How to – Simple Database?

[rosco]

Hi folks,

I work in a university and I’m wanting to create a very simple database that can be used to display course details online.

We obviously already have course pages with extensive information for prospective students, but I wanted to create a mini-site for internal use only, showing a list of courses, their prices, entry requirements, etc… The idea being that this could be used by staff at open days as a reference.

As I’m completely new to creating database, I wondered if there’s any software that would make this process a littler easier for me. Or if anyone knows of any good tutorials that would guide me through this process?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ross

[__]

Creating a second database is the wrong way to go about it – it will be a maintenance and reliability nightmare.

A better approach would be to design a program that could interface with the existing database, so you can draw on the same information.

In general, however, I think we’d need more information about what you’re doing.

[rosco]

Hi that’s fine, as I say I’m completely new to database design so looking for any advice.
So we have 30-40 courses online with extensive information such as course summary, entry requirements, fees, modules, student case studies, how to apply etc…

However, what I want is to strip this content down to the bare minimum and use it to populate a table which has course name, entry requirements and fees only. This way your can see all courses on one page at one time which allows staff to see the basic information at a glance without the need to click through each individual course.

Is there a logical way to do this?

Thanks,

Ross

[chrisburton]

@traq He should be able to do that quite simply by targeting specific arrays and/or keys from the database, correct?

[Alen]

Go to the IT department and ask for read-only access to the section of the database you need. Bring your teacher along with you so that the request looks legitimate.

Once you have the database credentials, pulling down the information you need is easy. Once you arrive at this step, come back and we’ll help you set things up.

The reason you would want access to original data (as opposed to building your own database) is so that the information is current. If price changes, change will be reflected automatically.

They will most likely have to join bunch of tables for you, since the data is most likely normalized.

[__]

@chrisburton right – like @Alen says, get access to the current DB. You need to know how the info is organized, then using it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We’re talking about creating a simple “view” of the table – there’s no need to actually create a new table (or database).

[rosco]

Ok thanks for the reply guys, I will see if I can get read-only access to see how it is set up. I’ll let you know once I’ve got this and hopefully you can help me setup a simple table.

Ross

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