Hi folks, I'm relying on the fact that many of you know me well enough (at least digitally) to give a more or less personalized answer here.
I'm looking at a kiosk project right now which suggests that a database would be a good solution. Much of the source material is not yet digitized and none is in a database yet, but there is an existing database of material which may conceivably be incorporated into the kiosk in a future version - but not this version. The materials are mixed media - pictures, audio files, video clips and (of course) text. The guys who are making this (and who would be hiring me) have a little experience with Filemaker, but that's all. We all feel that a database is a good idea, but none of us really know much about it. I've only used little (non relational) database tools, or rolled my own semi-relational systems in pure Lingo. (Passing multiple references around). These work ok, but they always take ages to set up, and then you still have to build search capabilities yourself. All of us are curious about using databases, but it's a big unknown, so we're not sure whether it's something we can afford to research 'on the job' as it were. The client (a small museum) is very easy going, and not tremendously fussy about deadlines, but of course, we'd prefer it not to stretch out for ages for other reasons. So here's the deal. I'm looking at Valentina, which should be super fast, with excellent support and is certainly very affordable, but I understand that you have to build the database *in* Director using the Xtra. Other database Xtras involve connecting to an existing (i.e. external) database, as far as I can tell, although given that most of the materials on the plate right now are not in a database, this seems unnecessary, but I'm not really sure. In terms of complexity, we're looking at no more than 1000 media items for this first job. (Whether or not there will be updates is not certain, but quite likely). 1000 items is at that psychologically testing level where I'm tempted to roll my own system, but any more than that would start to be a bit heavy. I don't know much about databases, but I don't see anything that would not have been attempted before. So, my questions; What sort of things make database development difficult? Does any of the above sound like hidden horrors? How much time would it take me (with my kung-fu lingo chops) to get up to speed with Valentina? We're thinking that they other guys could build some kind of rough database in Filemaker and then import into Valentina. Does that sound like duplicated effort? Is it easy to write a script which takes, say, a dbf file and does the right thing with Valentina? Or should I make some basic data entry tools in lingo, so they can do it directly into Director. If a structure is built in Filemaker, will I keep the 'links' when I export, or does it all get flattened? If a Filemaker database contains pictures, audio and text, can these items be exported too? Is Filemaker 'just a load of crap, you should use 4D/Oracle/Access instead'? I realise this is not entirely a Lingo-related question, but it's not far off, and I figured I'd get some straight answers from folks here. Many thanks in advance from someone too busy to check out all the options. -Brennan [To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to http://www.penworks.com/LUJ/lingo-l.cgi To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]) Lingo-L is for learning and helping with programming Lingo. Thanks!]
