Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with web and database

Point me to the web...

gjc — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:48:24 -0800

Are there any Access-like tools for building data access pages in a web+sql format? Here's the thing. I have a few databases that I've done up in Access. That's great for when I have my computer.

But my needs are becoming such that I would like to have access to the data on any machine.

(I've searched the archives and saw a great many other answers, but none seemed to address what I'm looking for, or at least in a way I understood.)

I'm good on the server and the web space and the backend. What I'm looking for is basically something that works like Access's form builder: I drop the elements in and fill in the logic as need be. Publish it to the server, and disco.

I really don't want to run a "product" (like a CMS, or a knowledgebase, or forum software) where I'd have to wrestle with it to get it to do what I want. I would also prefer something that doesn't require oddball things to be installed on the client or on the server, like .net or frontpage extensions.

Partially because I don't really know what I'm doing (and that's OK, it's just for personal use/learning), and partially because that's just how my thought processes work- I like the idea of dropping pre-built elements in and making the connections work. And because the idea of writing html for a bunch of buttons and text boxes seems daunting.

I've tried all manner of searching, and while I know such a tool *has* to exist, I'm clearly not searching the right way.

Extra points for fancy ajaxy web 2.0 coolness. Thanks!

Online event listings, what are the good ones?

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:01:23 -0800

Please show me the most informative and useful online event listings you use. Want to revamp the event listings for the company, make them really informative and useful to the end user. To that end I'm looking around at other listings to see how others manage and present the data for users.

So what event site do you find really useful in terms of clearly presenting information about what's going on not only today, but in the future?

Machine, point me to food

klangklangston — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:45:20 -0800

Where's my food? How to make a web ap that tells me how to find vegetarian food easily? Ok, so, first off—I'm not tremendously programming savvy, so don't be afraid to talk down to me in simple terms (seriously, don't assume I know anything).

Here is what I want: I want to be able to go to a page (either on a computer or a phone) and see where the nearest vegetarian food is (vegetarian restaurant or just a place that has veggie food). I would like to make this open, so that I don't have to find every vegetarian dish everywhere (crowdsource).

I assume that what I need will be some sort of database that accepts submissions easily, and that will work with google maps; and some server space to run it from.

Given that—if I want to build something that does this, what do I need and what do I need to know? Is this something that can be built by a programming novice (I haven't done any programming since high school and that was still mostly basic. I have a moderate grasp of HTML, but little CSS)? How hard will this be? What should I know when I start to build it?

A Tool To Convert HTML to something importable into WordPress?

eustacescrubb — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:16:46 -0800

Need a tool to help me convert html files to something I can import into WordPress. I am converting a client's site to be run by WordPress. She has hundreds of articles, blog entries, and podcasts that have to be imported. But the site was manually managed and updated, so there is no current database. Am I looking at hours and hours of soul-crushing tedium? Or is there a handy tool that can parse through the pages, grab the content, and convert it to a WordPress-friendly import file?

I'm on a Mac, and have BBEdit; using Find/Replace hasn't proved helpful, because each page is slightly different.

Three eHailMarys and Five iOurFathers 2.0

spamguy — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:00:37 -0800

Help me devise an online voting system that doesn't hurt people's feelings. I'm working on a personal web project right now that lets people make anonymous confessions online. The concept is not new: Group Hug, PostSecret and the now-defunct Not Proud have already implemented this to some degree. I started my version because I feel its predecessors don't give proper balance to good vs. bad and new vs. old, amongst other reasons. Typical posts have a quick lifespan before composting anonymously at the bottom of a database table.

I intend to implement voting to solve this problem. (Group Hug claims to have voting in place, but I seriously doubt it works as promised. The posts in 'New Confessions' and the front page are sometimes ridiculously old.) Since people's feelings are directly tied to these posts, I have to tread very carefully. If a person writes, 'my parents disowned me cuz im gay, now im suicidal :(', it would be unwise to tell that person that all his readers downvoted him. Whatever system I use to distinguish the quality of confessions, it is vital that I keep the sense of 'everyone's a winner' alive.

Any suggestions on making this work would be greatly appreciated. Other points to consider:

Posting confessions is done anonymously and without need to register. I keep the lower three portions of a poster's IP address and that's it.

Voting will require registration, unless the hive mind suggests otherwise.

No public demo right now, sorry. I'm doing my best to keep this question from sounding like an advert. Though you're welcome to MeFi-Mail me if you have interest in the project.

Where can I find a car database?

pb — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:15:40 -0800

Where can I find a database of American cars? I need a database of American cars that includes make, model, and year for a web application. I want to build drop down menus that let people choose their car like you see on Kelly Blue Book, Consumer Reports, and dozens of other sites. Is there a standard database that powers these menus?

Powerful, Web-friendly media indexing?

mykescipark — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:36:51 -0800

I work on the production team for a long-running public radio program. We have a massive archive of shows in digital format (MP3 and AIFF) which we need to collate into a powerful and highly flexible database - something like iTunes, but much more advanced. Does a program exist to do this? The program should meet the following criteria:

- Simple interface (usable by audio pros and administrative staff alike)
- Resides on a server (audio files can be shared and accessed on-demand by multiple users)
- Web-interfaceable (outside users can log on and access database via the Web)
- Streaming and preview capability (users can listen to files before pulling from server)
- Flexible indexing and search (can be searched or sorted by media type, artist, show name, etc.)
- Permissions capabilities (files are "read-only" to most, but read/write to certain key staff)
- Supports (and, preferably, generates) ID3 and other media tags

At the moment, it is strictly for internal use only, but there is some possiblity that we will convert it into a storefront in the future so folks can buy archived shows directly from the database ... but I'm not worried about that right now.

Is there a really high-powered media indexing program that can do all of these things? Or at least a significant subset of them?

Bootleg Management with WordPress?

SansPoint — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:24:52 -0800

WordPressFilter: Can I do something like this site with WordPress? I'm the webmaster for Booji Boy's Basement, a Devo bootleg trading site. Right now, everything that is done on the site is handled through 100% static HTML pages. I tried coding a database-driven version of the site in PHP and MySQL, but my code-fu is weak. This is one reason why I no longer study Computer Science... anyway...

I realize that WordPress might be able to let me have all the functionality I need without the need for a lot of coding. I have some technical questions about how to go about it.

I know WordPress has support for custom fields, but would it be possible to have those custom fields visible at all times on the new post page? If I, or my co-conspirator Alex want to add a new disc to the collection, I would want the various fields that need to be filled in (Tracklist, Rating, Description, etc.) to be visible.

How would I sort by the disc identifier? (A001, S001, I001, etc.) Should that be a separate custom field?

Also, I have NO clue how to handle the DVD screenshots.

If you have any suggestions, or even better, an off-the-shelf thing I could use to do this, please let me know. It's already become insanely unwieldy to deal with all the HTML... I'm lost!

Other frameworks akin to Ruby on Rails?

killdevil — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:14:49 -0800

What are the best database-driven Web application development frameworks out there right now? More specifically, please orient me to toolsets you know of that are similar to Ruby on Rails. I have a couple of database-oriented Web applications I'll be working on in the near future. I'd love to avoid (re)writing lots of the low-level code (recordset handling, security, user input validation, &c, &c, &c ) that every such application needs in order to function, as I've done numerous times in the past. Rather than dust off some of my own home-rolled libraries, I'd rather take the time to choose and learn one of the integrated open-source frameworks that have come into being over the past few years.

I know of Ruby on Rails, obviously, and have heard of a a couple of python-based frameworks that seem philosophically similar to RoR. Please note that I'm totally language-agnostic -- I'm quite handy with all the languages that form the "P" in "LAMP" and with some others as well, but I don't mind picking up some new syntax if it'll simplify my development task in the end.

Help me understand my options!

How do I get MS Access to create organized web pages?

Servo5678 — Mon, 14 May 2007 10:18:02 -0800

How can I make Microsoft Access 2002 crank out organized web pages that conform to my design ideas? I have a database of project information. I have no problem formatting the report templates to get the look that I want for the output. Web pages, on the other hand, seem to be locked into a specific design that I cannot modify beyond moving elements around. Is there a way to create a web page in Access that resembles the report format I've created? I want the web page to consist of a single list of information, not this kind of thing. Any help would be much appreciated.

Suugestions for a simple web-based database program (like Microsoft Access)?

losdestinos — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:38:31 -0800

I am part of a committee whose members are spread across the country. We are looking for an open source or inexpensive database application that can be accessed on the web. We need for it to allow a few users to edit the data (membership information for our association) and for many users to be able to view the database without editing it. Basically we want Mircosoft Access but available on the web. I read through past questions regarding databases and it seemed that MySQL is a popular suggestion. But is it something that can be learned quickly? No one on the committee has time to learn a new programming language. The database does not need to be very powerful, we just need to run a few simple reports. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many domains, one database?

iguanapolitico — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:14:19 -0800

What would you say is the best way to have 10 domains access one database? I am a web developer but my forté is definitely not the hosting or networking side. So, say I have 10 domain names along the lines of petcare.com, puppycare.com, kittencare.com, ferretcare.com, etc. I want each web site to display information about each of these different pets, but I want to store all the information in one database on the "master" petcare.com server.

Do I need to set up 10 hosting accounts to accomplish this? (I do already have the domain names.)

What I want to do is to visit puppycare.com and for it to go to one, "master" index.asp page which says, "ok, this time she typed in puppycare.com, therefore I'm going to retrieve all sorts of puppy-goodness from the database over at petcare.com." Or have it be able to say, "all righty, this time she wants ferrets." But just have *one* index.asp page process this, not 10 different home pages on 10 different web servers.

I am fully able to accomplish the above in a one-domain scenario by typing in "petcare.com/index.asp?pet=puppies," or what-have-you. But I'd like to just type in "puppycare.com" and have it get all the info from the database at petcare.com, and have it still display "puppycare.com/blahblah" in the address bar. How would *you* do this?

I needed to bounce this off someone (as I have no partners) to see what obvious answers I'm overlooking. My focus just isn't "there" in my web knowledge.

(Doubt this matters, but it has to be Access/.asp.)

What's the best approach to building a lightweight database app?

evisceratordeath — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:13:43 -0800

I have been asked to write a database application that will be running in a storefront situation and will allow the user to enter data on what is sold (in this case, bicycles and bicycle accessories and parts) and generate basic bookkeeping reports (i.e. end-of-day sales, quarterly sales, that sort of thing.) The application will have to run on an old (~P2 266 mhz) Windows 98 box. I've considered a few different approaches, such as a PHP/SQLite/Apache deal (with which I have no experience, but I feel I can pick up) or a Java app with a Swing GUI wrapped in an .exe, probably using Hibernate to handle the backend. I do have Java experience, so that would be a plus for the second approach; however, because of the machine's slowness, I'm not so sure Java is a good idea. I do my development in OS X, so anything requiring proprietary Windows tools may be problematic. Also, no remote access or any kind of network considerations are required, so the web interface may not be necessary (but could be desirable to avoid GUI development hassles.)

As this is a relatively simple project, I'd like something lightweight without a lot of installation hassle. Any web developers out there have any thoughts? Thanks.

How to begin on this multi user PHP stats project?

gradient — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:24:58 -0800

How would you write an application in PHP that tracks multiple users, and the users' multiple sites? I need to write something that will track the stats of users' sites. Information such as: referrer, date/time, pages visited, length of session, search engine and search terms needs to be kept. A user should be able to enter a date range to see specific data over time.

There are plenty of stats packages out there, and they're fairly easy to write. However, I haven't found any that were made with the multi-user, multi-site problem in mind.

How best to store the data?

Throw it in an Apache like log, and only parse it when the user makes requests?

Put it straight into a mySQL DB? But then what would be a good way to keep the date/time data intact without having an enormous amount of rows to parse?

I'm an intermediate PHP developer, and this is the first project where I really couldn't think of the best place to start.

PS: When I say "multi user, multi site" I'm talking about a Google Analytics type setup. They have a very large amount of users, and an even larger amount of sites belonging to each user. However, my project is MUCH smaller in scale.

Database schema for a site like 43 Things?

jlstitt — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:19:06 -0800

Can someone please help me understand how a database for a site like 43 Things (www.43things.com) works? There are users, tags for categories, user comments (for categories), and comments that can be associated with other comments. I understand that you would need a user table, a comments table, and a tags table but how do you create a schema for a site like this that works effectively? What kind of table structure is needed and how do the tables interrelate?

Wiki database

Myself — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:23:06 -0800

I'm looking for a community-editable database. Philosophically similar to a Wiki, but with some webmail-like features, including the ability to sort and filter various things, show and hide columns when there are too many to fit on screen, and edit a single record by itself, rather than the whole massive body of text. For an example, look at the HardwareComparison page over at SeattleWireless. It's huge and awkward, but still useful because it has everything you'd want to know.

Ideally, I'm looking for a module that could be added to an existing wiki, as that would be a nice way to surround and give additional detail for records that require it.

Some database-like functionality, including the ability to define "views" for various data and dump specific sets of records, would be great too. The application I'm actually targeting is a loose work group that presently spends a lot of time emailing Excel spreadsheets around, and reconciling changes between them. I want each memeber to be able to filter the items of importance, lock rows they're working on, and sign up for notifications when a specific item changes.

application for scraping info from a web page for a database

aladfar — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:22:43 -0800

Suppose you wanted to scrape information from a web page and dump it into a CSV file for use in a database - specifically a large table of contact information coded in HTML. Is there an application (I work in OS X, but have access to Windows machines) that will do this? Would it be possible to write up an AppleScript or something similar to do the job?

internet archives other than archive.org

aladfar — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:45:41 -0800

Where archive.org fails: I'd like to research the development of news websites - specifically those established by traditional media companies (CNN, The New York Times, etc). While archive.org is a valuable resource, many of the sites I'd like to look at block the automated scripts (robots) that make archiving possible. What's more, some of the sites archived are woefully incomplete and are missing images, etc. Is there an alternative to archive.org or another resource that I might use? I've given some thought to looking at design books from the early 90's in the hopes that they contain screenshots. While this is a more laborious way to go about the research, it might work. Any suggestions on that front would be welcome.

What I'm trying to do is trace the design evolution of online news - how it's adjusted to changing screen resolutions, coding languages, audience demands, etc. While I can find old copies of newspapers at the library, finding old versions of websites has proven extremely difficult.

Database-driven web sites using using Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc?

Mwongozi — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 17:25:57 -0800

I know how to make database-driven web sites using Windows servers, Access, IIS, and ASP.

I want to learn how to do the same using Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and... whatever you use instead of Access.

Where do I start?

Managing JAlbum

blueshammer — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 08:54:22 -0800

I know, I know -- not another web photogallery AskMe question, but: I've actually settled on the gallery itself. I'm using JAlbum. Having made the choice, though, I'm left with two questions:

1. JAlbum makes nice galleries, but doesn't create a top-level index page. (I could hand-code it, but my wife will be doing most of the updating and I don't want her to have to go mucking around in HTML.) The easiest solution, I'd think, would be just to reformat the directory listing into something attractive -- all I really need to communicate to the user is descriptive folder names and upload dates, but I'd prefer to make something more handsome than the standard Apache page. Can anyone recommend a particular PHP file system manager or other solution?

2. JAlbum's auto upload is ridiculously slow -- better just to FTP it. When JAblum makes a gallery, though, it includes a lot of stuff I'm not using -- icon sets, borders, etc. It's not a ton of space, but I'm going to uploading a lot of these galleries, and it'll add up. Is there a programmatic way I can stop JAlbum from including all this, instead of weeding it out before each upload? (I'm using the BluPlusPlus skin.)

Building a Check-Out System

dobbs — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 21:02:56 -0800

Suppose I wanted to build a web site on which a number of items was listed that were available for members of that web site to sign out. I would want the status of items (in/out) to be viewable by people looking to take out items in real time. What would I need to do this and who would I hire to do it? In addition, what would I expect to pay? What's the best way to find such a person?

Looking for Online Database of Nutritional Information

Hildago — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 23:54:18 -0800

Is there a sort of IMDB for nutritional information? I'm trying to watch my intake of certain things, counting carbs and calories, staying away from hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup, like a good lad. To do this, I'd like to be able to record what I eat, then go over the nutritional information for a day's victuals, and say, "this or that needs to be reduced, I could have gone without such and such, oh look, this is chock full of what-have-you," and so I'd like a searchable database of information that has this sort of thing in it. Seems like it should exist already, as it would be a great tool for dieters. I can't find anything like it, though. Help?