Food Menu Database...Help

[ann smith]

I've posted this post earlier and I got a few responses from people who had
no idea of what I was really trying to convey. Therefore, I will try again
and I'm hoping that my writing skills will make things a lot clearer this
time.

I'm trying to create a food menu database complete with recipes and
directions/procedures on making the item. This is what I want.

I want the end user to be able to use the drop down menu feature in forms.
From that point, the end user can choose a Menu Food Item (let's say
hamburger). A new page will appear and on that page will have the title
Hamburger. Also, the ingredients for making the hamburger. Also, the
directions/procedures on making the hamburger. The end user will be able to
print this page out and refer to it when they want.

Is there a way to do this? I don't even know how to setup the tables for
this. Should there be two separate tables? One for Menu Item and the other
for recipe? I am somewhat new at Access (2000) and I'm hoping someone can
give me a push in the right direction.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Rebecca Riordan]

You're going to need a lot of tables, I'm afraid....

You have a recipe, that's an entity, and becomes a table in the db. A
recipe consists of multiple ingredients. Since you don't ever want to
include repeating items in a table, you'll need a RecipeIngredients table
that has a many-to-one relationship with the main table. Same thing for
Procedures.

Having identified the entities (tables), you then need to think about what
information you want to track for each one. A RecipeIngredient, for
example, has an amount, an ingredient, and a prep (e.g., 4 ozs carrots,
grated). You'll probably want additional tables so you can use look-up
values for things like weights and measures. Which, by the way, is
something you need to consider carefully. How do you want to consider
something like "8 ozs. hazelnuts, toasted (about 2 cups)". Or for baking,
how are you going to deal with the variances in flour measurement
techniques? All of these are solvable, you just need to consider what makes
sense for your application.

The same thing with the procedures. Are they just text, or are you going to
want to codify some of them to save typing?

As for your "new page" that appears, that's a report. Since you're working
with multiple one-to-many relationships, you'll need to use sub-reports, but
that's not too hairy.

HTH

--
Rebecca Riordan, MVP

Designing Relational Database Systems
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming Step by Step
Microsoft ADO.NET Step by Step

http://www.microsoft.com/mspress

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves,
for they shall never cease to be amused...

 

[Guest]

You're going to need a lot of tables, I'm afraid....

You have a recipe, that's an entity, and becomes a table in the db. A
recipe consists of multiple ingredients. Since you don't ever want to
include repeating items in a table, you'll need a RecipeIngredients table
that has a many-to-one relationship with the main table. Same thing for
Procedures.

Having identified the entities (tables), you then need to think about what
information you want to track for each one. A RecipeIngredient, for
example, has an amount, an ingredient, and a prep (e.g., 4 ozs carrots,
grated). You'll probably want additional tables so you can use look-up
values for things like weights and measures. Which, by the way, is
something you need to consider carefully. How do you want to consider
something like "8 ozs. hazelnuts, toasted (about 2 cups)". Or for baking,
how are you going to deal with the variances in flour measurement
techniques? All of these are solvable, you just need to consider what makes
sense for your application.

The same thing with the procedures. Are they just text, or are you going to
want to codify some of them to save typing?

As for your "new page" that appears, that's a report. Since you're working
with multiple one-to-many relationships, you'll need to use sub-reports, but
that's not too hairy.

HTH

--
Rebecca Riordan, MVP

Designing Relational Database Systems
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming Step by Step
Microsoft ADO.NET Step by Step

http://www.microsoft.com/mspress

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves,
for they shall never cease to be amused...

able