Can anyone suggest a book.....

[Emma Hope]

I work for a small company and have been tasked with "getting our database
online".

Quite simply i'm an Access developer, i know 95% of MS Access (we use 2003),
i have designed an in-house database that holds all of our data, queries and
reports etc.

My bosses want our external people to be able to enter data directly into
our database via a website, then be able to run reports and add 'stuff'
internally and then supply reports back to them via the website.

Sound simple enough but they are not willing to pay anyone externally or buy
any new software in the current economic climate, so i'm tasked with figuring
this out and although i relish a challenge, my major shortcoming is i know
NOTHING about websites or web design or how to get anything online......

Can anyone recommend a book or something along the lines of "web site
development for dummies that has a Access database backend for people who
know about Access!"

Any ideas?!?!?

Thanks

 

[Paul Shapiro]

The particular database behind the website isn't very important. The issues
are mostly in the web development. Modern web environments make the db
operations pretty straightforward. I think you can work through part of a
book and have 80% of that kind of website done reasonably easily.
Unfortunately, like most programming, the remaining 20% of the job is
probably 80% of the work. Things like security, error handling, and
user-interface enhancements tend to be much more involved, especially since
you plan to make this a public website.

There are some good books on asp.net web development with databases, but I
wouldn't put them in the Development for Dummies category. Within the first
few chapters you could probably create a very rough version of a simple
data-driven website. However, after that there are many new topics and
concepts for an Access developer and there would be a lot of learning to get
past the rough version to a finished product. If you enjoy learning on your
own and time is not a big factor, it's probably a great opportunity. If this
is something you're supposed to throw together in a few days, I would be
uncomfortable.

"ASP.Net 3.5 Unleashed", by Stephan Walther
"ASP.Net 3.5 In C# and VB", by Bill Evjen, Scott Hanselman, Devin Rader

 

[a a r o n . k e m p f]

Microsoft has consistently reccomended that 'Jet is never appropriate
for internet / intranet usage'
It would be best to move to SQL Server, then you would be able to
deploy in a phased approach-- reports--> Reporting Services and then
forms---> ASP

but trying to do anything (on the net) with Jet is just a waste of
fucking time

-Aaron