CS 395: Database Practicum

Spring Semester, 2001

[General Information | Classes/Assignments | References ]

General Information

Taught by: Professor Carol Shilepsky, Macmillan 104, 364-3214, cshilepsky@wells.edu.

Objective: This course is designed to cover some of the more specific issues that arise when implementing a database in Access, but is completely independent of  CS 325. It will cover applications programming using Visual Basic and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), as well as network access to a database. If you are not enrolled and wish to take the course, see me.

Text: There is no text for this course.  I will have a collection of references and handouts.

Software: Microsoft Access, Visual Basic 6.0 available in the Wells computer labs.

Homework: There will be short programming assignments each week.

Project: This will be an enhancement of the CS 325 project, using the techniques of this course to build an API and, possibly, a  web interface to the database you build in CS 325.

Grading (S/U):

Classes/Assignments

DATE ASSIGNMENT
2/5 Read the class handout p. 18-25 of Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide. Write the sample program. Change several of the properties. Add the other operations to calculator.vbp
2/12 Replicate name.exe in a VB project. Bring to class or email any questions
2/19 Make the following changes to pizza.vdb:
  • Add another type of pizza
  • Change frmPizza so that the user can enter the number of each type of pizza
  • An enhancement of your choice, e.g. do something with the cumulative totals on frmHistory
Look out for:
  • When you change from chk boxes to txt boxes for the number of each type pizza, you should make their initial caption 0. Otherwise you will get an error when you try to add the value to intPizzas in frmSummary.
  • You may need the function IsNumber, e.g. IsNumber(frmPizza.txtPlain) to make sure the user entered a valid number for each type.
2/26 Develop an application of your choice. It should use local and global variables, procedures, multiple forms, menus. Alternate: significantly enhance Pizza.
3/5 Build a front-end viewer for bank.mdb. Include a data control and bound control for each field in the branch table. Note, the naming of tables and fields in bank.mdb do not match VB conventions (tblX, fldX). Do the same using the Data Wizard. We will go over its features and the code next class.
3/12 No assignment.
4/2 Build a program to display portions of some other table(s) in WCCSDB.
4/9  
4/16 Work on your projects.
4/23 Work on your projects.

References

Davis, Harold, Visual Basic for Windows, Peachpit Press, 2000. Very detailed, step-by-step instructions for each feature. Maybe good at the beginning.

Lomax, Paul, VB and VBA in a Nutshell, O'Reilly, 1998.  A good reference for the programming language,but not a text.

Microsoft Press, Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide, Microsoft Press, 1998.

Rahmel, Dan, Teach Yourself Database Programming with Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours, SAM, 1999. I have copies of these in my office or at home. Let me know which are useful.

Links: