database software, this series will provide you with a great introduction to organization of data into related tables, creating user-friendly data entry forms and designing reports to present your data as needed.

The idea behind this series is to demonstrate Microsoft Access by showing the design of a new database application from start to finish. This includes the occasional mistakes and bugs that happen from time to time and need to be resolved. In these videos, you’ll get to see the thought process behind the design of an order entry application and learn about the different questions that need to be asked when planning a new solution that will be used by other people.

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Unboxing the Unitek IDE / SATA to USB 3.0 Drive Adapter

I hoped it would be a simple fix when the customer asked me to look at her Windows 7 machine this week. I don’t really do PC repair anymore but I have one or two old customers I’ll help out when needed. I figured it was just some Windows settings that needed adjustment but after struggling with the machine for about an hour, I realized that it really needed a wipe and reload of the system. The repair shop I referred the customer to discovered hard drive issues I’d suspected but couldn’t confirm with CHKDSK. They gave her a fantastic rate on a hard drive upgrade and Windows reinstall and returned her old hard drive to her for recovery of whatever data she needed.

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Unboxing the ASUS Chromebook

This past weekend, I finally decided to spring for a Chromebook. I’ve been thinking more and more about a Windows replacement machine, at least for basic tasks. I also wanted an inexpensive solution that would extend the life of my current laptop. I often don’t need the full machine out on the road and the smaller profile of the Chromebook makes an attractive alternative.

The Specs

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Helping Users Work With Subforms in Microsoft Access

Creating an Access application for other people means anticipating how the users are going to interact with your program. Without clear direction from the program or you, users can be easily confused by even simple things like the order in which data is to be entered.

One of the basic tools in Access is the subform which allows for the input of records related to a master record. A classic example is a database which stores customer orders and where each order might have multiple items (i.e. order lines) associated with it.

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How to Perform a Basic MySQL Installation in Windows

One of the nice features of MySQL as a database software is its noinstall option in which you download the files themselves and perform a manual installation that takes just under a gigabyte of space on your drive. If you’re a developer or a student, this means you can quickly create a new self-contained instance wherever you need it and then blow it away if you need to without cluttering up your registry.

This does mean working on the command line so you’ll want to have a certain comfort level with that. You will also need to be working with Administrative privileges.

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How to Programmatically Relink Tables in Microsoft Access / VBA

Several years ago, I designed a Microsoft Access application called JobSearch Plus for managing job leads during an employment search. It was a split application, meaning that the tables were stored in one Access file, the back-end, and everything else was in the front-end file with table links to the other one.

JobSearch Plus was also meant for distribution and I had no idea where any of the users were going to store the files on their computers. Access uses absolute file paths to specify the source database for a linked table. This meant I needed some way to determine if the back-end existed and what it’s file path was.

On it’s own, relinking Access tables in VBA is just a few lines of code.

 Dim dbCurr As Database
 Dim tdfTableLink As TableDef
 
 For Each tdfTableLink In dbCurr.TableDefs
   tdfTableLink.Connect = ";DATABASE=" & (Insert new file path)
   tdfTableLink.RefreshLink
 Next

This is fine if you know exactly where the new file is but my program could be anywhere on the user’s computer so I had to do some more engineering. Also, since this was going out over the Internet to who knows how many strangers with my name on it, it had to work right … always. This is where the fun of actual software development comes in.

Do you need help with Microsoft Access?

Also, check out our online course Managing Your Data with Microsoft Access. You can learn how to build and manage your own applications and work with your data more efficiently!

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How To Create a Dynamic Search Filter on a Microsoft Access Form

Best practice when retrieving data in Microsoft Access or any database, for that matter, is to limit the amount of data that you pull at any one time. This means using the proper filters and limiting the number of fields retrieved. Often, you still end up with a lot of information to look through anyway. That’s when it can help to have a dynamic search filter that will enable you to easily search the records with just a few keystrokes.

One easy way to do this is use the form’s Filter and FilterOn properties along with the KeyUp event as shown here.

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How to Dynamically Set the Report RecordSource in Microsoft Access

One of the steps for creating a report in Microsoft Access is to define where the data is coming from. This is done through the report’s Record Source property which can be a table or standalone query in the database or a SQL statement as shown in the screenshot below.

Usually, this is defined when the report is created and only gets changed if needed. In some cases, however, you might want to use the same report object for many different queries. You could have a mailing list report that you want to use for employees, customers or other groups at different times and the data would be drawn from different tables or even different databases.

Do you need help with Microsoft Access?

Also, check out our online course Managing Your Data with Microsoft Access. You can learn how to build and manage your own applications and work with your data more efficiently!

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