Another question regarding databases.
I'd prefer using ANSI SQL or even SQLite, but the issue has come up that the local newspaper managers might want the database output into Microsoft Access.
Is that easier to convert from Access to SQL or easier from SQL to Access? (I think I know the answer, I just want to hear it from someone who does this professionally)
Also, is it easier (or better for that matter) to use an SQL database when putting it on the Internet? In other words, if I'm forced into Access should I create a side copy in SQL just for the Web?
--- Leo Mauler webgiant@yahoo.com wrote:
Here's an interesting question: if one uses SQLite and suddenly needs MySQL or something else more complex than SQLite, how complex will the conversion be?
--- "Timothy A. Canon" tim@crn.org wrote:
Alternately, SQLite is in the public domain and has a relatively small learning curve.
Check here to see if it is right for your situation:
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
On Tuesday 3 May 2005 10:59, Leo Mauler wrote:
Is that easier to convert from Access to SQL or easier from SQL to Access? (I think I know the answer, I just want to hear it from someone who does this professionally)
Well, I'm not a professional DBA but I sometimes play one. In the past I have used MySQL's ODBC driver to connect MySQL tables to Access so that Access reports and such could use the MySQL data as a source. Those tables that are linked-in appear in the list of tables just like any other Access table. It's not "copied"; every time Access needs info from those tables it sends it to the ODBC driver which contacts the MySQL server which handles the query.
The question is: is there an ODBC driver for the two that you want to use?
--- Jason Clinton me@jasonclinton.com wrote:
On Tuesday 3 May 2005 10:59, Leo Mauler wrote:
Is that easier to convert from Access to SQL or easier from SQL to Access? (I think I know the answer, I just want to hear it from someone who does this professionally)
Well, I'm not a professional DBA but I sometimes play one. In the past I have used MySQL's ODBC driver to connect MySQL tables to Access so that Access reports and such could use the MySQL data as a source. Those tables that are linked-in appear in the list of tables just like any other Access table. It's not "copied"; every time Access needs info from those tables it sends it to the ODBC driver which contacts the MySQL server which handles the query.
Which seems to be the answer I thought it would be: "make it a SQL database, you'll enjoy it so much more later." :)
The question is: is there an ODBC driver for the two that you want to use?
I don't know, having just got into the Exciting World of Databases myself. If ODBC drivers are excessively complex I may either tell them to find a real database programmer or just do the whole thing up in Access.
I guess what I'll end up using is SQLite, as the poster who mentioned it said that it has an easy learning curve. Sounds like the best thing to do is "do the whole thing up in SQLite and muck through the ODBC drivers as best I can".
Actually, I think there's a web guy who might already have a MySQL database up and running, I'll ask him too.
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Quoting Leo Mauler webgiant@yahoo.com:
I guess what I'll end up using is SQLite, as the poster who mentioned it said that it has an easy learning curve.
Haven't used SQLite, but I recall the learning curve for MySQL was pretty shallow. Hell, if I learned it anyone can. And if you have learned Linux then you can learn MySQL. I'm going to hazard a guess that the install base for MySQL is larger than the install base for SQLite so getting help with MySQL is probably going to be easier. I don't recall seeing very many books at the local book shop on SQLite, but there's plenty on MySQL.
MySQL also has an ODBC driver and I know it works with Access and Crystal Reports, etc. If you grab the latest version off of MySQL's web site, there's even a flag to enforce ANSI SQL standards so you'll be forcing yourself to use it in a way that's easily transportable to other ANSI compliant dbs... cough. All the big ones claim to be compliant, but there are different levels of compliance.
Actually, I think there's a web guy who might already have a MySQL database up and running, I'll ask him too.
Yet another reason to use MySQL, you've got someone within the org to turn to when things break, which shouldn't be very often, in my experience.
Good luck.
-- Dave Hull http://insipid.com
I think you are making this harder then it needs to be. Get the book I recommended to you earlier. You can't choose the right tools for the job if you don't know how the tools work in the first place.
It is like you are working on your car and you choose a wrench before even discovering what size and type of wrench you need to get the job done.
//========================================================\ || D. Hageman dhageman@dracken.com || \========================================================//
My "professional DBA" ;-) opinion would concur with Jason's analysis. Use MySQL. Install the MySQL ODBC driver. Define a MySQL database, and an ODBC data source that points to the MySQL database. Point any ODBC compliant application (includes Access) at that data source. Access can be useful for quick and dirty front ends to data bases. It's not a database for anything beyond cookbooks. If the client really likes Access applications, for whatever reason that seems insane to us, they can have it, but the data is in a fairly robust data base management system. Good solution for future enhancements. Access data bases ave very limited concurrency. I've heard you can use something called a "Jet" driver that allows more than one person to access the data base at the same time, but I haven't played with that toy myself.
Access application. MySQL database. Go for it.
Have fun, Jim
Jason Clinton wrote:
On Tuesday 3 May 2005 10:59, Leo Mauler wrote:
Is that easier to convert from Access to SQL or easier from SQL to Access? (I think I know the answer, I just want to hear it from someone who does this professionally)
Well, I'm not a professional DBA but I sometimes play one. In the past I have used MySQL's ODBC driver to connect MySQL tables to Access so that Access reports and such could use the MySQL data as a source. Those tables that are linked-in appear in the list of tables just like any other Access table. It's not "copied"; every time Access needs info from those tables it sends it to the ODBC driver which contacts the MySQL server which handles the query.
The question is: is there an ODBC driver for the two that you want to use?
Kclug mailing list Kclug@kclug.org http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
-
D. Hageman -
Dave Hull -
Jason Clinton -
Jim Herrmann -
Leo Mauler