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Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

Problem:

My boss is cheap. She will not purchase seats to MS Access, Filemaker, or any other database engine. However, we are severely in need of a relatively simple central database to enter and view various records and information, which must be simultaneously accessed by 5 people.

Obviously, one's mind immediately jumps to MySQL, Postgres, or even MS SQL Server Express. All great options, except for the lack of a simple front-end. I do not have the time nor knowledge to competently build a new web form every time my users need a custom form generated, and have no experience on any other solutions.

So, my question. Does anyone have a decent, windows-native or web-based (Or Java, for that matter) FOSS database frontend that alows for relatively simple form layout and generation?

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FlipperPA Peregrine

Sobri, MySQL has several Windows apps and phpmyadmin for front ends. PHPmyadmin is fantastic and robust.

Here is an excellent, free one:

http://www.heidisql.com/

Regards,

-Flip

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Tyche Shepherd

I personally use MySQL but I've yet to see a good forms generator as a front end - PHPMyAdmin for instance which Flipper mentions is really too high powered for data entry staff

Have you looked at the Open Office Database option ? I believe it does have form creation wizard very similar to what you have in Access OpenOffice Suite
I've not used their database but it's worth a look


I've been very impressed with Open Office generally - Its come on a long way - I'd recommend it just for its ability to recover corrupt MS Office files (both excel & word) - much better than Office can.

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Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

Hey Flip,

PHPMyAdmin and tools like it are great for constructing the database and raw data entry, but given the computer literacy of most of my coworkers, I need something friendlier to present to them for accessing and modifying records.

Really if I dusted off a PHP book I could probably slap something barely functional together, but IT isn't even in my job description, so I am hesitant to start building any custom solutions for the company without first re-negotiating a few things about my employment

Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

Thanks Tyche, I'll look into that.

A lot of these flat-file databases do not lend themselves well to a multi-user environment, but OOO has surprised me in the past..and even having something functional that only one of us can be in at a time would be a big step forward

Kristian

Ruby on Rails will build forms automatically from database schema. Very vanilla, but very usable. Similar MVC packages might do the same thing. Check CakePHP.

Tyche Shepherd

OpenOffice Base seems to link to any database engine so you could use MySQL or Postgresql as the engine and OOO for the front end design

Kristian

Actually, S, check out the forms feature in google docs. You can build forms that populate a spreadsheet.