help with databases and windows

[davemchine]

I will be migrating a database from a unix system to a windows server soon. My goals are to find a database that will allow me to easily import the data and then have that data available via a webserver. This is new territory for me so I would appreciate any advice.

Dave

[onthedownlow]

FileMaker for Windows.
MS Access 2007
FoxPro

...is this business or personal? That can change options (depending on price to spend with even higher setups)

[mattkime]

please be more descriptive.

why are you moving from unix to windows? what database was the info in? what do you want to move to? where is the webserver?

[davemchine]

Right now I have several extremely large text documents on a unix server. Those documents are run through a perl script which breaks out each individual record into a seperate text file. When a person wants to search for a particular record they use a php search page which finds and displays the appropriate document (record). I fully realize the problems in this situation and am working to correct it, ie get the records into a real database.

The move to windows is due to the current unix host being old, we won't be buying any more unix machines, but we do have a very nice new win2003 server. So I will be moving the data to the new machine and retiring the unix server. There are other political issues.

So the long and short of it is that I need a windows database that is searchable via a webbrowser. I've been looking at filemaker but according to their product diagram I would need the $2500 version. Spendy!

Dave

[Seacrest]

Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl all run on Windows.

[MGS_forgot_password]

MS Access

You should be able to convert the text file to an Access database(on your server), and using IIS, you'll be able to view any created queries from a web browser.

[Greg the dogsitter]

"Extremely large text documents" >> Access may not work.

[mattkime]

I second what seacrest said.

[Sam3]

Listen to Seacrest. Use the LAMP stack minus the 'L' (Linux)

That's sad that the politics in your situation dicate moving from a rock-solid UNIX platform to Win2k3. More and more companies are adding Linux boxes to their server stable, not Windows.

Oh, by using PHPMyAdmin, you get a decent web-based graphical front end to MySQL.

[TheTominator]

[quote Seacrest]Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl all run on Windows.
I second (or fourth) the recommendation of MySQL (or PostgreSQL) plus your choice of scripting tool.

You didn't specify your budget for this project for initial installation cost and yearly budget for the future. Plus it makes a difference how much manpower you have to put on this. Lacking these details, my shoot-from-the-hip answer is the set described above.

Canned solutions are pricey and may offer frills that would take some time for you to program.

Free solutions are ... free but may require more labor. Sometimes you can find free canned solutions that build on the free suite of tools that match your needs pretty well.

If your data isn't structured in a specific way (i.e. broken down in to specific searchable fields), you might be able to use a canned package that adds search capability to web sites in general, e.g. htdig.