I am making a relational database for a friend who is not tech savvy. I am looking for something that she can upload the correctly formatted excel files into and be able to see the relationships clearly.
(<1>[John Smith]<2>[Sam Jones] rather than <1><6><2><244>, etc.)
I know I can make my own web-based system but I was not sure if there was an open source (or freely available) system already available, either desktop-based or web-based. I tried googling it but I am afraid that I am using the wrong keywords. (I only got server-side systems)
Any thoughts?
It's ugly and expensive, but MS/Access does this well. It's good for beginners and Excel integrates very well. If she has Office Professional she already has it. It also supports ODBC so it can use other database engines.
As far as desktop DBMS goes, as Peter Wooster pointed out (+1) MS Access is the most user friendly for people who are used to Office (e.g. especially Excel).
If you are thinking of building something with a web GUI (i.e. with ASP.NET) then you can get SQL Server Express for free and it can be deployed on a client PC.
There are other typically server-based RDBMS systems with workstation-friendly editions, such as MySQL and even Oracle (although there is nothing friendly about Oracle, workstation or otherwise).
Related
I created a table in Microsoft Access Database and I wanted to use this database in the website I built with HTML. The problem is that I don't know how to link the database file to my website (or to the form inside the body of the HTML file, I actually don't even know how it works...). Can you help me?
Honestly i don't know much about Microsoft Access Database . I assume it is like other databases.
But, if you would like information that you made within a database to be shown in html, it will take much more than just html. There are a few paths you can take depending on what you want to accomplish.
The first thing is that your Database (hereby named "DB") needs to be accessible online (where your web page would live). Unless Microsoft Access Database is a "Cloud based" DB.
I use Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio (MSSM) for by DB needs, but MongoDB is a cloud based solution.
With MSSM you can use Amazon Web Services to create a webserver that runs MSSM and is accessible via the cloud.
The second thing to do would be to be able to get information from your DB to your webpage. There may be an easier solution, which I will recommend. I use C# to do this, but I know it can also be done with Ruby, and NodeJS. Within either of those languages, you will need an Object Relational Mapper (ORM), to read the info from your DB and then Create,Read,Update or Delete (CRUD) to and from your DB. An example of an ORM is EntityFrameWork or Nhibernate.
But there is a different way. If you are ok with not using a DB, you can use XML or JSON files much the same way as a DB. Which is what I did.
My github repo
Check out my non-db solution
The short version is that all of your info in your DB can be represented using .JSON files.You can then use Javascript (or Jquery) to view and display (not update) the info.
if you need help with this, leave a way to contact you, it is too much to put here.
How you do this will depend on your web development tools.
And it also depends on your web hosting company.
Remember, a web server is just a computer. It not really much different of a computer then your desktop.
And on your desktop, if you want to use say word, then you need word installed.
And on your web server, if you want to write code say in python, or asp.net, then your web site computer has to support that type of programming language.
So a web site that connects to a database will mean that you have to write some code in the web programming system of your choice. (However, that choice is limited to the tools available on that web site just like if word or say FoxPro, or Access is installed on your desktop computer.
So quite a few web hosting companies do support using an Access database. Note that this is ONLY the data part they support (so just the tables, not VBA code or forms/reports).
So, you have to either:
Pick some web programming languages you like or are familiar with, and then
Choose a web hosting provider that supports the programming language(s) you want or like to use.
Or, check your current web hosting provider and learn the tools and programming language(s) that they currently support.
For example, a really common development stack (set of tools) is called LAMP.
Lamp = Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP.
So, if they support LAMP, then the server is a Linux server, the web server system is Apache, and the database is MySQL, and the programming language is PHP.
Keep in mind that Access does not work on the LAMP stack. (It is not a windows server, and just like you can’t install Access on an Apple Mac, you can’t install the Access data drivers on a LAMP server.
However, in most cases you don’t really care, because your code going to be the same if you pull table data from SQL server, MySQL server, or a Access database. In all 3 cases, you going to write some SQL queries against that database (to be fair, the SQL flavors do vary a bit. So Access SQL is mostly the same as SQL server, but there are minor differences). Since your code can ONLY use the tables, then you tend to not care much if the tables are in Access or MySQL. Your SQL queries you write will be VERY similar no matter what database you use to hold the tables.
If your web hosting provider supports and uses asp.net, then that web server is a Microsoft server. These are the ones that support using Access databases. And asp.net programming languages can be c# or vb.net. VB.net is nice, since it reads and you can code very much like VBA code (the syntax is very similar). And web pages (web forms) have event models somewhat similar to what you use on the Access desktop.
So, HTML alone is not sufficient for writing code. HTML can lay out some text on a web page, but it does not allow you to write code with SQL and loops and everything you come to expect with a programming language like we have say in Access (VBA).
So what kind of web server is hosting your web pages will determine what programming languages are installed and can be used on the web computer.
Apache is a common web server. That web server can dish out HTML pages, but ALSO allow you to write code for the web page. It is the coding part that allows you to execute SQL against the database to return data, and shove it into the HTML page that you have created.
If you using an IBM server, then the web server is WebSphere.
And if you using ASP.net, then the web server is IIS (internet information services).
So there is “many” different kinds of web servers. While any of these web servers (the server that dishes out web pages to users) allow HTML, they all use different programming languages.
Also, because the database used (Access, MySQL, SQL server etc.) only holds the tables, so at the end of the day, it tends to not be a big deal if you use Access to hold some tables, or say using MySQL database to hold the tables.
However, say if you have experience with SQL server from Microsoft, and are comfortable with that system, then it makes sense to choose a web server (hosting provider) that supports SQL server, since you will be familiar with that database server more than say using MySQL or Oracle databases.
So, how you get your data into the HTML page will depend on what web programming language your web hosting provider supports.
So you either choose the tools your current web hosting provider supports, or you pick the web programming tools and languages you like, and find a web hosting provider that supports those programming languages.
So this is not different then say choosing Access. If you choose and like Access, then you can’t run your software on an Apple Mac.
And of course if you use some Mac programming language, then you can’t run that software on windows.
So, how this works is exactly the same for when you choose a web server. That web server will run windows software, or say often Linux software. So you have use and write code that the given web hosting system you are using supports.
A web server is just a computer with software installed. If you want to write some code to pull the data, then you write that code in some programming language that is installed and supporting on the web server system you are using.
So, web sites that dish out data are NOT just HTML but also will have code written to send SQL to the database, and pull that data into the web page. What programing you choose is quite much like what kind of ice cream you like. (You have lots of choices here).
So web hosting systems support HTML, but EVEN what features of HTML are supported will vary from hosting provider to provider.
So I'm trying to figure out how to connect to an access database that is on my desktop through html. Everything I've found so far involves the DB being server side and people mentioning ASP.net or just using SQL or mySQL instead. I just need to know how to get the connection up and running. Any help would be appreciated.
You need some kind of web programming language. That can be PHP or ASP.NET or Java or whatever, but you need something else -- HTML can't connect to a database on its own.
I'd highly advise that you take this opportunity to switch to another database server (like SQL Server or MySQL, like you mentioned). Microsoft Access is not well suited to use in web applications.
You're just going to get the same answers here. If you want to stay with Access, ASP.Net is the way to go. Access isn't webbased, most other databases are, so it's a bad fit.
If you want a professional solution, you could get yourself a Sharepoint server and put an Access WebApp on there. But note that this is intended for larger businesses, and priced accordingly, and your database will be limited in features (no VBA for example).
You cannot read or modify files from your (or anyone else) computer with frontend/html/javascript. Yes, you need some backend to connect to your database on your computer/server.
There are databases that work on client side/frontend, like IndexedDB, but it's not ms access and I don't think it's what you want.
I'm writing the entire database system for a factory, this includes inventory, payroll, incoming and outgoing shipments, job-data, customers, etc. The database will be stored offsite on a server running Windows 2008 R2 with SQL 2005. The guy who runs the server sent me this too:
"We also have quickbooks installed on the server and we have Exchange 2010 running. The terminal server is also ws 2008 R2.
There is plenty of horsepower on the primary exchange/file server. Let me know if you have any other questions.".
I know my boss uses Quickbooks to look at reports and stuff like that. I'm not sure how relevant exchange 2010 is, nor what the significance of "terminal server is also ws 2008 r2" is. My boss wants me to write the entire system in ms access 2010, but I feel like this will be a lot more work than simply writing it in MySQL. Will my boss still be able to look at his reports in quickbooks if we change the database to MySQL? What would be a good database technology to use? I feel the most comfortable writing it in a scripting language using MySQL, but would still be happy if I could write it in something like C/C++. I've been trying to learn access, and it seems that setting up a front-end and back-end database in access would be a pain in the ass. There are going to be several sectors in the factory that will be using the client-side software to run queries and insertions into the database(I think around 5-6).
If I can write this thing in MySQL, I think I could do the whole thing fairly pain free, but I fear that I can't because it will be incompatible with Quickbooks and the previous database(Although I hear converting is fairly easy). Mostly just Quickbook compatibility is my problem.
How horrible would it be to write this thing in Ruby?
Thank you, any help is greatly appreciated.
I don't mean to be a spoil sport but there is a tremendous amount of naivety expressed in this question. It's hard to imagine that you will be successful in designing and implementing such a large system without a basic knowledge of the technologies involved.
A few thoughts:
Quickbooks already covers most of the features you say you will be responsible for implementing. Are you supplementing the existing Quickbooks system, replacing it, or what?
Quickbooks uses its own (extraordinarily slow) database engine. It isn't "compatible" with SQL Server, MySQL, or Access.
SQL Server 2005 is a database. You don't use a database with it, you use it as your database. A Microsoft-centric organization such as the one you describe is not likely to be interested in installing yet another database server like MySQL.
MS Access encompasses both a database "engine" (called JET) and a desktop development environment. The engine can be used with other development environments and the development environment can attach to other database engines (most often SQL Server, but others work too). When you say the boss wants to write the system in MS Access you need to be clear whether he means the engine, the development environment or both. (My guess is they want to use Access as the front-end development platform and SQL Server as the data store).
You will not write a system of this complexity in a month. You probably won't even design it in that time.
Quickbooks can use MySQL as a datasource (or just about anything else), but you'll need to make your database conform to the Quickbooks way of doing things: i.e., your tables will need to match the QB table structures. It sounds like you just need a front end (data entry forms and reports) and a custom back-end. Access can quickly turn into a nightmare if you don't put in some up-front design thought, but it does give you forms & reports & web pages free in a neat little package. Make sure you use an Access Data Project (adp) that's connected to a SQL Server back end. Access does have its own native database, but everything gets stored in one local file and it's not good for applications that will be accessed by multiple people in multiple locations. It also gets complicated when you need to make a change and roll it out to all of your users.
Another option is to look into a customizable web platform, like SalesForce or MS Dynamics. That will also let you create your own tables, forms, and reports, and updates are immediate for all users, but you'll have ongoing monthly user fees. They look great on a resume, though!
I'm working on an eCommerce website for a small merchant. This merchant uses Opera (which is based on Visual FoxPro) to manage his in-store inventory, and would like the online store inventory to reflect the in-store inventory.
I'm guessing that my first step is to set up a way to regularly transfer the information from the VFP database to a MySQL database on the website's server. Is there an established process for this? Am I even approaching this problem from the right angle? I've heard a lot about ODBC, but am unsure as to how to implement it or if it's what I'm looking for in this situation.
If it wasn't obvious by this point, I'm in over my head here, and would appreciate any and all advice you may have, including links to articles or tutorials that can help improve my general understanding of all the moving parts here.
Thanks much.
Co-worker developed synchronization process between VFP and MSSQL2008. WCF service which took input directly from VFP.
On other project - as far as i remember, when we tried ODBC .NET data adapter, it had problems with encodings and foreign languages. That's why we used COM+, serialization for communication with .NET.
But it seems to me you are using PHP (eCommerce=>Drupal=>PHP) so you are in completely different situation.
In your case, i would start with checking out if Opera (i guess it's this Opera) provides built-in export and eCommerce provides built-in import. Mostly because it might be tedious work to sync data manually from 2 apps coded by someone else. Then i would research if i/o can be joined and automated (something like scheduled task on win environment). Unfortunately, can't help much more because i'm unfamiliar with those tools, products and technologies.
Anyway - it seems to me like quite hard and dirty task and i wish you good luck. :)
Depend on what is that you are using to implement the website.. in general it is pretty easy with ODBC (In Java , I did it using the jdbc-odbc bridge)
I am starting a new client/server project at work and I want to start using some of the newer technologies I've been reading about, LINQ and Generics being the main ones. Up until now I have been developing these types of applications with MySQL as clients were unwilling to pay the large licence costs for MSSQL.
I have played around a small amount with the express versions but have never actually developed anything with them. The new application will not have more than 5 concurrent connections but will be needed for daily reporting.
Can MSSQL 2005 express still be downloaded? I cant seem to find it on the microsoft site. I would be hesitant to use MSSQL 2008 on a project so soon after its release.
Are the express version adequate for my needs, I'm sure loads of people reading this have used them. Did you encounter any problems?
The answer to the question on any project in regards to what platform/technologies to use is: What does everyone know best?
Yes express can still be downloaded.
Will it fit your requirements? That depends on your requirements, of course. I have deployed MSSQL2005 Express on several enterprise level projects which I knew had a fixed database size that would never be exceeded (Express has a limit of each database of 4Gb). Also keep in mind there are other hardware constraints such as a 1 cpu limit.
Another thing to consider is if you need the Enterprise level tools that come with a paid edition of SQL Server. If you are moving a lot of flat data around you are stuck writing your own Bulk Copy Procs, which rule the house, but its an extra step, no doubt.
Note sure about #2 but you can download SQL Server Express 2005 here.
Sql express has more features, and is a lot more powerful, but will only run on windows boxes. If you ever need to scale Sql express can be switched easily to a commercial variant.
MySql doesn't support half the features, but does have most of the basic ones you actually need, and will run on windows or *nix boxes. It's also not throttled in the same way as Sql express is.
In my opinion (having used both extensively, but not touched MySql for a few years) Sql express is a far better DB system. If you're building .Net applications the Linq support is a deal clincher.
If you aren't going for pure Sql server support, I wouldn't go for pure MySql support instead. Use a DBFactory design pattern to load your data layer or use simple SQL:92 syntax that's a lowest common denominator.
Why not go to Sql server express 2008?
I'm mostly going to advocate MS SQL Server because of .NET integration. Linq To Sql is pretty much my favorite way to do deal with databases these days: anonymous functions make everything better! My current place of work has also used MSSQL Express for real projects, so you have at least two of us confirming that the restrictions aren't too harsh.
I have about 50 web sites running perl/apache/mysql and about 10 running C#/ASP.Net/SQL Server (Lite) and other (large) applications running on SQL Server (Heavy). I never have problems with SQL Server - it just works. I often have problems with MySQL.
My advice would be to go for the SQL Server based option even if you had to pay for it.