Questions From A Novice

[shadowayex]

Well, I'm highly skilled with HTML and CSS, but that's about as far as my skills go. I have a question about possibly linking a database on Microsoft Access to a Webpage I made. The webpage looks like this:http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/sha...x/DW2Page-1.jpgOf course that's just a screen shot of stuff I put in myself with HTML, but let me explain what I want to happen. The point of the page is to help people who are playing Digimon World 2 find DNA digivolutions quicker. I've created a database that includes every DNA digivolution pair possible and their outcome. The database has three columns corresponding with the three drop down menus. What I want to happen is for users to put in whatever they want and leave out what they need to find. Then I want the page to look through the database and pull out the records that match what they put in. Like if they put in a Greymon under First Digimon, nothing under Second Digimon, and Agumon under Outcome, it should pull out every record that has Greymon in the first column and Agumon in the third column. Make sense? I also want it to appear in a certain way. Here's a screenshot with numbers by each section and what I want to happen in each section to further explain it.http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/sha...x/DW2Page-2.jpg1.This is where all the magic happens. You select what criteria you have and click submit. The page should search my database and pull out whatever records have Greymon in the first column and Agumon in the third column.2.Since the drop down menus above these fieldsets say something, these should display those names and those names only, which shouldn't be a problem is the search only pulls out data that has the names in the corresponding places.3.Since this one was left blank, it should display all the digimon found in the middle coumn of each record that matched the criteria.If the idea is still unclear, please let me know. Here are three other cases to show what should happen when other combinations are put in.Only outcome put in: http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/sha...x/DW2Page-3.jpgOnly First and Second Digimon put in: http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/sha...x/DW2Page-4.jpgNo match found: http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/sha...x/DW2Page-5.jpgOk, so first of all, is it possible to link this page to a database? Secondly, is it possible to make it display things how I want them to? And lastly, how?Thanks to all who answer.

[justsomeguy]

Yes, it's possible. This isn't much of a SQL question though.The first thing to determine is which languages the server has available. If you could use PHP, that would be preferred. PHP has good support for a lot of databases including the MySQL database, but if you need to use Access then you will need to use the ODBC functions to do the communication. You can read about ODBC in PHP here:http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.uodbc.phpIt would probably be easier to use MySQL instead of Access, you can build the database with phpMyAdmin or build a password-protected page to add and remove information from the database.Anyway, the only thing that matters at this point is which languages does your server support. Once you know that then you can start learning.

[Synook]

Edit: JustSomeGuy got in first... but anywayHmm... well, firstly, try to use SQL instead of MS Access, as an access database tends to crash when more than two or so users try to read from or write to it. But it is possible to link a page to a database via several methods. Most popular is probably through the use of a server-side scripting language such as PHP, which has inbuilt mysql functions. this is probably also the easiest. However, if you want to take on a challenge, a more efficient method would be to use a CGI script, written in Perl or C, to execute your query.But, for mySQL, read up on the PHP tutorial (http://www.w3schools.com/php) and the mySQL tutorial (http://www.w3schools.com/sql) and see how you go

[shadowayex]

Ok, MySQL....do you download that? If so where? Can I turn my Access database into a MySQL database or do I have to redo it all? I have thousands of records.

[justsomeguy]

There are links in my signature for most of what you need. There are tools available to convert a database, or Access might also have a way to just export the database to a series of SQL statements that you can run on another database.http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&...-8&oe=utf-8