Database what?

March 25, 2016 11:00 AM

I’d like to set up an online store of information, for a bunch of people. There would be specific fields – “Name”, “Reference Number”, “Date of Birth” etc.. There would also be specific files associated with each person – CV, photo etc.. There will only be about fifteen people, so there won’t be much data in total. Certainly no more than 100mb.

Features I’d like:
• I’d prefer to use a cheap or free service. I can get some online services (e.g. Office 365) for free through my university.
• I’d like each person to be able to look at and modify her own data, upload files etc.. As administrator, I’d like to have access to the whole thing. Otherwise it should be confidential. (The different users shouldn’t be able to see each other’s files).
• I’d like the information to be presented to me in a convenient, easily surveyable way. A big table would be useful.
• I’d like a nice simple interface. I don’t want to have to spend too long learning how to do this.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

posted by HoraceH to Technology (9 answers total)

Do you have free access to SharePoint? If so, what you want is really easy to do - it took us about forty minutes to set up exactly what you're describing, and none of us were remotely familiar with it before that day.

Though it will also be kind of... ugly.
posted by SMPA at 11:10 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I don't have free access to SharePoint, but $5 per month isn't too bad. Thanks for the suggestion!

(Ugliness is fine!)
posted by HoraceH at 11:27 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Google Docs may be a solution here. I'll have to get to my computer to check the details.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:53 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure you could do this with a WordPress setup by adding fields to the user profile options - there are definitely plugins that do that, although I haven't tried any (here's a random uninvestigated one).
posted by the agents of KAOS at 12:27 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

OK, looks like you can do this in Google Docs. Set up individual spreadsheets that are shared only between you and the individuals, and then set up a read-only spreadsheet that draws from each of those but is veiwable by the the group.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:48 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestion, the agents of KAOS!

ChurchHatesTucker: Thanks for your help! Do you know if there is a good way of putting files into a Google Sheet? (E.g. Can I put a pdf into a cell?)
posted by HoraceH at 2:02 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

You want Airtable. This is exactly what Airtable could be used for. Spreadsheets on steroids, collaborative, web-based, a great free tier, you can add attachments, use it like a relational database, etc. You can have view-only public-facing sites, you can have tiers of permissions, etc.
posted by suedehead at 2:20 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

You can link to a file on Google Drive. (And, I assume, elsewhere.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:07 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for your help, everyone! I'm currently planning to use Airtable.
posted by HoraceH at 6:10 PM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]