Forum Moderators: phranque
I run a small web design business and am finally starting to see some return on my grass roots marketing efforts. However, this has led me into an area I don't know alot about. Specifcally, databases.
I have a client who runs a flower shop who wants to create a "client" list, wherein when a client orders an item through the site, (using paypal as the ecommerce tool)she wants to be able to store all the contact information, along with a purchase history, which allows her to promote any specials coming up through correlating past client purchases.
Is there a cost effective and simple way to do this without running any serious client side database software?
Any help would certainly be appreciated!
It works on all platforms and any scripting language you use.
But you will have to learn about databases. It's a good thing to know. You'll never design a website without one again once you get a taste of it.
1. MS Access - Easy, but not too hot for business apps
2. MySQL - Open source and oh-so-fine. Not atomic though.
3. Postgres - My current favorite database. It's atomic, which means that you get database integrity (there's less of a chance you'll screw something up on the code-end since the database handles "transactions" and won't delete things if they refer to another entry that hasn't been deleted which that relies on)
If you don't have a development server that you can play around with, I recommend setting one up so you don't have to make critical mistakes on a live server.
