MySQL database and "front end" 1

[pendle666]

Hello

I am doing some work for a small family history society. There are thousands of documents which they'd like users to be able to search for.

At the moment I have a large spreadsheet with the information :

ID Number
Year
Name
Surname
Document name (hyperlink)
Town/District
Reference

I know that a proper database is the best way to go but Access is all I've created before. Can anyone recommend anything, perhaps with a front end that will make it easy to add further details?

And then there's a search form to query the database and present the answers in a web page.

Sorry if this seems a bit basic, but this is something new to me and it's over my head. I need a program which hand holds.

thanks


thank you for helping

____________
Pendle

 

[spamjim]

You could easily do this with a content management system such as WordPress and Drupal. You can install this to your own server or find many hosts that offer ready-made instances.

A CMS will allow you to create a custom content type or custom fields to record this data. There are options to import tabular data, like your spreadsheet, to quickly generate searchable records in the CMS.

The further benefit of using an established CMS is that it has user management built in. So you can assign certain individuals to edit/manage content.

 

[pendle666]

Excellent, thank you.

I hadn't thought of a CMS, I just assumed that a database was the way to go.



thank you for helping

____________
Pendle

 

[spamjim]

Conveniently, a "MySQL database and 'front end'" is a WordPress or Drupal CMS.

Even Microsoft Access can act as a front end to MySQL tables. But it won't offer a web page as easily as WordPress/Drupal.