Use an embedded form to take attendance

Question

Hello! I'm looking for a way to allow my users to "take attendance" after they host large events.

I currently have a working solution for small events*, BUT I really want to provide an easy way to track participation in very large events (60-100 employees attend). Desired result: A user selects the company relevant to the event and then a list of the company's employees generates. Every employee has a checkbox and it can be checked to say the person attended. (Ideally, the check boxes default to checked and can be unchecked.) A QB Action "fires" to create a separate record for every individual attendee.

Current status: Right now, I've added an embedded report to my form to generate the list of employees who are possible event attendees. I also have the checkbox (it's just a field in the Employees table). The tricky part is that I haven't figured out a way to translate that filled checkbox into confirmation of event attendance. I've played around with formula fields in the Employee table and some QB actions, but I think the fact that the checkbox is on the Employee table, not the Event table is getting in the way.

Perhaps someone has an example of something similar, or has a suggestion for recording large-scale attendance in a different way. I've done a lot of web searching and am very open to suggestions!

*My working solution for small events: Users complete a "new event" form to report that they've had an event, with an option to choose individual attendees from conditional drop downs. ("Attendee 1" drop down, "Attendee 2" drop down.. etc, with just employees from one company as options to choose). I then have a series of QB actions set up that "fire" to generate a separate record for every event attendee. These separate records allow us to keep track of individual participation in events. For small events (less than 20) this works great.

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Chyanne Eyde
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markshnier__you · Answer

I can describe how I would solve the issue, but it might take an 90 minutes of consulting time to get this set up to work slickly on your app. Or we can work towards a solution on this forum slowly.

I would set up a table called User Focus with a key field of User. Set the field as userid. Create a field for the Record ID# of the Focus event. Create a checkbox formula field called [User Exists?] with a formula of true.

Create a relationship where One User Focus has many Events based on a reference field of formula user with a formula of User().

Create a relationship where One User Focus has many Employees based on a reference field of formula user with a formula of User().

The user will launch off an Event and the formula URL will add or edit the user in the User Focus user table to record the [Record ID# of the Focus Event]. The [Record ID# of the Focus Event] will then be lookup done to Employees. The user will be landed on a report of employees for the same company as the Event.

The workflow will then be for the user to click any Employees who attended. The formula URL button will create an Event Attendees child record and then optionally it can set up to have a quiet popup saying that the employee has been added, or else refresh the report to only show employees remaining who did not attend the Focus Event. Once the user is finished clicking, then they would click a link to get back to the Event record and see all the children Event Attendees Created.

The employee list could either be filtered to just show the non attendees, or else colour code / sort who attended and did not attend so far, for the Focus Event.

This "User Focus" technique can be useful elsewhere in your development work, so it could be worth it to your organization to have a working session to get it implemented.

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Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com
mark.shnier@gmail.com
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chyanneeyde · Answer

Thanks very much for your response, Mark! I came up with a solution last night that goes down a similar path as what you've described, but your outline is very helpful! Thank you!

gerardochacon · Answer

Hi Chyanne, It's been a while since your post but I wonder if you could show me how you solved this. I have a very similar attendance situation.

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Gerardo Chacon
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chyanneeyde · Answer

Hi Gerardo - Let me see if I can assist!&nbsp;
What really helped me solve this was mapping out the relationships in my app. The key relationships were between three tables - Events, Attendance, and Employees. I wanted a user to create one event using a form, fill in a check-box next to the name of Employees in an embedded report, and then I wanted the system to, invisible to the user, create an Attendance record through a QuickBase action.
Here's what worked for me:&nbsp; 
I set up a form for a user to create an Event. They fill out the form and then they click a "Next" button to go to a second page of the form. This button is what enables everything else - I used Kirk Tracy's magic buttons app in the exchange and met with him in office hours. The Next button relies on a codepage that is modeled after something I believe is called createsavecontinue.html in the Magic buttons app. (The key is that the button saves the new record and then sets the user up to keep editing the record in a way that seems seamless.)&nbsp;
This next button looks to the user like it directs to a second page, but it actually directs to a different form in the same table. This "page 2" form includes an embedded report from the Employees table. I set criteria to filter the employees based on the Event record being edited. The embedded report is basically a list of people and a check-box to indicate whether or not they attended.&nbsp;
When a check-box is clicked, it means the Employee record is being modified. I set up a QuickBase action to fire when a user modifies an Employee record, specifically when the "attended" check-box is filled. The QuickBase action then creates a new record in the Attendance table. The fields that this Quickbase action copies to a new impact record are identified thanks a special field Date/Time of Last Click on Next in Event Form. This is a field that basically identifies the last record edited.&nbsp;
To avoid the "attended" check-box staying filled in for employees, I have another QuickBase action that fires to uncheck the field Attended?&nbsp; 
I hope this might offer some helpful clues to you!
------------------------------Chyanne------------------------------

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