Database Options

Jonny_B

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Oct 14, 2004
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Work wants me to put together a searchable database of all our old projects. The idea is to have information like job number, client name, date, architectural style, square footage etc. etc. be listed so you can seach by any field and whatnot. Since when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, I was thinking of doing an internal website jobbie, with a php front end for data entry and retrieval and an sql backend for data storage. Does that sound like the right approach?
 
I'd just make a giant excel file personally.

The PHP thing would probably be ideal if they're going for usage on any computer in the office. It'd be the simplest, easiest to maintain, and cheapest by far. If you already know some programming, there's plenty of PHP source out there so I'm sure the learning curve for putting something togethor would be pretty light. Security might be an issue, but how sensitive is the data?

Your other real options would be using something like Access.
 
we have a giant excel file now, but no one uses it because i'm the only person who's any good at excel. i need to build something where they can stick in a search term and kick out results.

security is not an issue since we'll only run it internally.
 
Cant help with actual implementation stuff but; yall might want to look into getting a consult from a systems engineering company if you have massive document/resource/archival management issues. Easy to overlook until you have to change computer platforms, or get sued.

Dunno, what you do. It's usually a huge deal with engineering companies to have all their drawings/emails/specifications/notes and project info searchable and archived.
 
if we use access, what kind of access (for lack of another word) do individuals at their desks have to the database? do they each need a licensed copy, or can they search the same file with a free client of some sort?
 
if we use access, what kind of access (for lack of another word) do individuals at their desks have to the database? do they each need a licensed copy, or can they search the same file with a free client of some sort?



Everyone has access to Excel to use the current file but they don't have MSAccess? :thrawn:
 
Everyone has access to Excel to use the current file but they don't have MSAccess? :thrawn:
no, they don't. office small business doesn't include access.

looking at the access website it appears to have lots of dodads and could be really easy to set up. that's moot, however, if we need a license for everyone to add and retrieve records.
 
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no, they don't. office small business doesn't include access.

looking at the access website it appears to have lots of dodads and could be really easy to set up. that's moot, however, if we need a license for everyone to add and retrieve records.



oh it would be easy to set-up but i don't know about letting everyone else use it if they don't have Access.

http://www.openoffice.org/
 
Work wants me to put together a searchable database of all our old projects. The idea is to have information like job number, client name, date, architectural style, square footage etc. etc. be listed so you can seach by any field and whatnot. Since when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, I was thinking of doing an internal website jobbie, with a php front end for data entry and retrieval and an sql backend for data storage. Does that sound like the right approach?

yes.
 
if we use access, what kind of access (for lack of another word) do individuals at their desks have to the database? do they each need a licensed copy, or can they search the same file with a free client of some sort?

are you retrieving electronic documents or just data?

you know you can also have a sql database and reference that from access as well - unless you really want to fux around with excel spreadsheets
 
are you retrieving electronic documents or just data?

you know you can also have a sql database and reference that from access as well - unless you really want to fux around with excel spreadsheets
the current plan is to retrieve documents by including a link to the file (pdf) in the record.

what's this ruby on rails stuff? i was just going to hand code php, html and css.
 
the current plan is to retrieve documents by including a link to the file (pdf) in the record.

what's this ruby on rails stuff? i was just going to hand code php, html and css.

Although I've never used it, its supposed to be awesome for quick dev projects. It's very intuitive, yet powerful. I'm dying to have a use for it so that I can dig into it.