Access Clone?

[Kooldino]

Hmmm...guess PHP would be the way to go then?

[Gurm]

It's what I recommend, especially if this stuff might someday get deployed. If you buy hosting from somewhere, odds are they have PHP/MySQL, and NOT Oracle, MS SQL, ASP, etc.

- Gurm

[Drizzt]

Ok, now I have a better idea of your problem.

Now:
The M$ solution is obviously the fastest and easiest.
A Win2K Profession include Internet Information Server and setting it it's really simple.
If you are not going to build a professional Web Server, an Access database is more than enough. Star Office has an Office compatible database engine, so no problem here.
You can build your pages with DreamWeaver, that (they say) is the best program out there for HTML editing.
And you can use Asp whit VBScript into it, to access the Database; really simple and straight.

The only drawback is cost: you need at least a Win2k Pro license (better would be a Win2k Server). You can edit with notepad and download a free access clone, so the Win2k license should be the only problem.


But, the only real reason to work under M$ is if are taking the full package:
- Win2K Server (for the Web Server)
- SQL Server (for the database server)
- Developer Studio (for programming with Java, JScript and VbScript)
- DreamWeaver (for page editing)
- FlashMX

Honestly, unless you really need to build a professional web server with your professional web pages and you want to have it in a few days...the above solution is overpriced and useless.


I'm with Gurm with this: Linux is free, PHP is an amazing language and really easy (I really love it - maybe because it's really similar to C), MySql work well, there is a good MySql interface under PHP, and there is plenty of free editing tools out there.


Definitively, if you know how to set up a Linux box, go for it!

[Drizzt]

Side note before Guru start yelling: I'm not claiming that M$ is best for professional site; I'm simply claiming that it's fastest and easiest to set up, not that it's better.

By my side, I can't set up a Linux machine and I really hate that OS, so I use Apache, PHP and MYSql on my Windows 2k server

[Kooldino]

So Drizzt, what access clones are out there?

I'm no Linux Pro, but I could probably get apache running. Plus it'd be fun to try. Worst case scenario, I get apache for win.


I'm serioulsy considering learning PHP. WHat's the best way to go about learning it? Web tutorials? Or should i spring for a book?

[Drizzt]

If you know a bit about programming, the best way for learning PHP is to download it's manual from the PHP site.
It's really simple and well done.

Just an example: a friend of mine, and architect, who had never programmed, have learned PHP in one evening RTFM and with me explaining a bit

[Drizzt]

And, you don't really need an Access "clone". Access is a huge program wich final task is to allow a few thousands things with an .mdb file.

All you need is a simple mdb editor. I have one, but I dunno if it's redistributable.
Lemme look around...

[Drizzt]

Okay, three solutions found:

1) Star Office for Windows. It's free and it seems to work really well.
2) Go to www.downloads.com and type mdb editor into the search field. Download the first.
3) Look for someone (of your friends) who has Developer Studio, and ask him to build you an installation of VisData.

The last is free and really simple to use. I can send you a copy of it...but I have the source code with Italian language

[Kooldino]

I downloaded the first MDB editor...ran it, and got "Program too big to fit in memory".

:-(