Societies and Zones
Purpose
The Societies data-table holds data for Societies and Zones KKFU work with. It is a master data-table which links to many other data-tables: such as Farmers and Staff, but also Inspections.
The Societies data-table includes fields such as the "SocietiesStationMark", and "DateJoined".
Societies and Zones are captured in a single data-entity called "Societies". There is no separate "Zones" data-entity. This is done because Societies and Zones share many, infact most of their features. Both have officers who are chosen by election, both have memberships, so it is sensible to marry the two entities together.
A full listing of all the fields in the data-table with their purposes and any automation built into the App is laid out below. To fully understand the purpose of the data-fields please consult this.
Note that the separate data-entity called "Regions" is used to create a list of all geographical locations used by KKFU in their management processes such as the location of Depots, cocoa-regions, co-op's, clusters and so on.
How and where to access Societies and Zones data
The image below shows the "Societies" Edit Form. This is accessed via its own entry in the System Entities screen. Societies are a master entity. People are a child of Societies, and many other linkages to different parts of the database connect from this point.
Societies Edit Form
- Main data entry fields for the Society / Zone, including SocietiesStationMark and other data.
- Summary data relating to the current Society, with the count of current members and details of the latest election date, this can be extended by KKFU if needed.
- Links to SocietyElections records for this Society, and any Comments that have been written about this Society.
Note that the layout of this edit form may have changed if it has been updated by your administrator, and additional actions, reports or resources may have been added.
Linkages to the Societies entity
From the Societies Entity it is possible to see lists of linked data, and add linked data. The image above shows the "New Items" menu open in the Societies Entity, with the linked data that can be added.
Linkages to the Societies entity
- Societies can link to all the entities shown: Caretakers, Inspections, People and many more. In many cases these linkages are coupled with a Linkage to the Farmers entity, so individual records relate to the farmer as well.
- The Societies entity is automatically linked to several "base entities" which are part of the Orixa framework, to allow storage of data such as Addresses, Phone-numbers and so on.
- The Societies entity is linked to the Images system, so if needed photos of the society or its membership can be added to the database.
- Where linked records are added to the Society, they will appear in the "List-List" at the bottom of the edit-form.
Data-schema: full details of the data-fields and their purpose in the Societies data-table
Field- Name / Data-type |
Description / Purpose |
Possible Values |
Coding / Automation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ID (Primary Key) | Unique number which identifies each record. | Automatically set by Orixa, not under the control of users or developers. | |
| DepotsID (Link-ID) | Links to the Depots table | Selected from list by User | Will default to the currently open Depots ID |
| SocietiesStationMark (Text) | Self explanitory | Entered by user | Default value: ' - unknown - ' |
| Name (Text) | Self explanitory | Entered by user | |
| RegionsID (Link-ID) | Links to the Regions table, identifying the geographical place in Ghana where the Society is based. | Selected from list by User | The list is generated from entries in the "Regions" table, using a list based on the Resource "CoopLUList" |
| SocietiesTypeID (Link-ID) | Links to the Types table | Pick from list of possible Types values. | |
| StatusID (Link-ID) | Links to the Status table | Pick from list of possible Status values. | |
| DateJoined (Date) | Self explanitory | Entered by user | Default value: Current Date |
| DateLeft (Date) | Self explanitory | Entered by user | |
| DateCreated (Timestamp) | Set to the exact date and time the record was first created. | Automatically set by Orixa, not under the control of users or developers. | |
| Current (true/false) | Untick this field if the record is out-dated, no longer in use or discontinued. | True / false | Default value: true |
| AuthorID (Integer) | Self explanitory | Automatically set by Orixa, not under the control of users or developers. | |
| FullName (Text) | Read-Only, computed by Orixa, based on values in the database. | Value generated by Orixa by combining the SocietiesStationMark and the Name columns. |
How to use
Newly formed Zones should be added to the database by Field Officers, with a status of "Newly Formed". The list of newly formed Zones can then be referred to so that these new Zones are included in necessary training and on-boarding. Once a Societies or Zones record exists, Farmers can be added one by one, or using any of the Rapid-Data-Entry grids which are built into the system.