Creating a library checkout database

[Kwestter]

Hello,

I’m new to Tap Forms and the database world so forgive me if I’m not using the correct terms but I’ll try to explain what I want to do.

I’m building a database to track media being checked out of a library. There are about 300 media items (books, CD’s, DVD’s, and, yes, even VHS tapes) and approximately 225 users involved.

We have member cards with bar codes. The iPhone 4S works great for scanning and picking up the member ID number. We also tagged each media item with a bar code so it can be scanned too. This works really great and I was excited to see it all coming together.

My workflow thought was to scan the member card and bring up their file. From there we scan the book bar code into a field. There are also checkout and due date fields so we can easily track overdue items.

My problem comes with linking the media number to a separate database that has the media information (title, author, format). Is there a way to scan the bar code on the book, CD or DVD and have it pull up the name in another database?

I saw that the ‘Contacts” field can pull up information from the Contact list (just another database really). Is it possible to pull in information from another database within Tap Forms?

If not, can anyone recommend a change to my workflow that would bring in the media information? I thought about a pick list but the bar code scan won’t pick out the number when there are other characters in the field (joining the bar code number “0001” and book title “The Hobbit” together “0001 The Hobbit” won’t bring that item up when bar code 0001 is scanned).

I’ve enjoyed playing with Tap Forms and really hope to make this work. Thanks for any advice!

Ken

[Brendan]

Hello Ken,

It sounds like you might want to use a Link to Form field type with the Link Type set to Many to Many. With that you’ll be able to link one or more books/media to your customer who is checking out the books. You can use the barcode scanner to search for the books too and then select them to be linked to your parent record.

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Kwestter]

Thanks Brendan,

I was hoping it would be something that simple. If I can get this to work then I have plans for organizing a lot of others things too. I may even be able to justify some iPad purchases at work just so we can use Tap Forms!

Here’s where I’m at right now:

I have two fields: ‘Media 1’ and ‘Media 2’ in the ‘checkout’ database. These fields are linked type, ‘many to many’, and connected to the proper ‘media’ database.

The media database contains 316 records. I can go into it and scan through it, make changes or additions, etc., so I know the records are in there.

But the checkout database shows a 0 in an oval circle to the right of both the Media 1/Media 2 fields. Tapping on either the Media 1/Media 2 field pops up a box that looks like it should have the list of media items but it’s blank. Scanning a bar code or typing a number just returns a ‘no results’ message.

Thanks again for the prompt response,

Ken

[Kwestter]

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<textarea id=”bbp_reply_content” class=”bbp-the-content” name=”bbp_reply_content” cols=”60″ rows=”12″ tabindex=”101″>Ok, just figured it out.

Tapping on the check mark in the media field pop up brings up the list I was looking for. From there I can search for and select multiple items.

The number on the right reflects how many items have been selected from the database, not the number of items in the database. Makes sense now.

This is even better than I was hoping for since I only need one media field to track all the items being checked out. That will keep it pretty simple.

And the email function will work perfectly for sending reminders of upcoming due dates for items. It lists the titles and email addresses right there in the email.

Thanks again for the help and the great program! I think things will come together now but I'll be back if I have more questions.

Ken</textarea>

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