Calibration Reports Database

The calibration reports database, a Microsoft Access database, contains all of the results for each calibration.

By default, the database is named Calibration Reports.mdb and is stored in the Databases folder of Calibration Executive. If you installed Calibration Executive in the default location, this database is located in C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Calibration Executive\DataBases. The calibration reports database responds to standard structured query language (SQL) commands. Therefore, you can write your own report-handling routine to retrieve data from the database. You could write such a routine in LabVIEW, C, visual Basic, or any other language that supports SQL communication. The calibration reports database consists of the following seven tables:

  • ASSET contains all of the information about the calibrated DUT.
  • CALIBRATION_DATA contains all the data acquired during the calibration, as well as the uncertainty data, if applicable.
  • CUSTOMER contains all of the customer information associated with the DUT.
  • ENGINE contains information about the operator and the calibration date.
  • ENVIRONMENT contains information about the environmental conditions during the calibration.
  • STANDARD contains information about the standards, such as calibrators and DMMs, that were used during the calibration.
  • REPORT keeps track of all of the relationships between the six other tables.

The REPORT table contains a search value for each of the other tables. The search value is a unique number that represents all of the data associated with a specific calibration report—all the customer information, calibration condition information, and so on. To locate data associated with a given calibration, you must first find the search value for that data in the REPORT table. When you know the search value number for a specific report, you can search for a match to that number in the other search value fields of the table.

Example: Using the Calibration Reports Database

Suppose you want to find out all of the calibration-related information—the calibration conditions, DUT specifics, calibration data, and so on—about the devices you have calibrated for a customer. To find that information, start by opening the CUSTOMER table and locating the name of your client. In the same row that the customer name appears, there is a numeric search value. With that search value, you can open the REPORT table and use that value to search the other tables for that customer’s asset information, calibration data, and so on. You could also use that search value to write your own asset-handling routine.