I've been playing around with this site:

http://www.zoho.com/creator/

Anybody have any alternate suggestions? MS Access? Joomla! Other?

Your input would be greatly appreciated!

no

drgoldsmoke said:

no

Thanks, drgoldsmoke.

I haven't touched Microsoft Access in several years, but the last time I checked it was still using the jet database encapsulated in mdb files.

You can build access forms and mdb files to front-end SQL databases thought. The brilliance of Access is how easy it is to create a database, and how easily you can create VBA code to automate certain features. Your VBA code can call other applications or just manipulate sql commands, etc. easily.

But the jet engine is rather limited in size and how many calls you can produce, so it's not a business application in my opinion---at least I wouldn't use it for financial transactions, etc. A SQL db could do it--Micorosoft's SQL is pretty decent.

If you're looking at user-centric DBs, filemaker is also great. It's actually considered as good or better than Access, and it runs on Mac.

The king of databases is Oracle. This is because searches can be optimized such that you can call up and filter through millions of records extremely fast. All high-end DBs do optimization, but Oracle's can't be beat.

You're making me miss IT.

imago said:

I haven't touched Microsoft Access in several years, but the last time I checked it was still using the jet database encapsulated in mdb files.

You can build access forms and mdb files to front-end SQL databases thought. The brilliance of Access is how easy it is to create a database, and how easily you can create VBA code to automate certain features. Your VBA code can call other applications or just manipulate sql commands, etc. easily.

But the jet engine is rather limited in size and how many calls you can produce, so it's not a business application in my opinion---at least I wouldn't use it for financial transactions, etc. A SQL db could do it--Micorosoft's SQL is pretty decent.

If you're looking at user-centric DBs, filemaker is also great. It's actually considered as good or better than Access, and it runs on Mac.

The king of databases is Oracle. This is because searches can be optimized such that you can call up and filter through millions of records extremely fast. All high-end DBs do optimization, but Oracle's can't be beat.

You're making me miss IT.

My level of IT expertise

~faints~

It would be for a small business. Wouldn't have to handle financial transactions - just customer files. If it could do inventory searches and/or interact with an an appointment schedule, that would be a bonus!

imago said:

~faints~

I'll give you an example of the kind of thing I'm looking for:

Let's say I'm Men's Wearhouse (or some such shit) and I do special orders.

I want to have a file for each customer, that shows the info about their order and (once their order comes in) information about their tailoring appointments. I want to be able to search these files with filters (e.g. dudes whose suits are in, but haven't scheduled a tailoring appointment yet). If it could automate tasks (e.g. email dudes when their suits are in), that would be, like, awesome.

I need to be able to search my inventory. For example, if a dude calls in and goes, "Hey, dude: Do you have Joe Schmo style# 666, Charcoal-Grey, in a 42-Tall?", I wanna punch that shit in my computer and be able to tell the dude if I've got that shit or not.

I'd also need to have some kind of calendar where I could schedule tailoring appointments. So, if a dude calls up and goes, "Hey, dude: Can I come in tomorrow at 7pm", I can tell this dude whether he can do that shit or not. If this calendar could interact with the customer files, that would be, like, way-sweet.

Holla!

MY SQL or Microsoft SQL Server (I think there is a free version that comes with Windows 7?) with Ms Access as your front end (forms)

imago said:

MY SQL or Microsoft SQL Server (I think there is a free version that comes with Windows 7?) with Ms Access as your front end (forms)

Thanks! I'll recommend this if the hiring-someone-else-to-do-this-shit route is taken. In the meantime, I've been playin' around with the site I mentioned in my original post and it seems pretty easy (for some of the things I mentioned, anyway).

Are you familiar with it?