John S' Lemon University of Aberdeen

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John S. Lemon University of Aberdeen

• Can we strangle those Wizards (sic)
  kfromMicrosoft ?

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Introduction Background

• Universities have reduced budgets
• Need to find ways of reducing costs
• Microsoft is going to cost more
• Faced with a number of choices
• Reduce software portfolio
• Move all applications to Microsoft
• Use Star Office
• ?

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Introduction Background

• Constant review of software
• Primary target is SiR
• Why ?
• Not understood by managers
• Experts dont like hierarchical data base
  managers
• Have had to justify regularly over the years vs.
• Rapport
• Oracle
• Access

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Eliminating the opposition

• Rapport was easy
• Never really took off
• Cumbersome interface
• Died after short and unspectacular life !!!
• Oracle harder
• Also cumbersome
• Not user friendly
• Barry Robinsons paper
• No statistical facilities

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Eliminating the opposition

• Access is harder to eliminate
• Appears more user friendly
• Cheap part of Office licence
• Wizards to help create / manage data bases
• Lots of Teach yourself books
• Windows compatible
• Claims to be multi-user
• Managers love it because everyone is using it
• Need a test to prove the winner

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Too complex to try as an experiment
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Test data base

• Three record types
• Sex, date of birth, hair eye colour in all
  (NB. L. Blue, D. Blue Blue for eyes )
• Aberdeen graduate in Parent Spouse
• Date of Marriage Marital Status
• Child Status

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The experiment

• Will use screen shots as experienced crashes when
  doing live
• Act as a novice
• Make the same assumptions
• Try and interprete Microsoft speak
• Start up Access and see what happens

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• What do we choose ? try the wizard ?

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• Not a lot of help so go back

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• Try a new project

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• Calls it a project ! carry on anyway

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• What the . Is this ?

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• Even more confusion try OK

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• Help !!

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• ???

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• Hi - it looks like Ive got a data base

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• Now for a form

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• Oops

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• Back to the drawing board

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• Lets try a new data base

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• What next

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• Hey I can just enter data

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• Perhaps not

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• Now try the wizard

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• No help from wizard so ..

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• Subject is 1st field and its text

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• Length changed but what are other fields ?

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• Does lookup help ?

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• Not really

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• Decimal places for an INTEGER ?

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• So far so good how do I save it ?

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• Yes - thank you

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• Give it a name

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• What is this oh go ahead and do it

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• Hoorah my first table

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• Now how do I get data in

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• Will this wizard be any better

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• I get to choose the layout

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• This looks boring

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• So does this

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• Hey I like this

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• A pretty background as well

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• Of course I want to open the form - stupid

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• If I ask for help I cant see the form

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• Lets start

• I can have X for Sex and K for married ..

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• I entered 29th Feb 1963 its not too large

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• Lets give up as Im confused

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Stage Two

• Aberdeen Maternity Data Bank would be a
  conversion
• No Export / Import directly
• How to transfer
• Via Excel files
• Try this

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• Export from SiR

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• This looks easy

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• Find the CSV file

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• Hey some intelligence at last

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• Even better no field naming !

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• Of course I want a new table

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• Better still I can change things if I want

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• I now know about Primary Keys

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• It remembered the file name

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• Of course I want to analyse it

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• Hoorah

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• Yes - please

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• Not quite what I expected

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• Keep going it might get clearer

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• Just keep going . Im lost and confused

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• Whats this about splitting tables I want
  statistics !

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• What on earth is going on ?

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Stage Two import the rest of data

• Repeat for Spouse records
• Continue with Child
• Problem with Primary Keys
• Nothing is simple

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• But it still completes the task !

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• If analyse Child record it tries to split it

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• I dont like the proposals !!

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• More primary key warnings

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• Looks OK

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• At last three tables

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• Another wizard fingers crossed

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• What are relationships ?

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• Just Spouse to add

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• Now how do I link them ?

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• ?

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• So these are the Join types what do I do ?

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• Ignore the types and join the dots

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• Now to find Blue-eyed children of Blue-eyed
  parents

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• I have to modify as no chance to select

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• This is the query add the eye colour select

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• One word YES !!!

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• What are you blethering about ?

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• As clear as mud

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• After a lot of effort I get this

• Only SIX - (6) records
• Was it worth it ?

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• The vPQL solution

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• Need I say more ?
• Wizards only partly help
• Sometimes confuse naïve users
• Do not make life easy for those of us who help /
  advise users
• Access is not the Philosphers stone
• SiR lives to fight another day