[Glastonbury] Simple database required

[Martin Wheeler]

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 info at wccl.co.uk wrote:

> Can anyone please advise me of a simple to load and use database for Mandriva
> (ie Mandrake) Linux. Currently I'm running Mandrake 10.0 Official.

Ros __

I think your best bet is to take the advice of all three replies you've 
received so far.

I.e. -- use a spreadsheet for initial  data collection, until such time as 
OOo provides a usable database element to replace it.

(I would only add here -- if your needs are in any way complex, use 
gnumeric rather than the simplistic spreadsheet included in OOo -- it's 
superior to Excel in just about every way, and has the advantage of 
giving you practice in using one of the better FLOSS offerings.  You can 
also export your data in a myriad of ways, according to where you want it 
to go once you've collected it.)

Then I would seriously look at installing MySQL and phpmyadmin to 
interface with it.  You can do just about anything you want with 
phpmyadmin without having to have recourse to the mysql command line -- 
and amazingly, I found that I could use it from the start to do simple 
things with my databases as I gradually learned more about mysql.
It's a cool tool; it allows you to learn as you go, according to your 
needs.  It too allows export in a myriad of ways -- and of course, you can 
import your spreadsheet output, no problem.
(This is, in fact, what I do for several of my clients -- they produce 
their data using a spreadsheet, and then send it to me in comma-separated 
value [CSV] form; which I simply import straight into a database, and 
manipulate as required.)

Also, following Sean's suggestion, you could look at using PHP-enabled web 
pages to allow you (or your clients) to interface with the database via 
the internet -- with appropriate safeguards built in, of course.

The technology is straightforward, and the coding required, minimal.  (You 
can even go to a script archive and pick up a pre-written, debugged script 
for virtually any task you might want in this area.  I've done so in the 
past, many times.)  It's really not difficult to implement.

If you'd like to see an example of all the above, go take a look at a site 
I had to cobble together very quickly (under two hours to get everything 
set up and on-line) last weekend for the Linux Documentation Project:

      http://startext.demon.co.uk/tldp/index.html

  -- ignore the search-engine, it's an outdated (but perfectly servicable) 
hack written in perl.  (I'm sure you could easily find an equivalent in 
another scripting language.)  All the rest is done by PHP, with the 
exception of a javascript validation routine I nicked from somewhere to 
check out the content of images being uploaded.

HTH,
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
mwheeler at startext.co.uk                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
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