Experience Have done application programming as well as some installation and administration mostly with MySQL for web servers and site development and also with IMS and DB2 on legacy systems in the past.
Question I have been looking around at some different database software, but have not committed to anything. The application I have in mind would track Unit repairs and fabrication jobs but it would include an in-depth description of each Unit’s makeup. The application would have to be grown over time and consist of a number of lookup tables. It would allow a user to identify existing drawings that contain Units that are similar to each other. These similar unit drawings would be used for reference when making new drawing of a new unit to be fabed. or repaired. A report would be designed to list part dimensions, descriptions and material for each unit. Reports could serve as a check list for each page of a set of drawings including dimensions required for each view. The application would allow a user to collect information from a number of different sources on the fly and produce the appropriate info. required in an orderly fashion. These different reports would allow for the collection of a piece of information once and have it available as many times as required without going back and looking for it again.
If you have a suggestion for a database that I might want to looking into, that would address this application, please let me know.
Thank you for your time.
Pat
PMcGraw@DunnHeat.com
Answer Pat,
It doesn't matter which database you use, just as it doesn't matter whether you use Snap On or Craftsman sockets to replace a heater blower motor on a car.
You'll need to spec out just what you need in the database, then maybe have a look at some web articles that discuss database normalization, and have a go at designing the database.
From there the application - screens, commands, security (if needed) and everything else that goes into it gets designed. After that you can begin implementation. LAMP is very popular nowadays esp on Linux servers but also on Windows. But there are many options for database, programming language, web server and operating systems. And many worthy applications have been written in each and every one of them.
