Should I be using VB for this application?

[SubjectiveEffect]

I'm planning a portable logbook for employees to replace the current unstable Filemaker Pro one but I've got a few problems from the start.

I don't know which database system to use.

The project has to meet specific criteria: It is a logbook that stores information in a database and which can be used to produce reports detailing each employee's activity.

It must also be:

1. Portable on a flash disk.
2. Easy to set up. Unzipping into a folder and being ready to go would be ideal.
3. Possible to create a backup tool that saves backups of the database from within the application. The frequency of the backups should be controllable and restoring should be easy.
4. Be able to import and export .csv files for integration/migration to and from the existing application.

I do JavaScript, PHP, mySQL and general relational database design. I did know some ASP and VB some years ago. (I'm keen on CSS too, but that's icing).

Options I'd considered:

a. MS Access.

b. Portable Apache + mySQL and PHP/Javascript pages.

c. XAMPP and PHP/Javascript pages.


So I was discussing this on Sitepoint and it lead to looking at VB again. I see that VB Express is both free and can be used with Access.

So my questions to you VB gurus are:

Is VB Express suitable for creating this application? And will the final package run on machines what do not have Access installed? I don't need it too but that would be nice.

 

[gmmastros]

First of all... VB Express is a free version of vb.net. This forum is specifically for vb6.

If you create a vb.net app, you MUST have the appropriate version of the .net framework, so creating an app that does not need to be installed may be a bit tricky.

If you want to connect to a database, then you will need the correct database driver(s) to do it, which (again) requires an install.

As long as you have the Access drivers (which I believe are free), you do not need to have Access installed. Backing up and restoring access databases are ridiculously simple since it's a file based database. Simply disconnect all connections and copy the file.

This probably does not answer all of your questions, but should give you a couple more things to think about.


-George

"The great things about standards is that there are so many to choose from." - Fortune Cookie Wisdom

 

[SubjectiveEffect]

Oops! I didn't know there was a different version of VB. Last time I actually used it it was VB5 I think.

Thanks for the reply. I'll post in the correct forum now.

 

[gmmastros]

I think there are more versions of VB then there are 2 letter acronyms.

-George

"The great things about standards is that there are so many to choose from." - Fortune Cookie Wisdom