Create complex data entry form

[John Hawker]

I need help designing/creating a complex data entry form. I am developing a
training db to capture individual training attendance. The problem is
recording mutiple people and multiple topics at the same time (i.e.; 1
employee record for each topic--regulatory reasons). I have the following
tables: Employees, Events (sessions), Topics, and Attendance (join table
containing keys for Employees, Events, and Topics.

I was thinking of a main form to create the session with 2 independent
subforms for attendees and topics. Each subform would be populated by a
pop-up(?) form based on the Employee/Topic tables and selected items would be
copied to the subforms. A command button, when clicked, would iterate
through the 2 subform entries, creating individual training records using
EventID/EmpployeeID/TopicID, and post these to the Attendance table.

Question 1: Is this the best design? Or is there something simpler/easier?

Question 2: How do you code the OnClick event?

I would appreciate any insight you can provide.
John Hawker

 

[John Hawker]

Thanks for the reply, Steve. I started out with this idea but ran into the
problem that there would be at least 7 and as many as 12 topics in the most
common session type. And, not everyone at the session would get all of the
topics.

For that reason, I thought of putting the TopicID in the Attendance table.
From a design perspective, the training record shows "this person took a
particular topic at a specific session."

I would appreciate any insights on design alternatives.

 

[John Hawker]

Here are the tables I have:

TblEmployee
EmployeeID
Employee Data Fields>

TblTopic
TopicID
Topic

TblEvent
EventID
EventDate

TblAttendance
AttendanceID
EventID
EmployeeID
TopicID

The reason being that people attend whatever topics interest them and/or
ones they need to attend; it's a professional conference. Also, while not an
issue in this discussion, some of these topics must be done every year so
it's important to track topic attendance individually. And that may be what
got me into trouble here.

Got any ideas?

====

 

[John Hawker]

OK, let's see if I understand this correctly. A main form for the Event with
a subform for Employees. Within the Employees subform is a second (nested)
subform for topics attended> Did I get that right?

John