looking for db recommendation

[Bryan O'Neal]

I was intrigued by the OO opening MS Access dbs, so I tried it. I was
unsuccessful with OO 3.0 base and Access 2000 mdb files. :( Would have been
cool if it worked ;)
I like how you mention middleware/front end considerations; it is after all,
at the hart of a dbs usability. MS Access provides its own middleware set
for the graphical management of data from the simple build a table to the
creation of complex web forms.  In fact most db people who claim to like
Access almost never use the actual db but instead just link access to a
decently robust backend db like MySQL, PostgreSQL, DB2, etc.  Oracle comes
with one built in, and MySQL as a number of decent standard ones, but
learning LAMP. RoR, J2EE, is the only real way to recreate what you can do
in Access.  If you know some Pearl/PHP run with LAMP, if you know nothing
but like the idea of web programming run with RoR. Personally I am a
JSP/J2EE person but it takes a while to get up to speed in it.

Then again, if your db is really not much more then a small set of flat
files and edited via a spreadsheet style interface, nearly every DB has one
and apps like Aquafold will provide one for dozens of dbs.

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of Craig
White
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 2:28 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: looking for db recommendation

On Tue, 2009-03-31 at 09:57 -0700, mz wrote:
> I'm migrating from M$ WinXP to openSUSE 11.0. At the moment I'm 
> looking for a db for simple personal use.
> 
> I have a music collection db in M$ Access. There are about 1900 
> records w/ six variables. The collection is mostly vinyl LPs (i.e., 
> entered by
> hand) with another 2000 LPs not yet in the db. If possible, I'd like 
> to do a simple import w/ minimal clean up to avoid re-entering the 
> existing records.
> 
> What are the recommendations for a db and how best to accomplish the 
> migration?
----
sqlite easy
mysql  less easy
postgresql even less easy

for added complexity, you get more reliability.

I'm not sure that this part of the equation is all that important since it's
not going to be a heavily used database 2000 rows, 6 columns, one table or
even if there were a few more related tables (artists perhaps), it doesn't
exactly test the capabilities of any db

You probably want to use middleware that abstracts the database so even if
you started with sqlite and wanted to switch, you could do that without
losing design/programming effort.

Middleware thoughts....

Someone who has used Access probably would want to start out with
OpenOffice.org Database program. My understanding is that the Windows
version can directly convert Access 'mdb' files but I wouldn't know since I
haven't ever done it. If you have queries and forms already done in Access,
you might want to try to convert it with OOo Database first because you may
find that the conversion is easy.

Beyond that, it sounds like an excellent way to get into lamp (Linux Apache
MySQL PHP). The thing I have always found is that the best way to learn a
technology is to have a mission.

My preference for middleware is Ruby on Rails (Lamp good, RoR better).

Either the lamp or RoR are considerably more work than OpenOffice.org
Database so it all depends upon your drive to learn technology with
capabilities beyond your immediate task on hand. Both PHP and RoR abstract
the database sufficiently so that you could use any backend database you
choose.

Craig


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