project design advice

Question

Hello everyone..

Just doing a little project for a friend of mine he owns a Building Inspection company and at present is
writing about 6 reports a day on paper then getting home and typing it all into ms word to make a professional
looking form.

He has an HP iPAQ hw6515 pocket pc running windows mobile 2003 SE.

I was thinking write an application for the pocket pc so he could just walk around and select what he has too from
comboboxes etc.

what Im not sure about it the best way to store this data in the pocket pc to then transfer it into a template in word or excell.

should I store it all in a database ? then what is the best way to generate a form.. I know Microsoft access has forms but
I'm not too familiar with them.

thanks everyone..

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Drewan

Drewan OBrien · Answer

How can I sink the sql ce database from the pocketpc to say a microsoft access database ?

Mahesh Chand · Answer

If you have time and want to do something interesting build a PocketPC/Mobile application using .NET Compact Framework and store data in a SQL database. He can come home and sync data with his main machine. Then you can have application generate Excel from the database. Office Interop section of C# Corner has some articles how to generate Excel reports from a database. Check out Mobile and Pocket PC sections to write mobile applications in .NET.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Yes probably a database or XML. I think unless there is a specific reason to use Excel don't.

Drewan OBrien · Answer

Basically most of the data will be strings .. for example.. Outside Walls = Brick. He would like to select brick along with any other possible option from a combobox. That would be the first requirement... The second would we to save the string and int data collected from that inspection.. The third would be to auto generate a form which he already has a template for in MS word format. I just need to know the best way to get the data from the pocketPC to somewhere to be saved (maybe DB or excell spreadsheet) Then once the data is saved I need to use that data to auto generate a form somehow...

Sam Hobbs · Answer

You should also research what is already available. If nothing else that could help you design your version. There are probably others available but this will get you started. PDspect Inspection Software InspectionReview.com Home Inspection Software - HomeGauge Home Inspection Software - 3D Inspection Software - Residential - Commercial - Marine - Environmental Permit Software and Code Enforcement Software Home Home Inspection Software for Home Inspectors - Horizon by Carson Dunlop SiteHound Inspection Software InspectIt.com - home inspection software ReportHost - The original and still the best home inspection software on the Internet

Sam Hobbs · Answer

In system design definition of requirements are usually critical. You need to define what the data will be. If you proceed with a design based on the information provided here you will likely need to modify the system many times. The system could get complicated and a lot of work to modify to do things you are not aware of now. My impression is that the data is flexible and difficult to define so you can't expect to understand all the requirements. So you need to dive in and do the best you can as you are doing except you need to determine the requirements better. Do you have a good understanding of what the input and output is? That is what you need to determine; what the data is that needs to be entered into the device and what that data needs to be converted to. Based on the information provided here I would start by getting the data entered into a text file and then analyze what is needed to be done with it.