Are there any resources on the analysis of Northwind Traders that I could use to identify workflows and scenarios?

Anonymous

Hi I am trying to create an in-house tutorial and write an article about application modernisation. I would like to use the Northwind Traders template as an example.
Currently I am painstakingly going through the app trying to understand the story behind it. I was wondering if there is any publicly available documentation that could help me

Apologies if this is not the correct place to post this request but please feel free to direct me to a better source.

Thanks

Tom van Stiphout 1,621 Reputation points MVP

2023-03-07T13:51:30.0266667+00:00

Funny you should ask. A team of developers which I am a member of is working on an updated version of Northwind template. One of the deficiencies of the current version is lack of documentation. That will be addressed. We're hoping to have the template live by the end of this month, but it is not all under our control.
Anonymous

2023-03-08T14:13:24.7233333+00:00

Thanks @Tom van Stiphout , I look forward to it. I am sure I wont be very far in my work within a month, it is more of a side project and so does not get much priority.
How might I find out if a new template is available and where would I expect to find the documentation?
Thanks again
Tom van Stiphout 1,621 Reputation points MVP

2023-03-14T00:06:14.65+00:00

We will publish the release here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/access/ct-p/Access_Cat
and we expect there will be discussion about the new templates in other forums as well.
Tom van Stiphout 1,621 Reputation points MVP

2023-04-19T03:33:29.92+00:00

Send me your email and I may be able to get you in the private preview. tom 7744 at cox dot net
Tom van Stiphout 1,621 Reputation points MVP

2023-04-27T13:45:02.6366667+00:00

Woohaa, we have not one but two new Northwind templates!

The official announcement is here. You can find them now in Access, using File > New. You will find lots of documentation.

The world premiere will be today at DevCon Vienna.

Check it out, and let us know. Note that we are aware of issues with locales such as Germany that use different date formats from US. That is already fixed and being tested, ahead of a new release.

-Tom van Stiphout.

Northwind Working Group
Anonymous

2023-05-19T08:47:36.2333333+00:00

@Tom van Stiphout Thanks for sharing the update, unfortunately I have been on medical leave for some time now and I might not get to follow up on this for another month.
I really appreciate the feedback and the offer to join the review group.
Again thanks for the information, I hope to have an opportunity to play with it soon.
Anonymous

2023-05-30T13:07:45.7766667+00:00

Thanks again for the heads up, I am keen to use the Northwind 2.0 template however I would like to run automated tests of each workflow that the Northwind template supports.

I am currently writing tests in Coded UI but am aware of the scale of my task and thought it might be wise to see if this has already been done in some way and made available to the community.

I would be grateful for any resources you can share, or indicate your interest in the results of my own attempts to automate testing of Northwind 2.0
Thanks

Kieran

1 answer

Ken Sheridan 2,666 Reputation points

2023-03-06T16:13:05.7133333+00:00

The best way to understand the logical structure of a relational database in Access is to examine the relationships window. Unfortunately that in Northwind has not been set out to make the model self evident, so you'd need to move things around a lot first.

For a simple example you might like to take a look at Relationships.zip in my public databases folder at:

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=44CC60D7FEA42912&id=44CC60D7FEA42912!169

If you have trouble downloading a specific file, clicking on the 'Download' button at the top of the page while no files are selected should download a zip file of all files in the folder, from which you should then be able to unpack the relevant file.

This simple little demo illustrates how the relationships are built up across the database to achieve the final model, which is:
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Anonymous

2023-03-07T09:31:25.5833333+00:00

Hi @Ken Sheridan , thanks for responding, unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anything in the folder you sent me, at least bot that I can see. However to be honest it is not so much relationships as more I am looking for either requirements documents or a "user guide" or some set of instructions guiding me through a workflow in the Access template. Does this exist?

EDIT ------------

It appears the documentation I'm looking for will come into existence soon so please dont feel the need to follow this up.

Again thanks for your suggestion
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