I've said before that I am retired but occasionally dabble with databases to help local charities. I've been shown one, a database of talks given by speakers in the area. A blank Excel sheet is downloaded from a website for users to add records. The sheet is then emailed manually to a co-ordinator to be added to a master Excel sheet. A cut-down version is then uploaded to the website for users to read and request further information on selected talks.
This is crying out to be automated but unfortunately my web design skills never got further than Front Page (don't laugh). I assume that it would involve MySQL on a web server. Can anyone recommend some software (preferably Open Source, charity = no money) and a suitable book that I could use to create a suitable website?
Thanks
John
John Weller 01380 723235 07976 393631
John, A few thoughts... What software you use will depend on where you host the data. Preferably it is hosted on a Linux box (because anything Microsoft is evil, lol) and you're correct that MySQL will be the target storage engine.
I would read up on HTML for form creation PHP for data processing Javascript just in case HTML isn't able to do what you want.
Usually a simple HTML page with a PHP processing form to store/fetch the data is sufficient, but it really depends on how "slick" you want the interface on the web page to be.
In general, an HTML page, and a PHP form, are created using a simple text editor. Save the file, access it with a browser for testing. Oh, I recommend looking into HeidiSQL http://www.heidisql.com for managing your database. Free and very capable.
Books? I would start with articles on the web, just Google "using mysql and php" which will provide approx 22,100,000 links to some really good resources, like thewww.w3schools.com http://www.w3schools.com pages. Again, free.
And, if you enjoy seeing something work that you've never tried before, you'll love playing around with PHP! (Most website hosting companies provide Linux boxes with MySQL and PHP.)
Good luck and enjoy!
Mike Copeland
John Weller wrote:
I've said before that I am retired but occasionally dabble with databases to help local charities. I've been shown one, a database of talks given by speakers in the area. A blank Excel sheet is downloaded from a website for users to add records. The sheet is then emailed manually to a co-ordinator to be added to a master Excel sheet. A cut-down version is then uploaded to the website for users to read and request further information on selected talks.
This is crying out to be automated but unfortunately my web design skills never got further than Front Page (don't laugh). I assume that it would involve MySQL on a web server. Can anyone recommend some software (preferably Open Source, charity = no money) and a suitable book that I could use to create a suitable website?
Thanks
John
John Weller 01380 723235 07976 393631
[excessive quoting removed by server]
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 3:30 PM, Mike Copeland mike@ggisoft.com wrote:
John,
A few thoughts... What software you use will depend on where you host the data. Preferably it is hosted on a Linux box (because anything Microsoft is evil, lol) and you're correct that MySQL will be the target storage engine.
John-
Like Mike said you have some options... MySQL (or PostGReSQL) would be my choice for the data - I'm sure there are others.
Do you know any ASP? I ask because at least for me the hard part about getting started writing backend database and reporting tools was realizing that as you load a page you can be going back and forth between static code (HTML) and dynamic code (the ASP or PHP). Once you get a handle on that your progress goes faster and faster...
The concept is pretty simple - more or less pull the data using whatever criteria or options you or the user select, use HTML to build a table (as in HTML, not database), ratchet through the records and create the HTML tags for each line as you go.... You'll be doing a lot of "<TR><TD> </TR></TD> " matching... ;)
It's been a while for me personally but a lot of the folks around here I'm sure are up to speed with this and happy to help...
Good luck!
Building your own website is an interesting and time-consulting hobby, like mining and smelting your own metal, but it's gotten so involved, it might make sense to let someone else do most of the work. Build the software, setup the database, design the html & css, ensure you haven't allowed any SQL injection, log intrusion detection, monitor for runaway processes... it can be pretty consuming.
I've been doing this for a living for over a decade, and it's not bad for paying clients to have a consultant on call, and someone monitoring their logs every day, running their backups, updating their OS. But for a volunteer retiree, it can be a big obligation...
WordPress.com gives you a free yourcharityname.wordpress.com site for free, and there are a HUGE number of add-ons, plugins and themes to make the site look any way you want and work any way you like. I'm sure you can find some event listing or calendar control that provides the functions you're looking for, and did I mention, Free?
I've recommended this choice to a couple of charities. Many of the big providers (Google, for example) are happy to provide basic services (like a 10-user Google Apps account) to registered charities. In the US, it's a 501(c)(3) tax status you can use a proof; I'm not sure what if the equivalent UK form is recognized by google.co.uk, but it's worth poking around. A Google Apps account can give you some email addresses (support, sales, webmaster, contact, etc.) and some shared web space for documents, albums, etc. which can either be private or shared.
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 7:11 PM, M Jarvis brewdaddy@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 3:30 PM, Mike Copeland mike@ggisoft.com wrote:
John,
A few thoughts... What software you use will depend on where you host the data. Preferably it is hosted on a Linux box (because anything Microsoft is evil, lol) and you're correct that MySQL will be the target storage engine.
John-
Like Mike said you have some options... MySQL (or PostGReSQL) would be my choice for the data - I'm sure there are others.
Do you know any ASP? I ask because at least for me the hard part about getting started writing backend database and reporting tools was realizing that as you load a page you can be going back and forth between static code (HTML) and dynamic code (the ASP or PHP). Once you get a handle on that your progress goes faster and faster...
The concept is pretty simple - more or less pull the data using whatever criteria or options you or the user select, use HTML to build a table (as in HTML, not database), ratchet through the records and create the HTML tags for each line as you go.... You'll be doing a lot of "<TR><TD>
</TR></TD> " matching... ;)
It's been a while for me personally but a lot of the folks around here I'm sure are up to speed with this and happy to help...
Good luck!
-- Matt Jarvis Eugene, Oregon USA
--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html
[excessive quoting removed by server]
As always - sound advice from Ted! I'll look at Wordpress.
Thanks to all
John
John Weller 01380 723235 07976 393631
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Ted Roche Sent: 28 May 2016 01:50 To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: [NF] Web-based Database
Building your own website is an interesting and time-consulting hobby,
like
mining and smelting your own metal, but it's gotten so involved, it might make sense to let someone else do most of the work. Build the software, setup the database, design the html & css, ensure you haven't allowed any SQL injection, log intrusion detection, monitor for runaway processes...
it can
be pretty consuming.
I've been doing this for a living for over a decade, and it's not bad for
paying
clients to have a consultant on call, and someone monitoring their logs
every
day, running their backups, updating their OS. But for a volunteer
retiree, it
can be a big obligation...
WordPress.com gives you a free yourcharityname.wordpress.com site for free, and there are a HUGE number of add-ons, plugins and themes to make the site look any way you want and work any way you like. I'm sure you can find some event listing or calendar control that provides the functions
you're
looking for, and did I mention, Free?
I've recommended this choice to a couple of charities. Many of the big providers (Google, for example) are happy to provide basic services (like
a
10-user Google Apps account) to registered charities. In the US, it's a 501(c)(3) tax status you can use a proof; I'm not sure what if the
equivalent
UK form is recognized by google.co.uk, but it's worth poking around. A Google Apps account can give you some email addresses (support, sales, webmaster, contact, etc.) and some shared web space for documents, albums, etc. which can either be private or shared.
avfp is an interesting option - https://activevfp.codeplex.com/
--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---
On 2016-05-28 04:21, AndyHC wrote:
avfp is an interesting option - https://activevfp.codeplex.com/
Everything in the childcare demo says "This action has not been implemented."
Are you using AVFP, Andy?
-
AndyHC -
John Weller -
M Jarvis -
mbsoftwaresolutions＠mbsoftwaresolutions.com -
Mike Copeland -
Ted Roche