Which language for database driven application

[rambo_tw]

Hi,

I've always used Microsoft Access to hold my data but I don't like using it anymore. It doesn't look or feel professional.

I want to build an application that can allow me to query, append, delete data and produce reports. Similar features that access offers but i want it to be a standalone application.

Any advice on how best to do this? I was thinking VB + ADO.

[srochford]

If you've not got a lot of code already for VB/ADO then go straigh to VB.Net and ADO.Net - there's a whole raft of stuff in there which makes it very easy to work with data.

This will talk to just about any kind of data store; you can continue to use the .mdb database if you want or you can move to a SQL database. SQL 2005 Express is free and great for most things.

the other thing to consider is doing all this as web pages - if you're producing this for internal use then you've presumably got an IIS server that you can put it on. The benefit of this is that it will just work on any computer with a web browser - nothing to install or mess up on the client machines!

[rambo_tw]

I could easily do this web based, but I've never developed a desktop application before. I've done quite a bit of web work.

I'd like to have the experience of making my own app too :P

[maniac]

If you're doing it as an application, I would choose VB.net as it's very easy to learn, and talks nicely to an SQL backend or Access if you prefer. (as also metioned above)

If you wanted to do this Web based, which I would choose if more than a few people are likely to be using it at once, or if you're going to want to use it from multiple locations, then I'd choose PHP with a mySQL backend, mainly because I'm familure with it, but again it's easy to learn. The other big advantage of a web based application is you don't need it installed on each machine, and all the database processing is done by the backend, so it's more secure in many ways.

I've written PHP applications to run a helpdesk system, provide extensive reporting on the helpdesk, provide asset managetment, toner cartridge management and monitoring, user logon tracking and associated reporting, an order management system for our site team and a few other things. Any problem we get, I usually end up writing a PHP solution for it!

Mike

[localzuk]

Personally, having some formal Java training, I would choose either Java or C# for a desktop app. If it is a server app, I would go for PHP and use a bit of AJAX to make the front end more usable.