A database for the masses
September 12, 2009 4:28 PM Subscribe
What should I use to create a database that specific people can access and contribute to remotely?
I'm working with an intern to create a database to track education / training for employees across my agency. We have multiple sites and about sixty or so staff members.
My initial plan was to use Access, but I'm not sure how to create an Access database that multiple people would be able to modify and access. Neither I nor the intern have much experience in Access, but it seems easy enough to learn.
If there's a better option out there, though, I'd love to learn about it. I'd also be interested in learning how to host Access on our agency's webserver and limiting access to credentialed managers, if that's possible.
Here are the requirements:
-Free (or Access, which all of the computers already have)
-Easy to use (most of the users are at a novice computing level, but they need to be able to access their employees' information, produce reports and update information)
-Accessible remotely (we have access to a server at one site, which other locations can "dial" into, as well as the agency webserver)
-Ability to control which managers have access to which information
I'm not sure if I've provided enough information, so feel free to ask questions. Thanks AskMefi!
I'm working with an intern to create a database to track education / training for employees across my agency. We have multiple sites and about sixty or so staff members.
My initial plan was to use Access, but I'm not sure how to create an Access database that multiple people would be able to modify and access. Neither I nor the intern have much experience in Access, but it seems easy enough to learn.
If there's a better option out there, though, I'd love to learn about it. I'd also be interested in learning how to host Access on our agency's webserver and limiting access to credentialed managers, if that's possible.
Here are the requirements:
-Free (or Access, which all of the computers already have)
-Easy to use (most of the users are at a novice computing level, but they need to be able to access their employees' information, produce reports and update information)
-Accessible remotely (we have access to a server at one site, which other locations can "dial" into, as well as the agency webserver)
-Ability to control which managers have access to which information
I'm not sure if I've provided enough information, so feel free to ask questions. Thanks AskMefi!
Response by poster: Thanks for the idea, Michael. One complication is that our IT department consists of 1 IT guy, and I have no real experience in MySQL (or PHP, Python or Ruby...though I'd love to learn eventually, I'm not sure this is the project for me to do so on).
Keep the ideas coming!
posted by nayrb5 at 5:26 PM on September 12, 2009
Keep the ideas coming!
posted by nayrb5 at 5:26 PM on September 12, 2009
Sounds like a pretty bog-standard web application (CRUD). Personally I'd do it in Django because of it's amazing admin system (built for you), nice (relatively) granular permissions, and because python is kickass (and pretty easy to boot). You could learn python and use this as a nice project to get started with inside of 3-4 months (if you have zero programming experience, far less if you have any OOP experience). Django has an great community with lots of readily available help (mailing lists and IRC).
Dive into Python (free book and where lots of folks have learned from)
Django Tutorial
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 5:43 PM on September 12, 2009
Dive into Python (free book and where lots of folks have learned from)
Django Tutorial
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 5:43 PM on September 12, 2009
You're probably going to want a web solution of some kind, and your one IT guy isn't going to be up to it. Find a budget and hire a firm to build it for you, with the IT guy briefed at each step so he can support/extend/fix it later?
posted by rokusan at 5:45 PM on September 12, 2009
posted by rokusan at 5:45 PM on September 12, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks for all of the ideas so far.
I'm a bit overwhelmed with other responsibilities (this is something of a side project that I've been asked to work on) to learn Python at the moment.
I'm looking for something pretty simple (and there really isn't a budget...we're a nonprofit) to track the degrees/certifications that employees have as well as trainings that they attend. This really doesn't need to be too fancy -- the biggest sticky part so far is being able to share it among various managers.
posted by nayrb5 at 6:15 PM on September 12, 2009
I'm a bit overwhelmed with other responsibilities (this is something of a side project that I've been asked to work on) to learn Python at the moment.
I'm looking for something pretty simple (and there really isn't a budget...we're a nonprofit) to track the degrees/certifications that employees have as well as trainings that they attend. This really doesn't need to be too fancy -- the biggest sticky part so far is being able to share it among various managers.
posted by nayrb5 at 6:15 PM on September 12, 2009
What about a web-based solution (i.e. hosted, not roll-your-own) like Zoho Creator? (I'm sure there are others out there too)
posted by misterbrandt at 7:09 PM on September 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by misterbrandt at 7:09 PM on September 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
How about Google Spreadsheets (or a few spreadsheets, broken out by manager) and maybe a Google Spreadsheet Form for initial data entry?
posted by mikeyk at 7:56 PM on September 12, 2009
posted by mikeyk at 7:56 PM on September 12, 2009
Don't use Access. Just don't go there. Access is fine for whipping up quickie template-based databases for single users, but using it for multiple users will not only lock you all into the Microsoft ecosystem even further than you already are, but will cause you endless grief and pain because shared Access databases have no database server.
Zoho Creator is a beautiful thing, but I don't think a non-profit is going to like the pricing for more than two users.
Most of the time, people try to use spreadsheets for something they really ought to be using a database for. This strikes me as the opposite case: it's simple enough that spreadsheets would probably handle it just fine. The main problem is shared access to the data, and that's solved very neatly for free by Google Documents.
Use Google Spreadsheets for the first cut, and learn Django so that by the time you can clearly identify what the first cut is doing wrong, you're ready to do it right the second time.
posted by flabdablet at 10:49 PM on September 12, 2009
Zoho Creator is a beautiful thing, but I don't think a non-profit is going to like the pricing for more than two users.
Most of the time, people try to use spreadsheets for something they really ought to be using a database for. This strikes me as the opposite case: it's simple enough that spreadsheets would probably handle it just fine. The main problem is shared access to the data, and that's solved very neatly for free by Google Documents.
Use Google Spreadsheets for the first cut, and learn Django so that by the time you can clearly identify what the first cut is doing wrong, you're ready to do it right the second time.
posted by flabdablet at 10:49 PM on September 12, 2009
How about DabbleDB? It's not free, but is hosted (so doesn't need any work by your lone IT guy) and allows multiple users to access it.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 1:04 AM on September 13, 2009
posted by James Scott-Brown at 1:04 AM on September 13, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. All of the above are free
2. Everyone can use the internet! Well, not everyone, but it's a familiar interface that they wouldn't have to learn from scratch like Access/FilemakerPro/etc.
3. The web is accessible from any office
4. With the right controls in place, you could limit the managers to only see the records of their direct charges or whomever they're granted to access. This is the part that can get hairy--maintaining accounts for the managers, resetting passwords when they're forgotten, etc--but it'll be similar with any password-based solution. Your company doesn't have an intranet with sign-ons already, does it? Because that would simplify things immensely.
posted by The Michael The at 5:12 PM on September 12, 2009