ICT @ WARLINGHAM MAKE A MUSIC & DVD MOVIE COLLECTION DATABASE BOOK 4 ADD A FURTHER TABLE MAKE VALIDATION RULES MAKE FORMS MAKE PARAMETER QUERIES When you have finished this booklet, you will have learnt further skills in using MS Access by adding a table to your Database and make more detailed queries. Follow these step-by-step instructions and you can t go wrong. Page 1 of 26
In the previous three booklets, you learnt how to make a relational database to store information about your music collection, and how to query the database to find things out. You should now: Understand basic database terminology: field record table data type key primary key relationship one-to-many join query criteria report Understand database structure Make reports Make queries This book will show you how to: 1. Make an additional data table 2. Insert validation rules 3. Make input forms 4. Make queries based on parameter values 5. Make wildcard searches You will need to have completed the first 3 booklets in the series before doing this one. Page 2 of 26
When we first made the database, we called it CD and DVD Collection. We have a table to record all of the CDs owned. We have a table for friends contact details. We have a table that joins the two together so that we can track loans of the CDs. Now we can add a further table to record the movie DVDs that you own. The information that was gathered for the music CDs was: CD number Artist name Album name Genre Year released We can record suitable information for a DVD movie collection, in the following fields: DVD number Movie title Starring Genre Storyline to give each DVD a unique number the name of the movie the main actor the type of movie, eg horror, comedy a sentence about the plot We can use the following movie genres: Action Animation Children Comedy Documentary Drama Fantasy Horror Musical Romance Science Fiction Thriller War Western We can record information about our DVD movie collection. When this information is put into a data table, it can be added to our current database. We can use a proper planning sheet for guidance on building the data table. The planning sheet is on the next page. Page 3 of 26
DATABASE CONSTRUCTION / PLANNING SHEET Database name: CD & DVD Collection Database purpose: To store information about my CD & DVD collection, friends and loans Table name: DVD Collection Linked tables: Loans Primary key: DVD Number Field Name Data type Field Length Example Validation Rule / Text DVD Number Number Key field 1 Number length 2 digits, so validation rule <100. Required field. Movie Title Text 30 Titanic -- Starring Text 50 Kate Winslett, Leonardo dicaprio Genre Text 20 Action Storyline Memo -- Fictional romantic tale of a rich girl and poor boy who meet on the ill-fated voyage of the 'unsinkable' ship -- List Box is also a validation: Action, Animation, Children, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Musical, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, War, Western. -- Page 4 of 26
Use the planning sheet to commence making the table; starting with the first field for DVD number. Open your CD & DVD Collection database and start building a new table for DVDs (choose Tables, Create table in Design view): We can set a validation rule so that the number of the DVD is lesson than 100; which will reduce the chance of a person inputting a long number into the DVD Number field by mistake. We can also set the field so that something must be put into the field and that it cannot be left blank. Make sure that you have chosen DVD number as the key field and that it has the small key next to it. To make the computer only accept a number less than 100, type <100 in the Validation Rule box. To tell the computer that something must be put in the DVD number field and that it cannot be left blank, choose Yes from the required box. Page 5 of 26
Make the next fields for Movie Title and Starring You can see from the planning sheet that we want the computer to only accept a genre from the list: Action Animation Children Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Musical, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, War, Western. We can make a Lookup list for the Genre, and set it so that only one of the items in the list can be chosen. For the Genre data type, choose Lookup Wizard, then I will type in the values I want for the next dialog box. Type in the values as per the planning sheet: Then choose Next Leave the label as Genre and choose finish. Page 6 of 26
Choose the Lookup tab from the bottom of the window. You will see that the source list has been made. We have to tell the computer to only accept an entry from the list, so change the Limit to List option to Yes. Make the last field for Storyline. Set the data type to Memo, which means that a very long entry can be made in the field. When you have finished making the data table, it should look like the following: Save the table as DVD Collection. Page 7 of 26
Now we could enter information into the data table about the DVDs owned. Putting in the information in the table view can be very confusing and boring. We can use a form to have a more user friendly input screen. A form is used to present the information in a database in a more user friendly format. From the main database window, click on the Forms option and then Create form by using wizard. Select Table: DVD Collection that you have just made from the drop down list. Transfer all of the fields from those available to go into the form by choosing the >> (double arrows), and they will transfer across. Then choose Next. Page 8 of 26
Leave the layout of the report as Columnar, and choose Next Leave the style as Standard and choose Next Leave the title as it is and choose finish to preview the form. You should get an, empty form which looks like the following: You could maximize it to fill the screen, to see how extra cool it looks. It is now ready for you to enter data in it about the DVDs that you own. Page 9 of 26
Enter the following data into the DVD Collection form: DVD Number: 1 Movie Title: Titanic Starring: Kate Winslett, Leonardo dicaprio Genre: Drama Storyline: Fictional romantic tale of a rich girl and poor boy who meet on the ill-fated voyage of the unsinkable ship. Use the tab key to move between fields. When entered, your completed entry should look like this: Use the buttons at the bottom of the form to move to a new record, go forward to other records, or back to previous: Page 10 of 26
You can check to see if the validation rules work. Try typing a number greater than 100 in the DVD number box, and you will get an error message: Try typing in random letters into the Genre field and you will also get an error message: By having validation rules, you can reduce input errors. It is possible to have many different kinds of validations and entry restrictions into fields. When ever you make mistakes in entry or get an error message, you can just press the Esc key. Page 11 of 26
Now enter the following records into the data table, using the form that you have created: DVD Number Movie Title Starring Genre Storyline 2 Toy Story Animation A cowboy toy is profoundly threatened and jealous when a fancy spaceman toy supplants him as top toy in a boy's room. 3 Finding Nemo Animation A father-son underwater adventure featuring Nemo, a boy clownfish, stolen from his coral reef home. His timid father must then search the ocean to find him. 4 Spiderman Tobey MacGuire Fantasy When bitten by a genetically modified spider, a nerdy, shy, and awkward high school student gains spider-like abilities that he eventually must use to fight evil as a superhero after tragedy befalls his family. 5 King Kong Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody Action In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape. 6 Saving Private Ryan 7 The Quick and the Dead 8 War of the Worlds Tom Hanks War After all of his brothers are killed in action, a a squad of US soldiers try to save the last brother who is stationed behind enemy lines after the D-day invasion of World War II. Leonardo dicaprio Western Lady avenger returns to western town owned by a ruthless gunslinger hosting an elimination tournament. Tom Cruise Science Fiction As earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines, one family fights for survival. 9 Wedding Crashers Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn Romance John and Jeremy, a pair of committed womanizers who sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air, find themselves at odds with one another when John meets and falls for a girl. 10 Forrest Gump Tom Hanks Romance Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny, eludes him. Page 12 of 26
When you are finished, you can close the input form. It is not necessary to save, as MS Access automatically saves the record after each entry, though if you are nervous, it is always good practice to choose save. Close the form You can go and see the information has been put into the data table. Go back to the main database window, and choose the DVD Collection table from the Tables section: You can see the records: You can drag the edges of the field headings to make the columns wider: Page 13 of 26
See if you can remember how to make a report to show all of the DVDs that you have in the collection. Set the page orientation to Landscape to fit all of the information on one page. (There are no hints in making it now do you remember how?) Your completed report may look like the following: You can amend the layout of the report by switching to design view, and then fiddling with the individual fields, to change the title, font colours, add pictures, etc. From the screen shot, you can see that the title has been modified to My DVD Collection, and that a picture has been copied across to make the report more interesting to look at. Page 14 of 26
The report now looks more cool: This booklet does not go into detail about modifying report designs and other layouts. MAKING PARAMETER QUERIES Sometimes you may want to do the same type of query often. A parameter query allows you to ask for different criteria each time you run a query. This saves you time so that you do not have to keep designing and making multiple queries. When the query is run, the computer prompts the user for the item to search for. Frequent example questions: Which Drama DVDs do I have? Which War DVDs do I have? Which of my DVDs have Tom Hanks in them? Which of my DVDs star Leonardo dicaprio? Page 15 of 26
Go to the Queries tab and choose Create query in Design view Add the DVD Collection table to the grid and choose Close. Re-size the windows by dragging the corners, and drag the three fields to the query grid: Movie Title Starring Genre We will make a parameter query to prompt the user to enter a Genre type for the database to search for. In the Criteria box for Genre, enter in the following: [Enter the Genre to search for] You must use the square brackets [ ] If the box is lot box enough you can drag the edge to make it wider. Page 16 of 26
When you press you will see that the question appears in a box, and the user must enter in a genre category: Enter drama into the box for the computer to find all of the drama DVDs that you have and choose OK. You should find that you have Titanic as the only drama genre movie. We can now save the query and rerun it at any time. Choose File Save. Save the query as Search for movie by genre type. Using a sensible title always makes sense! Why? It is easy to see which query does what from the list. You can now close the window and return to the main database window. Page 17 of 26
You can now see that the query has been added to the list. If you double click on it to run it, your question box will appear: Enter romance in the box for the computer to find all of the romance movies that you have: You should have two: Close the results when you have finished, and return to the main database window. Page 18 of 26
USING WILDCARDS IN PARAMETER QUERIES When you make parameter queries, you must enter all of the words or phrase that you are looking for, or the query will not work and not return the correct results. You can modify the parameter query to look for part of the word or phrase to search for. This is called using a wildcard. Eg When finding a film by category, instead of typing in romance, you could type rom. instead of typing in drama, you could type in dr. Eg When searching for a film by actor Instead of typing in Leonardo dicaprio you could type in Leonardo Instead of typing in Tom Hanks you could enter tom Let s first construct a parameter query to search for movies by actor name. From the main database window, choose Create query in Design view, and add only the DVD collection to the query builder. Choose close after you have done this. Page 19 of 26
Resize the windows so you can see all the fields, and add the following fields to the grid: Movie Title Starring Genre In the Starring Criteria box, enter in the following text: [Enter the Actor s name] (You should resize the box so you can see all of the text.) Run the query and enter tom hanks into the box, then choose OK. Your query will return that you have two movies starring Tom Hanks. Save the query as Search for movie by Actor Page 20 of 26
Now let s run another search to find all of the movies starring Leonardo dicaprio. From the main database window, choose Queries, and double click on Search for movie by Actor Enter lenoardo dicaprio in the parameter value box (exactly as shown) and click OK You should return only one result: This is interesting, and also incorrect. There is in fact another movie that you own that also stars Leonardo. If you go back to the DVD Collection table you will see that there are two movies: So why is this? Page 21 of 26
This is because when you do a parameter query, MS Access will search for the exact phrase that you enter. So if there are: spelling mistakes incorrect spacings more than one entry in the field then it will not find them. The parameter query will only do exact matches. We can fix this by making a wildcard search, so that MS Access will search for a word or phrase that contains the letters that you suggest. Eg When searching for a film by actor Instead of typing in Leonardo dicaprio you could type in leon The computer will return all the fields that contain leon Instead of typing in Tom Hanks you could enter tom The computer will return all fields that contain tom Let s make the wildcard query now. We will modify the Search for movie by Actor query. Right click on it and choose Design View : You will see the query that you had made: Page 22 of 26
Modify / rewrite the command in the Criteria box to read: Like * +[Enter part of the Actor s name]+ * Do not put any spaces in the command, apart from what is in the square brackets. Make sure you use the correct speech marks (use shift+2 key). Enlarge the Criteria box so you can see all of what you typed. Yours should look like the following: Now run the query: Enter leon in the parameter value box so that the computer will search for all entries containing the letters leon for Leonardo. You should get two entries: Titanic The Quick and the Dead Close the query. You will be prompted to save: Choose, Yes and the query will be saved and updated for your change to it s design. Page 23 of 26
Run the query again to find all movies that star anybody called Tom You should get 3 results: There are two different Tom s and the computer has found them all. Very clever or what? FURTHER REPORTS FROM QUERIES You can make reports form the parameter queries, so that when you run the query, the results are displayed in a clearer format, that can be easily printed out. Go to the main database window and choose Reports Create report by using Wizard, and choose the query, Search for movie by Actor : Transfer all the fields across and choose next: Page 24 of 26
Click through the next four option screens to arrive at the final stage of the report wizard, then click Finish When you do, the computer will start to generate the table, but prompt you to Enter part of the Actor s name, So enter in leon And your fancy report will be generated: Now it looks very neat if you wanted to print it out. Page 25 of 26
Now you are very close to becoming a database expert. You now have four tables in your database: Get book 5 in the series to find out how to relate all these tables together and make sub forms! Page 26 of 26