Approach for Pianos (Long)

[John Musselwhite]

At 01:10 AM 1/19/99 -0800, Greg Newell wrote:

JM>> Yes, it's fully relational and simple to set up and use. I keep separate
JM>> dbases for client, invoices, pianos, tuning dates and directions to
clients
JM>> homes and tie them all together with an Approach "view".

>	Could you please describe how you do this?  I recently found that
>approach will see all my files from PSM and so I can easily transfer the
>database.  I need to set up the "Approach view" of which you speak.  I

One of the beauties of Approach is that it handles many different file
types such as DBase (in all it's varieties), Foxpro and others, and can tie
these databases all together using one or more "views" without altering the
original form. A view is just a screen of information drawn from one or
more databases. Approach's Help function and tutorials are pretty extensive
and will show you how to set one up. It's fairly intuative though, and you
can set one up in seconds if you don't need it to be pretty.

Explaining the technical details of how to do any of this is a bit beyond
this list, but it's a lot more simple than you might think. There are a lot
of advantages to having several different databases with different data
stored in them accessed through a common interface. If you have all your
data stored in one *big* file it's eventually clumsy to use and maintain.
Breaking up the data so you have one file with customer data, one file with
piano data, one with invoice data etc. makes the data easier to manipulate
and makes it a bit more safe, IMO. When making changes to information in
one file it only affects the other files if the fields are related and
often that relationship is just a number or a name, whereas with a
"flat-file" system any change in any field affects the entire file.  

Approach will also allow you to breakup a large dbase into smaller ones if
you wanted to do that. My database was originally kept on a tape-drive
TRS-80 Model 1 in a BASIC program I wrote, was moved to a CoCo, then a CoCo
II running OS-9 with a real 360K floppy disk, exported to an IBM DOS flat
file (Smartware) and then to Approach, where it was re-organized into its
present relational form. 

>hope to get as close as possible to the original look of PSM so as not

I don't know what PSM "looks" like, but you can make Approach look and
behave like almost anything you want I would think. Mine just looks like a
fancier version of what I did with Smartware.

>to confuse the primary user ... my lovely wife. Do any of you have any
>suggestions as to how I may do this?  Am i correct in using Approach?

If you already have it then yes, Approach is the easiest (and cheapest!)
way to do it. 

>Will I be better off with FileMaker Pro as my brother strongly

I've never used it so I don't know. Approach is so versatile that I
wouldn't see the need for anything else. You can make it look like anything
you want, really.

For example, one thing I've been toying with lately (if I ever get my WWW
pages finished!) is using the graphical capabilites in Approach. My plan is
to scan in the pages of a city map and creating a field in the customer's
record for "Map Location", then have Approach associate the map graphic
with the customer's location. When I print my daily report, which includes
the customer record, piano(s) record(s), an invoice and a "directions" file
if one is required (all from separate but related databases) I could have
it print out the map page as well, enlarged to fit on an 8.5x11 page so I
could see it. As an aside, once information is transferred back into the
computer from the day's paper it is run through a shredder to protect the
customer's and my privacy and then recycled.

In the "sample" databases they include with Approach there are some good
examples of how it can be used. It's well worth taking a look at them to
give you some ideas. There is also a support page on the internet which may
be of some value in getting to know the program.  Good luck and I hope that
was of some help.

			John


John Musselwhite, RPT -  Calgary, Alberta Canada
Registered Piano Technician   http://www.musselwhite.com
email: john@musselwhite.com