Business Database

natc

Yeah, thanks guys, think Access would be the best bet, Sage/Quickbooks and the likes just dont offer the solution we need....its the training on Access im not looking forward to! hahaha. it looks so complicated!

busenbust

natc wrote: »

Yeah, thanks guys, think Access would be the best bet, Sage/Quickbooks and the likes just dont offer the solution we need....its the training on Access im not looking forward to! hahaha. it looks so complicated!

^Never a prob;)

natc

Just looking into learning to make a database, it all sounds great, looks as though it would do what we need it to do : ) however, the website im on mentions things like visual basic application and mysql - what is all this about? and does anyone know anywhere on the net i can get some free training, which is easy to follow....???

isofa

natc wrote: »

Just looking into learning to make a database, it all sounds great, looks as though it would do what we need it to do : ) however, the website im on mentions things like visual basic application and mysql - what is all this about? and does anyone know anywhere on the net i can get some free training, which is easy to follow....???

You can create a basic database using Wizards in Access, which may be fine for many people, but to create a proper custom database solution you'll need to grasp a lot of concepts about relational databases (for a start you need to get your data into 1st, 2nd and then 3rd normal form ready to setup the relational design, concepts about referential integrity etc, a database module at University can take 1 year of study!), then if you want to do anything but the most basic functions in Access you'll need to learn VBA which is its internal scripting and programming language. If you've never programmed before, this will be a big step.
Access is extremely powerful if you use it to its full potential.

Also you'll ideally need a basic grasp of SQL, which is a universal query language. Queries are created from the basic tables to generate views and joins on the data, which is then used to view in forms and reports.

Access is simple to use to do basic stuff, but complex to setup proper systems in, there are huge 1000 page plus books on the subject search Amazon for Access Development.

Access can be used as a desktop database, a networked database (we have customers running 20 users+) and also as a front end to database server technologies such as SQL Server across many sites.

I've specialised in this subject since the 1990s and there is always something new to learn!

Excel is not, and never has been, a database.

natc

Thanks for that response isofa. Ive had a look at Access, had a bit of a play about and can see that it would be very good, its difficult though when its a program you've never looked at before. Yes, i can see that its going to be a difficult process to do aswell, but it would be ideal for what we could do with :think: all the SQL and VBA stuff is scaring me!!!

bazster

natc wrote: »

Thanks for that response isofa. Ive had a look at Access, had a bit of a play about and can see that it would be very good, its difficult though when its a program you've never looked at before. Yes, i can see that its going to be a difficult process to do aswell, but it would be ideal for what we could do with :think: all the SQL and VBA stuff is scaring me!!!

You can do quite a lot in Access with the wizards and designers without getting into SQL or VBA, but I promise you that you will very soon outgrow the pointy-clicky stuff and start wanting it to do things that require code to be written (whether SQL or VBA).

Either way, what is unavoidable is having a reasonable grasp of the principles of relational database design. I would suggest getting a good book (but am unable to recommend one because I've been doing it for 25 years and don't read books on it anymore!). Also, no-one should touch Access without reading the Commandments and swearing on their hamster's grave to obey them faithfully:

http://mvps.org/access/tencommandments.htm

HO87

bazster wrote: »

http://mvps.org/access/tencommandments.htm

:beer:

@OP Trying to find a simple guide to building the db you want is almost impossible. When I first started to play with Access about 12 years ago I made the fatal error of buying an MS tome which propped up the end of my bookcase until I used in to light bonfires with last Autumn. Such books as there are get complicated very quickly and the one thing they omit in my experience is to tell you that you need to plan the project out before you start rather than trying to do it on the hoof.

Access contains all you need to build a pretty reasonable and easy-to-use database including designing a frontend and user menus.

BTW, Only let one person do the backend work, ensure that they have a reasonably logical mind and thoroughly test everything in a base copy before releasing it into the wild. Always keep a back-up of every iteration so that if one version falls over you can re-import the tables etc without loss of data.

Some 8 years ago I designed an Access database for an internal department in a large company. I've just comeback to do some more work for them to discover that the logical basis of the db has been corrupted by a number of people who were given admin rights and never, it seems, grasped the essential data format. Re-writing it is about to be my next job!

bazster

HO87 wrote: »

the db has been corrupted by a number of people who were given admin rights

HO87 wrote: »

Re-writing it is about to be my next job!

Bless their little cotton socks! :beer:

PROLIANT

If you are looking at building a bespoke Database driven application, try rent a Coder, you could get it done at a very reasonable cost and then it is custom to your business model. If I were you I would insist on the following technologies: C#.NET and SQL Server, these are scalable, Access and VB are not.

bazster

PROLIANT wrote: »

If you are looking at building a bespoke Database driven application, try rent a Coder, you could get it done at a very reasonable cost and then it is custom to your business model. If I were you I would insist on the following technologies: C#.NET and SQL Server, these are scalable, Access and VB are not.

That is poor advice in every respect.

Rent-a-coder will get you an avalanche of desperate geeks from all over the world, mostly from India probably. Not that I've got anything against Indian programmers per se, but do you really want to try to get a system developed by a digit-head thousands of miles away who you can't meet face-to-face and who will probably have a very poor intuitive grasp of what your business is about? And as for support...

If the OP forsees a need for a 1,000-user system then what you say about technology would make sense, but from everything he's said I suspect he is needing a ONE user system. Why advocate expensive scalability when it isn't actually a requirement?

Why expensive? Because it will cost more to pay someone to develop his system using those technologies than in Access, and he will find it harder and more expensive to get support for it.