Creating & editing an Access database

gabid

It looks like I'll be having to create an Access database for work. Any pointers as to how I can take care of this mostly on my TiBook (OS X 10.2.6)? Can it be as simple as inputing all my info into an Excel spreadsheet and then importing that into Access on a PC?

gordy

Sure. Make sure that your spreadsheets are rows and columns of data only, with field names in the first row.



Now, that's about all you can do outside of Access. There's still a world of setup that can only be done on a PC--or VirtualPC.

tacojohn

Does if have to be an access database?



I looked at using access for our website, but its not cross platform so I looked for something different.



I discovered MySQL and PHP- these work well with dreamweaver MX too. There were a few articles in MacWorld awhile back on how to set everything up.



The nice thing is- I use phpMyAdmin to create, edit, and admin all my DB's. Everything works from a web browser so everything is perfectly cross platform. There are versions of MySQL for everything from mac to windows NT.



Its also fast- we have a P1 166 running win NT 4.0 as our server, one of our databases has 16K records and it can search them almost instantly.



MySQL

phpMyAdmin

PHP



They are huge opensource projects so check them out.

gabid

Quote:

Originally posted by tacojohn

Does if have to be an access database?



I looked at using access for our website, but its not cross platform so I looked for something different.



I discovered MySQL and PHP- these work well with dreamweaver MX too. There were a few articles in MacWorld awhile back on how to set everything up.



The nice thing is- I use phpMyAdmin to create, edit, and admin all my DB's. Everything works from a web browser so everything is perfectly cross platform. There are versions of MySQL for everything from mac to windows NT.



Its also fast- we have a P1 166 running win NT 4.0 as our server, one of our databases has 16K records and it can search them almost instantly.



MySQL

phpMyAdmin

PHP



They are huge opensource projects so check them out.

Something to think about. But can you import Excel files into any of these open source databases? I need to be able to do this for sure.

tacojohn

Yes- thats what we did- you can as long as you export as comma dilimited.

mr beardsley

I have successfully connected MySQL to Access using ODBC. It wasn't that hard. That's how I got an access database into MySQL. I would second MySQL. You get multiple users with assignable permissions, a network aware database server, and its way fast. All of these are things that Access doesn't really do. For the web, PHP and MySQL are the way to go. I will say that Access is good at letting you build an interface for you database without having to code anything.

tacojohn

I'm using dreamweaver mx to do basically all my coding for my dynamic pages.



Also phpmyadmin allows you to create, edit, and add users- and the same for databases. ALso you can use it in insert records- its great and pretty to use and figure out.



Although I wish I knew how to hand code everything 'cause I've run into a few errors in dreamweaver- that would be simple to fix if I knew how to hand code php/MySQL.



You can find those articles here:



Setting up php/apache/mysql



Building dynamic Sites with dreamweaver



Both are macworld articles and helped me figure out evertying- from setting up the database connections to building and passing dynamic information from page to page.



They're really easy to follow along with too.