Webpage Submit

[Zanstemic]

I currently have an access database that requires that submits come from a
website.

My question is from a high level regarding the best way to approach creating
the webpages and connecting to the database. I currently have frontpage and
have also noticed that access has a method of creating web pages. Also, I'm
not sure if an ODBC connection is recommended.

Any suggestions on how to best approach this or documentation to get me
started in the right direction.

Thanks in advance........

 

[Tim Ferguson]

My question is from a high level regarding the best way to approach
creating the webpages and connecting to the database. I currently have
frontpage and have also noticed that access has a method of creating
web pages. Also, I'm not sure if an ODBC connection is recommended.

Well, it all begins with the web server. It will have some method of
scripting available: either php or asp, or both, or something much worse
like perl etc. You will need to write your web pages using the scripting
language and libraries available. In a Microsoft IIS setup, it's most
likely ASP or ASP.Net and ADO or ADO.Net etc. In a Unix/ Linux setting,
you're probably going to have to learn PHP, but that's easy because there
are loads of PHP libraries for connecting to all kinds of database.

I don't have a clue what Front Page will do for you, I'm afraid. My only
experience of it is that it used to make horrendous html and I spent
longer cleaning it up than I would have writing it from scratch.

Data Access Pages are pretty unpopular as a technology, although you can
try lurking on the newsgroups like m.p.a.dataaccess.pages -- all the
users need Access on their clients and I don't know how safe it all is
from file corruption.

Best of luck

Tim F

 

[Zanstemic]

Thanks Tim,
In this case it's a windows environment so ASP or ASP.Net should work.

Here are some more specific questions regarding the architecture.

Is using ODBC to submit recommended or is their a more efficient method?

Can I have a basic database that collects the data from the web and sync the
database? Or is this not necessary?

I'll stay away from the data access pages, they seem to be inappropriate for
this type of architecture.

 

[Tim Ferguson]

Is using ODBC to submit recommended or is their a more efficient
method?

Depends on the web server and the language you are using... ADO works with
ASP classic; if you have ASP.Net then you will presumably be better of with
ASP.Net. Don't be fooled by the similar-sounding names, the dot-Net
language is a _verrry_ different beast.

Can I have a basic database that collects the data from the web and
sync the database? Or is this not necessary?

How basic or sophisticated the database is depends on your needs: that's
the usual requirements analysis/ data modelling/ interface design cycle.
Similarly, the web pages themselves can be simple or sophisticated -- it's
really about how fast you can get up that particular learning curve. How
much html coding have you done in the past?

Best of luck


Tim F

 

[Zanstemic]

I've worked with both Dreamweaver and Frontpage over the years and have
created submit forms that send emails. I've also created simple forms that
submit to the database. I've also used ODBC in the past and find that easy.

I'm still a novice mostly since I'm not doing it every day. My preference is
to spend extra time on the architecture before going to far so I really
appreciate the help.

The configuration looks so far to be a dedicated server running Server 2003.
I'm anticipating using ASP.NET but have not worked in this environment as of
yet.

Anything to look out for is appreciated.........

 

[Tim Ferguson]

I've worked with both Dreamweaver and Frontpage over the years and
have created submit forms that send emails. I've also created simple
forms that submit to the database. I've also used ODBC in the past and
find that easy.

Well, that's all there is really.

Anything to look out for is appreciated.........

If you are taking information from a web user, just remember to clean it
and scrub it free of SQL injection code and stuff. As usual, start simple
on something that does not matter! You'll probably get more sensible
advice around an ASP.NET group than here. If you have any problem with
the db design or query the come back here by all means.

Best of luck with the project


Tim F