Moving from Access to the web - questions

[BrooksR]

I'm an Access developer with 10+ years of experience that would like to start doing database applications on websites.

Are there any web languages close to VBA?

Is mySQL the best solution for backend databases or are there others I should consider?

Where do I find a web-based report writer as powerful as Access's?

And a screen designer?

I'm willing to spend hundreds for the right tools, but not thousands.

Thx.

 

[jrbarnett]

Hello

I have very limited web programming experience, VB.Net is probably the closest in syntax to VBA (or VB6), but there are significant differences. If you were looking at the Microsoft programming stack (Access / SQL Server, IIS, ASP.Net) I would look to learn C# and use this for development. The other big one is the open source LAMP stack - Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. However, other varations are available.

Any database can be used as the backend for a web application (whether Access, MySQL, SQL Server), the main differentiators are:
- cost (licenses etc)
- scalability
- ease of security configuration

I can't comment on any PHP programming difficulties against VB.Net since I have no experience in that. However software cost is free - its just the hardware required to host the website.

I have yet to find a report writer that offers the flexibility of Access' that can render as HTML or PDF without spending significant sums - even the Access report writer doesn't give this level of detail if you save a report as HTML. I know they do exist, but you need to choose one that fits with your the server platform and also consider licenses for deployment as part of this.

John

 

[jrbarnett]

I should also add I would look at the express editions of Microsoft Visual Studio software which give you a good idea of what it looks like and is capable of, before you spend money on the full application licenses.

John

 

[BrooksR]

Hey John,

Thanks for your posts.

Do you know if most hosting sites charge for SQL Server? Would I need a current copy on my local PC?

I hear you on C# but I'm not nearly as good as with VB.

For getting a website up and running, any thoughts about headaches with the Msft stack vs. LAMP stack?

Someone else suggested MySQL and PHP.

Did you find any close report writers for MySql?

Thanks for the Studio suggestion.

Brooks