Internet Database?

[Tommo]

Hey, I am currently designing a database for my group of friends. Things such as ,Name, Age, Musical Instrument, Band (of which they play in), Favourite Band etc. would be in there indefinately.Its not a complex Db and so I was hoping to put it on my website but dont know how i would do this...I would like it to be on the internet as if you were just looking at it on your own computer and webmaster could edit any fields after it is finished. Is there anyway of doing this? If yes is there any way of doing this without the viewer having to download the Db?

Regards, Tommo

 

[reclusivemonkey]

Access would not be the preferred method to do this IMHO. However, you could if you really wanted. The easiest way would be to get your friends to download the Microsoft Office Web Components, then make DAP pages for the forms. If you don't need anyone other than yourself to be able to edit the data, you could just export the data in XML.

 

[Tommo]

Ok...Im not great with access as it is so what would you say is the easiest thing to do?

Regards, Tommo

 

[reclusivemonkey]

Use what you know is my advice ;-)

The reason I don't think that Access is the best DB for web based solutions is that there is a limit on the number of simultaneous users and file size. However, judging by the numbers you are talking about this may or may not be a problem.

What DBs are you familiar with? MySQL/PostgreSQL are free open source DBs you can use without having to shell out any extra cash. Add PHP to this, and you can get all the forms/reports you need. I presume you already have a web server?

 

[Tommo]

Yes to web server and ive only ever used MS Access. Would It just be easier to save the database and just let visitors download the file? Any further suggestions??? Could i perhaps save it as an adobe file n then let veiwers download it?

Regards, Tommo

 

[reclusivemonkey]

Do all your friends have Access installed? They will need to have it if you want them to be able to do anything with the DB. What about a spreadsheet? Might be a simpler option.

 

[Tommo]

im pretty sure all of my friends should have it installed. would it matter it wouldnt matter if it was different edition e.g. 2000/2003 spreadsheet would be easier but just seems tacky haha

Regards, Tommo

 

[reclusivemonkey]

Differing versions of software could be a problem. Also, how are your users going to upload the updated data back to the central point. What is your reasoning for doing this? Are you wanting to learn, or is the function of the DB more important? If so, you might be better off looking for an "off the shelf" solution you can use rather than develop it yourself. How much data/users are we talking about? How often are you thinking it will be updated? Personally, I would create an XML file, style it with a bit of XSLT and just get people to email me the updates (this is assuming we are talking relatively small amounts).

 

[Tommo]

well we are talking 20-40 people...! what is an XML file? and what 'off the shelf' solutions ae there?! (as you can tell, I'm very inexperienced but you have to start somewhere!) It probably wont be updated often as most of the information being put on would be fixed for at least a couple of years (e.g. current college, instrument and things like that!) My reasoning for doing this is that my firends are quite 'lets make thigns that we can look back on in the future n remember how good it was' haha so i am doing this to capture everyones information for this time period. The database if fairly important as this is more of a hobby kind of thing but i wont say no if i learn anything that could prove valuable for the future especially my computing coursework!


Regards, Tommo

 

[reclusivemonkey]

what is an XML file?

The W3 Schools site can explain it much better than I can;

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

and what 'off the shelf' solutions ae there?!

No idea! But there are so many software projects out there you can pretty much guarantee that anything you want to has already been done by someone else.

(as you can tell, I'm very inexperienced but you have to start somewhere!)

Very true indeed. XML is an emerging technology which IMHO is a good thing to learn. This is why I mention it XML is great at transferring between different applications and different operating systems. If you keep this information in XML I would think you will be pretty much "future-proof" if you ever want to transfer it to some other system. XML will also link into DBs/Spreadsheets.

Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, I was ill yesterday (just a 24 hour thing, nothing serious).

 

[Tommo]

Yer thanks very much - much appreciated!

I'l post if and when i hahve any more problems!

Regards, Tommo