Thanks for your response. I should say, it's not the entire university which has fallen so far behind, just my department. Also, the records we need to manage with this system will be only within this department... at first. Could you possibly link me to some of those projects on SF and FM? I agree with standing on the shoulders of giants when it comes to developing new custom systems.
Hey! I just saw you're living squarebanks, I used to live there too. How long have you lived there? How's the weather today?
-Mike Caskey
Joshua J. Kugler wrote:
Mike -
You didn't indicate your department, so I'm not sure what your background is. Your message, overall, is a bit scary, as any university that far behind right now would be worrisome. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for (as you didn't ouline your requirements), but I would first take a look on sites like sourceforge or freshmeat for systems that already do what you want. I'm sure the kind of record keeping you do has been done before.
But as to your main quesiton, it is very doable. You just need to keep in mind multi-user issue like record locking. Search the archives for messages by me about record locking for an elegant way to do it via a flag field. If you can't find it, let me know, and I'll type it up again.
j----- k-----
On Thursday 15 April 2004 02:06 pm, Mike T. Caskey said something like:
Hi all!
I'm wondering if anyone can help me find out how much time/training is needed to accomplish my task using MySQL.
My background: I'm fresh to the world of MySQL and databases in general. I do have some fundamental knowledge in the area of programming and databases, but nothing too in-depth.
My story: I work for a University that is seemingly falling behind the technical times. My department is using MS Access as the primary software for handling data, but we're still mainly hard-copy for our records-management. Obviously, there are problems with keeping hard-copy for everything. I was buried in paperwork for a short while before I decided to create simple databases/forms using OpenOffice.org, since it was so easy. Someone in management noticed the consistency emerging from my office and inquired. When I told them about my databases, they decided everyone in the department could benefit from them and assigned the project of making this available to all.
My problem: My databases are single-user systems for use in OpenOffice.org and would be difficult to roll them out to my entire team. I don't want to install OO.o on everyones computer and I don't want to learn MS Access as it is known for being a temporary solution. So I need something that can keep up with the times and can be rolled out easily (web interface?). I also need to be able to append scanned images to records (PDF or JPEG?). This is all pretty complex and I'm definitely not technically equipped to create this just yet.
MySQL?: I believe a good question would be whether or not MySQL would be a good solution for this. What do you think? Also, how long would it take me to learn the necessary information? Lastly, how long would it take to develop such a system?
I appreciate your time and information!
Thanks,
Mike T. Caskey
