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This is my second attempt to try an figure this out. I looked at other answers and tested the answer I got from my previous post.

Found here: How do I link an Account table with an Order table in MS Access 2013?

There is a catch to this that doesn't work for me. The main reason is that the orders are highly customized and not predefined.

I sell shirts and they can customize the picture and the monograms (among other things) versus selling a specific shirt that can be stored and picked from the database.

I normalized my tables as much as I can down to two possibly three. An Account.tbl (account number, shipping info and payment method, etc.) and an Order.tbl (shirt color, picture attachments, monograms, etc.) A possible third table (account.ID and order.ID).

I asked a collegue of mine and from what I understand this may be something for PHP to handle. I don't know the first thing about PHP or really Access either. I just make shirts. :)

I am assuming I would need a button that when pressed: 1.) Saves the data 2.) Pushes/Exports the account.ID from the Account.tbl to the account.ID on the Order.tbl 3.) Changes from the Account.frm to the Order.frm

I have #1 and #3 accomplished. But I have not found a way to do #2 from Access alone.

I have tried building relationships with the Primary key and Foreign key but it doens't keep track of who is ordering what. My tables just fill up with unrelated data. :/

Is there a solution in Access? Would PHP solve this? Is there a simple PHP code for this? If not, where should I start looking in PHP language?

Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.

Community
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David
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    This is both simple and complex at the same time. Nothing needs to be pushed, it is just an `INSERT` and/or `UPDATE` that needs to be made. Once you break this down, step by step, it makes more sense. Since you're not a programmer you might consider hiring someone once you have defined precisely what needs to be done. – Jay Blanchard Mar 16 '15 at 16:54

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If you don't have any prior knowledge of PHP then don't waste your time learning about it just for this project.

If you are building a database application to run on your own computer and you already have Access 2013 then that's all you need.

If you intend to build a web application that your customers can access over the Internet then you might benefit from knowing a bit about PHP, depending on the tools or framework you use to build your site. However, in that case you should not be using an Access database as a data repository for a web application.

Gord Thompson
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  • Well, this is probably the most important statement to me. " you should not be using an Access database as a data repository for a web application." The main reason I started developing a database with Access is because my printing/monogram software can use Access. This is for an online database for customers to input their customizations. I've started messing with XAMPP now just to see what I can accomplish on my own before hiring someone else. – David Mar 17 '15 at 19:51