Databases
Jeff Williamson
Northern Virginia Community College
www.nvcc.edu/home/nvwillj/html-databases/
nvwillj@nvcc.edu
Eventually this will be a small page about what little I know about putting databases online. For now, I just have some links to reviews and info on the subject.
"Spotlight on Web Databases" at builder.com
http://builder.cnet.com/Servers/DBSpotlight/
Builder.com "3 Easy Desktop Databases for the Web"
http://builder.cnet.com/Programming/WebDatabases/
(Note: Editors Choice above was Filemaker Pro. Below are some comments from a NVCC instructional designer who used FMP:
"FMPro has a lot of features that I like, and a few that have made me abandon it.
Advantages:
1. It makes creating a database VERY easy.
2. It comes bundled with it's own web server, which requires almost no setup.
3. It makes it very easy to publish a database as a basic table with interaction (browse, search, add, delete) to the web.Disadvantages:
1. To customize the look of your database on the web, or to use forms, you have to use their custom markup language, which is the equivalent of learning Cold Fusion markup language.
2. The database/web server combo is not robust. It often fails when use gets even moderately heavy.
3. It does not play well with other web servers. You only have the choice of setting it to the standard port 80, or one other (that they've registered with somebody), which means you have to set your main server to something other than 80. That's OK for an intranet, but many outside users don't have access to non- standard ports.
4. I don't recall if you can set it up as an ODBC database, but even if you could, I would use a more robust data- base like FoxPro or SQL server.I have switched to FoxPro for the back end, and a front-end product called Drumbeat 2000 (www.drumbeat.com) that lets you generate active server page (ASP) web pages with virtually no coding. )
Builder.com "Put your Database on the Web"
http://www.builder.com/Programming/Databases/index.html
1998 Builder.com award for best affordable database: MySQL
http://www.builder.com/Business/1998Awards/ss08.html
Builder.com reviews: Drumbeat 2000
http://builder.com/Reviews/990114/
Finally, a grant proposal I have in the works to learn Drumbeat
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