Posting simple database to web by newbie

[LAMP]

Greetings all,
We are researchers in the film paper field and have a problem that I’m hoping this forum can help with.

Over the past 10 years we’ve developed identification codes that are used by other institutes and researchers. We have been using Excel to compile the codes into 5 columns of brief information: code, title, type, studio and year. The list has become massive and we had to break it into 2 different groups: codes starting with numbers and codes starting with letters. Each group has over 25,000 records (and growing).

We’re wanting to put these 2 sections online in a member area and thought Access would be an easy transition from Excel for a member to put in a code, in one or the other and it only pull up matching records.

Since these are both part of our 2010 Office package, I thought there would be plenty of youtube or tutorials to help us put this online….. boy was I WRONG.. We’ve searched for a week now and EVERYTHIING is either through another program (i.e. Caspio) or set up for huge complex calculations that they’re too far above what we need that it is confusing.

Is there a place to step through SIMPLE instructions to create a form for each to sort ONE column (of the 5) and show matching records online?

thank you for any help,
ed
ed Poole
film accessory researcher
LearnAboutMoviePosters.com
MoviePosterDataBase.com
MovieStillID.com
504-298-LAMP

[CJ_London]

Be aware that Access and Excel are two completely different animals. The problem you have is 'web'. This is then followed by 'multi user access'. By multi user access I mean more than one user can view and change the data at the same time.

Web - virtually anything you want to do on the web will cost something. And nothing on the web is simple. Because of the risks of hacking etc you also have restrictions about how the data can be accessed and by who. This applies to any data storage, not just access. And Access is not really a suitable db to have online

SO free options - onenote, dropbox for example - yes it is free but it will not be multi user enabled. As with excel the first person to open the file can edit and add data. Any changes subsequent users make will be saved to a different file. Further, changes made by that first user will not be visible to the other users until the first user exits the program and then only to users who subsequently open the program. These options are not the way to go for multi user access - they are for sharing data only, not editing.

Multi user web options. Easy ones are sharepoint or sql azure for the backend, but they come at a cost. You will need to distribute front ends to all your users and arrange for ways for them to get through the firewalls. In this respect, sharepoint is probably easier, sql azure requires fixed IP's. Similar to sql azure is amazon web apps, but I've not used those.

Do not attempt to develop anything in access wep apps - they are being dropped next year and will no longer work. It is only still around so developers still have something that works whilst they rewrite their applications.

Is there a place to step through SIMPLE instructions to create a form for each to sort ONE column (of the 5) and show matching records online?

The first part - create a form and sort a column - for access on a LAN, very easy, but to show matching records online - in short, no - it sounds like your best bet is to use sharepoint lists as a backend, however you have not been clear of your exact requirements - online how? so anyone can view the data? or only a select few? do you already have a website? If so, does it have a database?

[LAMP]

Hi Ajax,
First, thank you for your reply. It has helped tremendously.
Then let me apologize for the signature block. I'm more used to archival forums and they won't reply unless they can see who you are.

As for your questions - yes, we have a very large reference site that has been online for 17 years now. And we have a huge specially designed database that I did the layout on 13 years ago and was fortunate enough to have a government programmer at the time. It is a monster in SQL and is still going strong, but the coding is getting old and more fragile that we will have to completely update as soon as funds are available.

The access was an attempt to put some closed information online without going through our main database until it can be reworked and incorporated.

But.. with what I've learned, this was not the direction to go. I really appreciate the help.

Best,
ed