Database Question

Is MS Access any good for my project?

[TimmyMagic]

Hi folks,

I need some advice and where better than this excellent forum.

I am in the very early stages of a new project. This is a dating site in a niche market. I have been looking into the basic infrastructure of the site and have come across someone who will sell me the basic site which I can then modify.

The system runs on an ASP server that can interpret MS Access dbases. So my question is, is MS Access a good database for this purpose? or does it have any faults such as being too lightweight or such like?

I have little knowledge of how databases so any input would be appreciated.

Regards,
Tim

[Nick_W]

Hi,

I don't know the specifics but like most of M$ products in the server-side field it certainly has a bad reputation. I'll let the real experts give you the specifics but I'd swing a wide arc around that thing if I were you...

Nick

[SEO practioner]

Timmy- Nick is 100% right.

Personally, when I design a database-driven site, I almost always use MySQL and have it run over PHP or JSP.

Unless a client specifically requests a MS product such as Access, I go the MySQL route. I even go so far as sometimes discouraging them to use Access.

Access is also very limited in the amount of data it can hold. If your site grows fast, as it should, you may run out of space with access.

Good luck

[TimmyMagic]

Thanks for your comments.

Although i don't know too much about it, I did think that MS Access may not hold enough info. I'm a bit gutted though, because the site I wish to model mine on looks good. I don't have any experience of MySQL so I will have to start learning.

Cheers,

Tim

[TimmyMagic]

Upon relaying my concerns about MS Access, the guy whose site I am wanting to model mine on replied:

"The dbase is efficient to about 2-300,000 members, whereafter a conversion to MySQL would be a good idea. This conversion is very simple - a programmer
could write a script for it in a matter of hours. I am not aware of any MySQL dbases for this kind of site."

Is he correct?

Cheers,

Tim

[killroy]

Well, I took long enough to do the jump to MySQL (not from MS but my own engine), and it was well worth it.

One I overcame my own fear of the onknown, it turned out to be much simpler then my previous solution. If you spend some time to get into ti you will find that not only is MySQL technically suitable, but also quite easy to mantain, run and program for.

SN

[txbakers]

Absolutely avoid Access for any web database. Use mySql. It's free and easy to get up and running on any platform server.

Access is a good desktop database, not a server, and can't handle web traffic.