By Jeff Moses
| Jeff Moses(active@en.com), an Alpha developer in Chardon, Ohio, shows us how he created a service station scheduler that handles an unlimited number of mechanic stations or service bays. His technique is applicable to any resource-based scheduler. |
I have noticed some interest in calendars and scheduling systems. Attached is a brief sample of a scheduling system we are using for RV dealerships that require a method for date scheduling and doing it in multiple work bays. It will unzip to a directory called SCHEDULE.
A repair order is entered on this form:
Figure 1. A repair order.
On the repair order is a button that says "Schedule Appointment" and directly underneath it the date and bay that the customer is scheduled. This information is brought back from the scheduling form that you go to when you press the "Schedule Appointment" button. Here is the scheduler form, set to enter or look at data in Bay #4:
Figure 2. A look at bay #4.
Each of the fields in the data area on the right has a customer lookup that goes to the customer data table. If the customer does not exist you can enter a new one or just type one in. To the right of the data field there are memo fields in case you need to enter a lengthy description of work to be done.
If you notice, bays 2 and 3 are red. This is to indicate in a glance that bay is completely full. If we select Bay 2 from the list of bays, we can see that Bay 2 is indeed full on that day:
Figure 3. Bay #2 is full on 1/5/99.
In the upper left hand corner of Figure 3 you will see info about the customer. This info is brought forward from the Repair Order if it exists in case you want to reschedule the customer. You will be able to see where he was scheduled and remove him.
You can also see a number of ways navigate though the dates including typing in a specific date. The code to move from date to date is very simple, a mixture of Action Scripting and short snippets of inline Xbasic. For example, here is the Action for the "Go to next day" button:
Figure 4. The Go To Next Day button calls up this script.
This system shown has 4 bays available but has since been expanded to 12. No reprogramming is needed to extend the system to more bays.
When paging through the date browse you can tell instantly by looking at the color of the bays on the right of the browse when you have reached a day with open times and which bay or bays on that day have the open time.
This may give others A5 users some idea guidelines to set up a custom scheduling system that meets their individual needs. Feel free to post it if you think your visitors might find it of some interest. You can download a sample of the scheduler.
| Editor's note: Jeff is too modest. What I like about his scheduler is that you can easily add as many bays as you like. His structure is applicable to any resource-based scheduler. Change "bays" to "OR rooms" and Jeff has a hospital operating room scheduler. Make it "banquet rooms" and you're halfway finished with a catering application. I encourage you to download the demo and study it. |
11/20/99
Don't forget, we need your feedback to make this site better!