[CAUT] Piano database]

[Fred Sturm]

On 9/6/07 4:20 PM, "Douglas Wood" <dew2 at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> Some sort of automated scheduling would be a bit more work, probably, but
> likely quite doable.

Scheduling using FileMaker or any configurable database isn¹t really very
hard. The simplest is to have a ³last tuned² field, where you enter the date
of each tuning when you do it. Then you can sort the list by ³last tuned²
and you have a vanilla, tune everything the same number of times schedule.
    To get slightly fancier, add another field, ³next tuning.² Each time you
tune, enter a date for the next time you want to go there. I use something
like this on my private client database, entering the month (six months off)
that I will send a reminder postcard. Again, sort on ³next tuning² and you
have a schedule. (For my reminder cards, I use a ³Find² function for the
month I want).
    The next step is to automate, as Alan McCoy¹s template does. You have a
³last tuned² field, and a ³next tuning² field, and you add a ³frequency of
tuning² field. Frequency is the number of days until the next tuning. 30,
45, 60, 90, 180, 365, whatever you choose for that particular piano. Then
you configure the ³next tuning² field as an automatically calculated  field,
which takes the value for ³last tuned² and adds the value of ³frequency of
tuning² to it. Presto, chango, you only need to enter the tuning date when
you do the tuning, and the database does the rest automatically. Again, sort
on ³next tuning² and you have a schedule.
    And then a further step, again courtesy of Alan¹s template, is a
³Schedule Report.² I won¹t describe how to do it, as it gets into too many
other details, but his template for that report not only gives you a list of
what pianos to tune when, but also shows the schedule for each room, so you
can figure out when to get in, along with a couple other handy factoids. Of
course, this assumes that you have entered a schedule for that room
previously, and that it is valid as of today ­ another subject entirely <G>.
    But scheduling with a database is not rocket science. It just takes the
minimum getting you feet wet in databases to learn how to do this much.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico


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