I collected lots of data (images, pdf's,...) over some years. For my start-up, I like to be able to access this data through a web application as well as a website. All of the data has a relation with each other reaching from example images, contact cards, and bills,... so I would like to query the data by inserting tag filters. I am a very beginner in this stuff but would love to get a good basis and self-education, so I can maintain and manage my database. A connection with normal SQL data is also necessary. I assume the setup of a central database to connect later on web applications/website/mobile apps is the first thing to create....? If somebody can help me at least with some advice on how to start, I would be very happy.
I searched a lot, but as a newbie I get overwelmed by all kinds of software.
I would love to get some help on how to start in the right way.
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I'm working on a project at school where we have to create a small system for an RV retailer to track customers, vehicles, employees, inventory, and so on.
We've gotten to the point where we'll need to start coding pretty soon, but I'm having trouble figuring out the logistics of everything. For example, I know enough to build and use the website and database, but I don't have any idea on how to connect the two.
I know SQL fairly well. Enough to know what and where to look for the information, but I don't know enough about connecting my database to know what I'm looking for.
So what I'm looking for is a basic rundown on different options I can look and do some research on what would be best for our group.
I feel like there's a lot of information out there on how to do stuff, but I just don't have the basic information on why it's relevant and how and where to fully utilize it.
I hope this makes sense. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help clear it up.
One of the options of having a database-driven website is to use PHP.
It is a server-side scripting language, which is used to generate the dynamic content on the webpages. You can connect to the database, obtain user input using for example HTML forms, perform queries and display results on the webpage.
Essentially you build an application with a web-based user interface. PHP is supported on a vast majority of web hosting platforms.
Are there any resources available that can guide someone on how to 'think' about the various components of a hosted / cloud solution before going ahead and starting to make a hosted application? If that made no sense, what I mean to ask is are there any guidance books/websites on what things need to be considered when making a cloud application?
I am attempting to make a hosted CRM-style software application that will serve many hundreds of customers. The application is powered by a SQL server database with many tables and a ColdFusion, HTML5, CSS, Javascript front-end. If I was installing this application and its components at each client site, then each installation is unique to that customer. But somehow I have to replicate this uniqueness in the cloud which is baffling me.
Only two things have come to mind so far:
The need for a unique database per customer in SQL server
The need to change DB connection strings per customer in the web application
My thought process has come to a block when I am trying to envisage how to design the application to serve so many different customers. Even though the application that all customers use will is the same (same DB tables, same front-end), the data that they store and retrieve will be specific to them. So I was thinking that surely each customer needs a separate database creating for them? Is it feasible to create a replica database for each customer? If I need to update some tables or add a new table, how would I do this for hundreds of different databases?
From the front-end I guess each unique customer log-in would change DB connection strings so that they can only access their database. Other than this I can't think of anything else that needs to change per customer basis.
When a new customer wants to sign up, it needs to be clear to me what I need to create for them to have access to the application. I guess this is ultimately what I need to think of but I'm stuck.
If anyone can suggest some things to think of or if there is a book or website on this kind of thing that someone could point me to I'd really be very thankful.
EDIT:
I was looking at an article about Salesforce.com and it says
"In order to ensure privacy of data for each user and give an effect of each having their own database, the data from different users are securely isolated from one another."
Anyone know how this is achieved or how it may be done?
Found some great information here. It is called multi-tenant database design and seems to be a common topic. Once I get the database designed then the application can sit nicely on top.
https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/1043/what-problems-will-i-get-creating-a-database-per-customer
I am new to servers and online databases, so please bear with me.
I have a question regarding database server communication on mobile devices as follows:
I am currently developing a game application on iOS. I have set up a non-SQL database on Cloudant and I would like to access that data on my iOS device. I have to update multiple database entries each time I complete a round, and I also need to read multiple entries on my database to refresh the leaderboard. I have tried to access multiple entries on Cloudant individually via device before, but most of them returned as timeout.
Thus, right now I have written several PHP scripts on my application server so that my device only needs to access the script once, and do multiple updates on my database or filter through the data I require from Cloudant. However, this means I need an additional server, meaning higher costs. I feel there should be a better or more elegant solution out there, and thus I would like to ask for help from everybody out here. Is it better to do all the updates directly from the device, or to enlist the help of a 3rd party?
Thanks for your time!
For security reasons alone it is necessary to use a server in front of the cloudant database. I assume you don't want every user of your app to be able to access the whole database. Also, the reasons you gave seem valid to me. It's generally a good idea to reduce the number and size of requests for a mobile application. Also, this might allow you to do some caching in the PHP server, ultimately reducing your costs.
could you please help me with some reference/literature/source/web where I can find more information about ways to optimize a site with a lot of data inside. The goal is to create a site where everyone can access data/files and do not need to use i.e. MS terminal or vmware viewer to access data from our other location. Should I invest into internal servers or look for cloud? I would like to know where to start. It's question from dummy, but thank you for help!
One of the aspects that make sites like facebook, google, and so on so fast is that they replicate their servers in different part of the world so users do not have the latency that occurs when you try to contact a website on the other side of the world.
The servers used are also very high end so they are able to handle a lot of simultaneous requests at a time.
And finally probably one of the most important aspect is that the database schemas, the code and the architecture are constantly refined to work as fast as possible.
I've never designed a database before, but I've had experience programming in a few languages and assembler throughout college, as well as some web design, so I'm able to at least pick up what I need to know if I can be pointed in the right direction. One of the tasks of my job is to sort through some data that we've been collecting in the field, using a "sonde" which measures temperature, pH, conductivity, and other parameters. The device sits in a stream 24/7 (except for when we take it out and switch it with our other sonde every couple weeks, so that we can put in a newly calibrated one in the stream and retrieve the data from the one that was in the field). It collects data every 15 minutes or so, and has done so since 2007. Currently, all of our data is spread across multiple excel spreadsheets, and we have additional data from a weather station and another instrument that all gets compiled into quarterly documents. My goal is to design as simple of a database as possible with most of the functionality of a database like this: http://hudson.dl.stevens-tech.edu/hrecos/d/index.shtml. Ours would be significantly simpler as it is not live data (but would instead retrieve data from files that we upload once we'd finished handling the formatting and compilation of all our data). I would very much like the graphing ability on the site that the above database has, but I at least need to be able to select a range of data and select as many variables as I want within that time range and then be able to download a spreadsheet with the generated data (or at least a CSV file).
I realize this is a tough task, and as I have not designed a database before, I suspect it is very much an uphill task. However if I would be able to learn the things necessary to do this, and make it web-accessible, that would be a huge accomplishment and very much impress my boss. Any advice or tips to go off in the right direction would be very much appreciated.
Thanks for your help!
There are actually 2 parts to the solution you're looking for:
The database, which will store your data in a single organized place, and
The application, which is the interface used by people to interact with the database.
Basically, a database by itself is just a container. You need some kind of application which accept criteria from a user, pull the appropriate data meeting the criteria from the database, and display it to the user in a meaningful fashion - in this case, a graph or a spreadsheet.
Normally for web-based apps the database and application are two separate components. However, for a small app with a fairly small number of users, and especially for someone just starting out, you may want to consider an all-in-one solution like InfoDome, sort of like MSAccess for the web.
Either way, you're still going to need to learn about database design. There's many good tutorials out there, just do some searching. DatabaseAnswers.org has been useful for me. They have a set of tutorials as well as a large collection of sample database schemas.