Database help

City boy turned country

Hi guys,

First time posting in here so bear with me.

I have been asked to help out my local club with their website, membership list and some other stuff.

I've decided to start with the membership list. They currently use excel and copy new lists depending on the information they want.

I'm wondering what's the best tool for a database for up to 600 hundred members.

I've created a very simple database table in access but I want to future proof the concept and allow logins from the website for members.

So I'm wondering would MS SQL or Oracle be better than a access database?

PS: the reason I was asked to do this is I work as a UI designer/ecommerce analyst.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

CBTC

cython

City boy turned country wrote: »

Hi guys,

First time posting in here so bear with me.

I have been asked to help out my local club with their website, membership list and some other stuff.

I've decided to start with the membership list. They currently use excel and copy new lists depending on the information they want.

I'm wondering what's the best tool for a database for up to 600 hundred members.

I've created a very simple database table in access but I want to future proof the concept and allow logins from the website for members.

So I'm wondering would MS SQL or Oracle be better than a access database?

PS: the reason I was asked to do this is I work as a UI designer/ecommerce analyst.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

CBTC

Access is perfectly adequate for the likes of managing a simple standalone DB with 600 odd records, IMHO, but you could hit issues in trying to run a website off it. If you want to go down the route of a full-blown database server, I would suggest MySQL over either of your suggestions above as it's more widely available on web hosting providers, and unless you use the express editions of the others, the cost would be prohibitive.

Of course depending on the nature of what you want to do, and the extent of service they want to provide to members there may be an OSS solution out of the box out there that will run on top of MySQL or similar for you already, especially if you aren't up to speed with the technologies for developing such a system and want to get it done quicker than learning as you go.

shruikan2553

City boy turned country wrote: »

Hi guys,

First time posting in here so bear with me.

I have been asked to help out my local club with their website, membership list and some other stuff.

I've decided to start with the membership list. They currently use excel and copy new lists depending on the information they want.

I'm wondering what's the best tool for a database for up to 600 hundred members.

I've created a very simple database table in access but I want to future proof the concept and allow logins from the website for members.

So I'm wondering would MS SQL or Oracle be better than a access database?

PS: the reason I was asked to do this is I work as a UI designer/ecommerce analyst.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

CBTC

You could use MySQL and create a webpage for adding people to it.

The Corinthian

TBH, if you're an analyst, you should be able to do this yourself.

Most basic thing is that you're going to have to tell us what your skill-set is, as there's no point advising you to do it using a technology you don't have a breeze about.

There are probably two approaches you can take with this. The first is to do it as an Access database, running on a local machine, which you can later use as a basis to redevelop into a Web based application and export the data to it.

The second is to start with a Web based application and expand it from there. What you use is up to whatever skills you have available, but unless you want your club to pay Oracle licensing fees, I suspect you'll probably want to look at less expensive options, like MySQL.

My feeling is you should go for the first option as you appear unsure of your club's long-term requirements. While you'll effectively be developing what will eventually become a redundant application, it can act as a prototype for whatever online one you eventually build, while trying to go directly to a Web based application (unless Web access is a requirement) will almost certainly also have to be rewritten eventually.

City boy turned country

The Corinthian wrote: »

TBH, if you're an analyst, you should be able to do this yourself.

Most basic thing is that you're going to have to tell us what your skill-set is, as there's no point advising you to do it using a technology you don't have a breeze about.

There are probably two approaches you can take with this. The first is to do it as an Access database, running on a local machine, which you can later use as a basis to redevelop into a Web based application and export the data to it.

The second is to start with a Web based application and expand it from there. What you use is up to whatever skills you have available, but unless you want your club to pay Oracle licensing fees, I suspect you'll probably want to look at less expensive options, like MySQL.

My feeling is you should go for the first option as you appear unsure of your club's long-term requirements. While you'll effectively be developing what will eventually become a redundant application, it can act as a prototype for whatever online one you eventually build, while trying to go directly to a Web based application (unless Web access is a requirement) will almost certainly also have to be rewritten eventually.

Thanks for all the reply. I'm not sure what you mean with you first sentence as I never said that I wasn't doing it myself. My question is what is the best software for me to use to do it..

In relation to the requirements and different options, the club don't have any funds to put towards this. I'm trying to work out the best way of doing this with little or no money.

In relation to the requirements, it's not a case of me being unsure but rather the issue I have is that the club are slow in their willingness to change the website as I've requested (and other suggested) which is why I am trying to build the database so that if/when the changes are approved, the database is already in place rather than build it now and change it a couple of months down the line.

Thanks for the advice

CBTC

The Corinthian

City boy turned country wrote: »

Thanks for all the reply. I'm not sure what you mean with you first sentence as I never said that I wasn't doing it myself. My question is what is the best software for me to use to do it..

I meant that as an analyst in the Web industry, you should pretty much know how to go about this, even if you won't be doing the coding yourself. TBH, suggesting an Oracle database for something like this, especially when there's no budget, is not something I'd expect to hear from an analyst in the Web industry.

Anyhow, according to your update specific development skills are not an issue, as they'll be third party, but budget is, as it's essentially non-existent. Functionality is essentially pinned down.

If you're looking to introduce the new system, with a view to later developing it into a fully featured one, yet minimize any deprecated code for the final version, then your best strategy is to try and keep the database unchanged, and only look at replacing the user interface to it. Off the top of my head there are two options:

Produce it as a LAMP application from the onset, but supply only a basic (no snazzy HTML5, AJAX and all those trimmings) user interface, with view to expanding it later. This means your database (MySQL) will remain unchanged and only the front-end (as the business logic should be reusable). Development skills required; MySQL and PHP.

Another option is producing the initial version as an offline Access database. When you decide to later put this online, you can do so again using PHP to access the database, although your server (AFAIR) will have to be Windows rather than Linux based. Again, this means your database (Access) will remain unchanged and only the front-end (as the business logic, in the access database, should also be reusable - TBC). Development skills required; Access and PHP.

If I were to choose, I'd go for the first option, but it comes down to the club. Professional looking interfaces for custom databases are easy to do in Access, while (unless you find an out of the box solution) they're harder to produce for the Web. If impressing them is important (because that's how you'll get the latter phase green lit) then you might look at the Access option.

Update: You may be able to reuse the Access forms online too, as apparently this is possible since Access 2010. Financially though, you're still better off with redoing the interfaces using PHP, as while doing the first version Access database would require only an intermediate level Access developer, this would probably require a far more experienced Access / dotNet developer. PHP devs are cheaper.

billyduk

Definitely no need for an enterprise level solution like Oracle for such a small job like this. Either dotNET/Access solution or PHP/MySQL solution. Both have their benefits and their downsides. PHP/MySQL are open source and free is always good! MS solutions are proprietary and come with a cost, but are more portable and provide more support. It would also depend on their current site/system (if they have one) and what kind of stack its hosted on etc.

stevenmu

billyduk wrote: »

It would also depend on their current site/system (if they have one) and what kind of stack its hosted on etc.

This is a very important point. If the ultimate goal is to update an existing web site with this data, then you first need to find out how the existing web site is done, what technologies it uses and what technologies the host supplies as part of the hosting package. Unless you are willing to redo the website from scratch, which doesn't seem like a priority at the moment.

If the existing web site is done with ASP.Net and the host offers SQL Server as part of the package, then that's what you should use, or if the existing web site is PHP/MySQL then that's what you should use.

Also, if the existing web site is built using a CMS (which is pretty likely), most of them will have club or community plugins available which can be used to store and manage memberships, or they'll have the facility to build custom lists and tables using out of the box functionality.

croo

I would consider MySQL more enterprise rather than a comparison to access.

If I was looking a free open comparison to access for a small database I would be looking at maybe Derby but definitely hsqldb and H2 all are very lightweight but h2 & hsqldb are also very fast. These are much more powerful than access too but they are as light. Why bother spending money on MS Access when these better options are available for free.

MySQL is perhaps better compared to SQL Server - Oracle is a league higher again and nobody asking questions here needs Oracle, i.e. if you have to ask you don't need it!
Even so at this level, even though MySQL seems to have won the minds (mostly because my hosting companies provided xAMP environments to the web site builders, IMO), I would look very closely to postgresql. Honestly, I could never understand why MySQL got so much attention, postgresql was always streets ahead - if configured correctly. It is knocking at the Oracle's door.

If you wanted to whip up a small internal web based app you could do worse than look at
Grails which has the H2 database I mentioned above embedded. There a lots of videos on youtube but I always found this one very interesting.

Note that I said internal webapp - I only mentioned that though because xAMP hosting seems to be much easier & cheaper to find than hosts for the java stack in which Grails run - though the later can be found too.

willows

There are lots of opensource membership management products out there running MySQL
Else you can run one of the Saas membership products that looks after billing and all that stuff.

TBH clubs are notorious for getting a freebie off a member and it just suck the member in too far. I think you'd do them a big favour signing them up to a Saas and then there is something robust to pass onto the next person and should you leave they are not high and dry.

If they can afford Oracle they can afford a Saas ;-)

billyduk

willows wrote: »

There are lots of opensource membership management products out there running MySQL
Else you can run one of the Saas membership products that looks after billing and all that stuff.

TBH clubs are notorious for getting a freebie off a member and it just suck the member in too far. I think you'd do them a big favour signing them up to a Saas and then there is something robust to pass onto the next person and should you leave they are not high and dry.

If they can afford Oracle they can afford a Saas ;-)

If they can afford Oracle they're the GAA themselves! But ya a Saas MMS would be a good shout!