How to build and share databases on the web

Network governance - If you are part of a business, sooner or later you want to be able to collaborate with your colleagues or customers. Previously, the easiest way to share a small database was to create a spreadsheet and email it to your colleagues. However that is not the best method but there are still a few reasons for that existence:

First of all, the database is still quite difficult for people to understand them, while spreadsheet pages are more evident. A spreadsheet page usually has only one screen, so it is easier to show its logic and the system of rows and columns more easily than a typical contact database has a series of tables. While there are many people - especially among them, many people do not have professional IT training - need it.

Second, database collaboration tools are difficult to learn and use. Take a look at the number of people still using Lotus Notes for email and this number is not much. Most of them feel comfortable with email and use it as a free transmission system. However, to this day, when a third person will work on the same spreadsheet or database, start conflicting changes.

Third, building authentic collaborative applications requires some skills and understanding of what data types need to be shared and how they share. How many people will add or change records for the database? How many people want to perform queries and reports? And do you want to prevent conflicts in updates?

So, what's your choice, would you like to email a spreadsheet? There are two basic methods. The first is to use Internet-compatible database programs. Alpha Five has a number of web tools and its standard version sells for $ 200, or you can buy the Filemaker Server version for $ 1,000. Both versions are easy to install and use on the Internet.

For both of these products, you need to use Windows or Mac machines configured at your Internet provider or have some other connection to the machine on which you are running the database on the Internet. (PointInSpace is a provider that offers Filemaker Pro hosting for $ 40 per month for each ZebraHost account and provides Alpha Five hosting for $ 30 per month. This is a link containing a series of video tutorials. About how to do with Alpha Five). You also need to study both programming languages ​​and accept how they create reports. This method has the advantage that you are running a real database program and have the most flexibility. However, it has a relatively high cost in terms of skills. Here's an example of one of the windows to show you the type of programming you need to understand about Alpha Five:

If the skills required on both products are daunting, you can use the second method, which uses one of the web services companies to share spreadsheets and data. tables. Google Docs also allows co-collaboration on the file level, but what we really want is a little more complicated and can identify individual records. There are at least four services that we found to be able to do that:

• TrackVia, $ 10 a month for a user
• DabbleDB, $ 8 a month for a user
• Intuit's QuickBase $ 250 a month for a user
• Blist.com, $ 10 a month for a user plus $ 30 per month for an administrator

With these services, you can create an account and upload your spreadsheet quickly. You can easily classify any column by clicking on the arrow icons. You can quickly find copies, create email templates and Web forms, all with just a few clicks.

Reports are just simple issues, but there are many other interesting things, for example, that can be distributed via email to reach your colleagues under a certain plan. Adding other colleagues with separate privileges is also very simple and in about 30 minutes you can set up a project and work with your team. You don't need to be a programmer to do the job because of its simplicity. Also, you don't need to pay for hosting fees (which are still included as part of the service) and all you need is a web browser to access your data.

All four services allow you to start with free accounts to try. In TrackVia's case, you have 14 days before you have to provide them with a credit card, but in the case of dabbleDB you can use the account for free forever but your data will be set to public. With blist, you can use your customer account or a permanent free account, but it's limited to you with a database of less than 100MB. QuickBase gives you 30 days of trial and has the ability to share up to 10 people.

Each of these four services has different points about how they import data into the database, its reporting type and the number of databases and storage space allocated to each account. That's why you should try each one and find out which one works best for your job.

Let's take a look at how to import data in TrackVia as an example. When you create a database, you will see there are three options as shown in the figure below:

You can upload a spreadsheet and if you do a few clicks of the "see tips" link, you will see a list of tips and instructions on how to do it. If you have a database in the CSV file format, then you have to import it into Excel before bringing the data to TrackVia. Some other services also allow you to import CSV files directly, or cut and paste data from your desktop or a Website. You can also choose to start a database template that TrackVia offers so many templates.

TrackVia also has an interesting option to check if a mailbox will be used to store new database records and post information automatically. If you go to the Email Collecting tool, you will see a series of screens, including the one below, that you can use to set up this feature. Can create new records or upgrade existing records.

Wish you find the optimal solution for sharing your data!