dummy desperately needs database

[zayin]

I am so stubborn it sometimes hurts. I seem to feel I need to learn how to do everything I need rather than hire someone. Now after learning HTML, uploading site and all ....

Now, I find myself in desperate need of some sort of a database.
I am an auto engine remanufacturer / wholesaler, so my data information basicly just needs to be some sort of a drop down menu or look up reference site for customers to find the cost of their engine.

Can someone...anyone please point me in the right direction w/ some pointers. I don't know a thing about programming or none of that stuff. Prior to learning how to make a decent web site my computer experience was surfing the net.

[scottiecl]

Hi Zayin! :hi: Welcome to the forum!

Do you need a catalog-type of database? I'm not really sure what you are looking for.

I use Aborior's Simplex Database (http://www.aborior.com) for a lot of my content management needs. It is a little tricky to set up at first but very customizable and the support is excellent. I think the price is still $120 USD and for that you get a number of ready-made applications such as news, classifieds, etc.

I would think you could pretty easily modify the classifieds app or the news app to display the information for the customer. The guys at Aborior will customize it for you or build you a new app for a very reasonable price as well.

That may be more than you are looking for... I think there are some tools out there that will publish an Access database online but I've never taken the time to learn Access.

[zayin]

Below is an example of the fields that I need. I need a fast way for the customers to look up their engine price without them having to look through a list of over 2000 engines.

(categories)
MAKE---CID---LITER---YEARS---CYL---BORE---SPECIFICATIONS
(sample results from above)
Chev 150 2.5 83-86 4 3.875 #448 7/16" Head Bolt

Then I would need to display the different prices

I am just too stubborn to pay someone to do this for me. I know I can figure it out...eventually. I guess I figure you can't beat saving money by doing it yourself and learn a skill at the same time.
(If I would ever just go make some money from these self taught
ventures) Last summer I finished my basement and became a hell of a good sheetrocker, you'd never believe a girl did it!!

[scottiecl]

I see what you mean now. No, Simplex would not do that without a custom app. I assume your hosting service provides a MySQL database for you to use?

Sorry- out of my area of knowledge. Hopefully someone else has a solution for you. The boards are kind of slow with people off for the holidays so be patient and bump this thread up on Monday.

[madrone]

Hi there,
I would recommend getting familiar with open source modules that you can configure, if you're planning on doing this yourself without db design experience.

PostNuke is a popular quick and easy database. It's a collection of php modules and there is a strong support community (which is key). All you need is hosting with mySQL -- unless you're already comfortable with command line scripting on a Unix/Linux box, you might want to make sure your host has installed phpMyAdmin. Take some time to peruse through the following:

http://www.postnuke.com/
http://www.distance-educator.com/postnuke/

Source Forge is probably the best collection of open source modules. http://sourceforge.net/

A good introductory tutorial
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/228

If you're determined to hand code, you'll need a staging machine to test out your code - I would recommend setting up a Linux box since that's most likely to be the configuration of your web host:
http://www.redhat.com/apps/download/
http://www.php.net/
http://www.mysql.com/documentation/index.html
http://www.apache.org


Hope that helps!

P.S. don't forget to optimize your database, if you don't optimize it, you may find yourself paying for unnecessary bandwidth and it could get quite expensive.