website db questions

[Easy Mac]

actully, i was wondering if anyone could point to some websites or some books that would help me set up a database that would be searchable through the web. Basically, something that's similar to the baseball-reference type websites, where there's searching, comparisons, maybe some certain queries that can be done. Thanks

[sachmo71]

what type of DBMS are you using?

[Drake]

You can do some relatively solid work with ASP or PHP and MS Access, but you'd obviously want to run against Oracle if that's a possibility.

http://www.w3schools.com/ is an awesome website for getting started in a ton of disciplines.

[GoldenEagle]

You can do some relatively solid work with ASP or PHP and MS Access, but you'd obviously want to run against Oracle if that's a possibility.

http://www.w3schools.com/ is an awesome website for getting started in a ton of disciplines.

Oracle? I think that is the higher education in you speaking. :)

I would go with a SQL database. It is much easier for a novice to pick up on than Oracle. It is also enjoys many of the same benefits and works well with ASP and/or PHP.

Access would not be a good choice for any sizeable database.

Easy Mac, get a SQL book. The language is critical to any type of database that you do.

[Easy Mac]

Good Deal. Maybe I can go to the library once the take the bounty down off the wall for the 4 overdue books I have... did you know you have to return the books?

[Drake]

Er, Oracle *is* a SQL enabled database. Querying Oracle database tables is what I do for a living. :)

(On the other hand, the ease of setting up and maintaining a secure Oracle environment is waaaaay beyond my current skill set. Once the environment's set up, I can manage schemas and deal with tables and views, but all of the back end technical stuff is more than they pay me for. Oh yeah, that's what they pay our DBA's to do. :P )

But GE is definitely correct -- whether you choose ASP, PHP or get your hands on the crapwad that is ColdFusion -- you're going to have to learn SQL.

[Antmeister]

I would definitely suggest this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672326728/sr=8-1/qid=1152674461/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-4179411-0146357?ie=UTF8

Go with the PHP/MySQL combination. The reason I would suggest going this route is because there are a number of open source solutions if you don't want to have to build the whole thing yourself and with what you learn from this book can help you to modify an existing CMS.

[Drake]

MySQL - yes, yes. That's a good option. And FREE.

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/

[Radii]

I'm not a big database guy but I will say I've seen mysql used in a major healthcare environment backending a processing system that was running millions of transactions a year(tens of thousands a day easy) and it handled it with ease, so mysql can kick some ass if you end up with something successful.

[GoldenEagle]

I also think you should pick up a book on database management. If you are going to anything with indexing, you are going to want to know the proper way to set-up a DB to at least 2NF.

Drake - I thought you were a professor at some university.

[Travis]

I'll add to the vote for using MySQL/PHP together. Free, and is in the same park as ASP/SQL. I took the latter in school, and the swap over to the free stuff was pretty painless once I was out and needed to do some sites to make some money.

[Drake]

Nah, GE. I'm a lowly SQR programmer and (to a small extent) departmental database developer for the Office of the Registrar at Indiana University. When it comes to databases, I mostly work in Access, but when I'm developing for the web, I use Oracle.

It's a pretty strange career for an old English major with a minors in Jewish Studies and History & Philosophy of Science. :)