Interactive Web database with query capabilty

[Guest]

I see lots of questions about using Access as an interactive web database but
many of the answers seem to dance all around the question. Let me be as
precise with the question as possbile...

Here is a online database that is exactly like what I want to do with Access

http://www.osalt.org/events/osalt
http://www.osalt.org/events/submit

This interface was created with something called Ruby on Rails.

(1) Can this same thing be done with Access and asp?

(2) Can you provide an example of an access database that offers the same
query capability and submission capability?

I have done a simple access database online that will return results and
even total some numbers from the database but these are static queries. I
want to be able to let my ANONYMOUS visitors use dropdown lists to query the
DB.

Any direction will be appreciated.

 

[Rick Brandt]

I see lots of questions about using Access as an interactive web
database but many of the answers seem to dance all around the
question. Let me be as precise with the question as possbile...

Here is a online database that is exactly like what I want to do with
Access

http://www.osalt.org/events/osalt
http://www.osalt.org/events/submit

This interface was created with something called Ruby on Rails.

Exactly. They used technologies specific to creating interactive web pages.
Access is not such a tool.

(1) Can this same thing be done with Access and asp?

Non-starter. If you are using ASP then you are not using Access. Unless you
mean using an MDB file (Jet database) as the database with which your ASP web
page interacts. You can do so, but then "Access" is not really in the picture
at all.

(2) Can you provide an example of an access database that offers the
same query capability and submission capability?

That same web page you used as an example "could" use an Jet database (mdb file)
as its data source. That would not be most web authors first choice, but it
could be done.

The beauty of an interactive web page like that is that the design of the web
page really has very little to do with the database it is querying. That same
page could easily be adapted to using any database engine.

I have done a simple access database online that will return results
and even total some numbers from the database but these are static
queries. I want to be able to let my ANONYMOUS visitors use dropdown
lists to query the DB.

Any direction will be appreciated.

How are you accessing these static queries?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the heads up on the difference between Access and ASP. You are
right, I AM using an MDB with my ASP pages.

Here is my DB submission form: http://www.fallslanding.org/contactsDB.asp

Here is where it returns the results for the event organizer:
http://www.fallslanding.org/contactresults.asp

It's been a while since I did these and my question is: how do I set up the
query with the desired drop down lists so I can query on EVENT and/or
EVENTDATE (ideally all events during a particular month) and/or LOCATIONCITY.
Is it possible to do this with Frontpage 2003?

Links to detailed instructions are especially appreciated.

 

[Guest]

You mention that most web authors would not use an MDB file to provide a
searchable database interface.....so what is the BEST choice in a Windows
environment? I could do this using MYSQL.....would that be an improvement?

 

[Rick Brandt]

You mention that most web authors would not use an MDB file to
provide a searchable database interface.....so what is the BEST
choice in a Windows environment? I could do this using
MYSQL.....would that be an improvement?

It depends on how many concurrent users you might have and whether most of
them will be updating data versus just retrieving data. If an MDB file has
been working for you (so far) then it's likely that you are fine staying
with that. Server databases support higher concurrency and better security,
etc.. You might not need any of that.

 

[Guest]

There will be very few concurrent users....no more than three at any one time
and they will be anonymous users. Most will be retreiving data but will be
using the drop down options to query the data.