[Solved] Question on Parent/Child, SuperType/SubType tables

[Caementum]

I am creating a database for a volunteer orginization that matches students up with tutors. Both the students and tutors have mostly the same contact information. Both the students and the tutors may also be volunteers and members in addition to being students or tutors.

What I am looking to create is several Forms. One each for Contacts, Students, Tutors, Volunteers, and Members. The Students, Tutors, Volunteers and Members forms would display (read only or editable, I don't care) the information from the Contacts table.

What is the best practice for this in Open Office Base? Or, to turn it around, Is this possible in Open Office Base?

I know that for major SQL databases I would be factoring this out into:

Contacts
ContactID
First Name
Last Name
Date of Birth
Address
City
State
Zip
Phone Number
...

Tutors
ContactID
Accepting Students
Region
Started Date
...

Students
ContactID
Currently Looking
Skill Level
Goals
...

Volunteers
ContactID
Started Date
Acceptable Tasks
...

Members
ContactID
First Paid Dues
Last Paid Dues
Secondary Contact (For Companies)
Dues Amount
...

I have looked at all the published documentation I could find and searched via Google and the form but have not found anything. The only document that even touched on this was Base Tutorial: From Newbie to Advocate i n a one, two.. three! on pages 52 and 53 regarding duplicity of roles and super classes.

[sainttomn]

Hi Caementum, and welcome to the forums.

What you describe can certainly be done. With regard to the design of your database, is the purpose to simply allow each type of person (Tutors, Students, etc.) to view information? Do you need the information to be filtered by type of person, or will each person be able to view all records?

Is there anything else the database needs to do?

That aside, OpenOffice should be able to accomplish what you need. A word of warning though, if you intend for this to be accessed by multiple individuals, you'll need to set-up OpenOffice as a front for an actual SQL database. OO is intended as a single-user platform, if you're using the built-in SQL.

-Tomn
_________________
"I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel."
[Windows 7] [OO.o 3.3] [HSQL 1.8]

The Lazer Cat

[dacm]

[Caementum]

Thanks so much to both of you.

sainttomn:

This is all going to be accessed and maintained by the single employee of the volunteer orginization. (One employee, many volunteers.)

There will be quite a few other tables to track other things. Tutor-Student pairs, qualifications, attendence at meetings. But the only thing I could not figure out was how to deal with the people(contact) records.

dacm:

Your numbers 1 and 3 were exactly what I was looking for.

I will make sure to look at those two articles before I go much further.