Hi.

Hopefully some of you have time to read about one of my next development
task, and give me a guide on how I can use new Microsoft development tools.



Our users works in a certain Excel template where they build a list of
products based on orders placed by our clients. The users enter product
names, price, rebates, quantity etc. The list of product seldom exceeds more
than 50 lines.



Each product has some of technical information, witch I now have managed to
retrieve from a DB2 system into our SQL server. Until now our users have
been doing the tedious task to get the technical product information
manually and "product-by-product" from a stone-age terminal system.



I now want to integrate the product information stored on the SQL 2000
server into the Excel template. The problem is the lack of good
indexing/matching between product in the list made by users and the
technical product list. Our users enter the product name in an "oral form"
in the Excel template, as in "Volvo V70 (2007)" instead of "VEICHEL, VOLVO,
V70-07".



My pseudo is like this:

- Design a button "Get product info" in Excel template

- Let user point to column of product names

- Read through list of products and let users match the product in the
Excel sheet with product in SQL database, based on a "suggestion" list of
products based on match between product "oral" name and product technical
name.

- Let user select which information should be copied into Excel.

- Copy information fields from SQL database into Excel template.



I've done pretty much the same a couple of years ago, using VBA and standard
ODBC communication with a SQL server.



However I want to look into more "contemporary" ways on doing this, based on
your suggestions. What kind of development tools would you recommend? Is it
hard to build "smart tags" which would help users matching their "oral"
product name with "technical" product name? etc.



Any hints appreciated



Kind regards

Mr. Smith

I think I understand your problem. Though I'm a novice when it comes to DB
programming, I ran into this problem about two weeks ago.

My first thought when reading your problem of matching user names with
actual product names was building a helper column. The user would select the
product from a combo box, a cell using data validation, or a userform that
searches for likely product matches given an input.

I'd suggest that the product information be retrieved automatically rather
than forcing the user to choose a product then click a button. Makes things
a little easier.

In general, I would work this similarly to how you are planning it. Hope it
goes well.

Matthew Pfluger

"Mr. Smith" wrote:

Hi.

Hopefully some of you have time to read about one of my next development
task, and give me a guide on how I can use new Microsoft development tools.



Our users works in a certain Excel template where they build a list of
products based on orders placed by our clients. The users enter product
names, price, rebates, quantity etc. The list of product seldom exceeds more
than 50 lines.



Each product has some of technical information, witch I now have managed to
retrieve from a DB2 system into our SQL server. Until now our users have
been doing the tedious task to get the technical product information
manually and "product-by-product" from a stone-age terminal system.



I now want to integrate the product information stored on the SQL 2000
server into the Excel template. The problem is the lack of good
indexing/matching between product in the list made by users and the
technical product list. Our users enter the product name in an "oral form"
in the Excel template, as in "Volvo V70 (2007)" instead of "VEICHEL, VOLVO,
V70-07".



My pseudo is like this:

- Design a button "Get product info" in Excel template

- Let user point to column of product names

- Read through list of products and let users match the product in the
Excel sheet with product in SQL database, based on a "suggestion" list of
products based on match between product "oral" name and product technical
name.

- Let user select which information should be copied into Excel.

- Copy information fields from SQL database into Excel template.



I've done pretty much the same a couple of years ago, using VBA and standard
ODBC communication with a SQL server.



However I want to look into more "contemporary" ways on doing this, based on
your suggestions. What kind of development tools would you recommend? Is it
hard to build "smart tags" which would help users matching their "oral"
product name with "technical" product name? etc.



Any hints appreciated



Kind regards

Mr. Smith