As part of my job, I am the webmaster and database administrator for my department. My department is a small support group (18 people) in a company of 1200 people.
My site on the company Intranet serves basically for two purposes. The first is to speed up the work of the department by making needed information easy to find. The second is to allow other groups in the company to track the progress of their requests as they go through our department.
Currently these two purposes are accomplished by storing info in an Access database and then dynamically displaying on a Win 98 machine using PWS. The static content for the site is displayed on the company Intranet Apache server and then there are links from there to my Win 98 server. When I began with the database and website two years ago, I did not expect it to evolve into what it is today. It is still not a major site, but it does get 20 to 50 hits per day, and it is relied on by the department as an information resource and for creating management reports, etc.
The result is that I spend a lot more time programming than I did originally as I add functions to the site. I am looking for ways to make my life easier as the administrator. One of these ways was moving to PHP from ASP about six months ago. PHP integrated easily with my existing PWS/ASP architecture, and I have been slowly converting legacy ASP code. The result is that I can offer better functionality to my users with less time commitment on my part.
I would like some advice on the costs and benefits of moving my database to MySQL. My impression from reading about MySQL is that it would make dynamic database access from PHP easier to program. My initial thought was that I would try out MySQL for Windows to see if I liked it and then consider moving my whole database to the Unix world (Solaris) and the Apache server. However, my first impressions of MySQL is that it is very user-unfriendly. I'm not afraid of command line interfaces, but I miss the GUI environment of Access. In fact I find it very hard to even begin constructing a complicated database or porting my existing database from Access.
Am I going about this the wrong way or should I even be attempting the move to MySQL at all? I would appreciate any input. I can offer more specifics about my database if needed but I feel like I'm getting long-winded already.
Thanks in advance.
My site on the company Intranet serves basically for two purposes. The first is to speed up the work of the department by making needed information easy to find. The second is to allow other groups in the company to track the progress of their requests as they go through our department.
Currently these two purposes are accomplished by storing info in an Access database and then dynamically displaying on a Win 98 machine using PWS. The static content for the site is displayed on the company Intranet Apache server and then there are links from there to my Win 98 server. When I began with the database and website two years ago, I did not expect it to evolve into what it is today. It is still not a major site, but it does get 20 to 50 hits per day, and it is relied on by the department as an information resource and for creating management reports, etc.
The result is that I spend a lot more time programming than I did originally as I add functions to the site. I am looking for ways to make my life easier as the administrator. One of these ways was moving to PHP from ASP about six months ago. PHP integrated easily with my existing PWS/ASP architecture, and I have been slowly converting legacy ASP code. The result is that I can offer better functionality to my users with less time commitment on my part.
I would like some advice on the costs and benefits of moving my database to MySQL. My impression from reading about MySQL is that it would make dynamic database access from PHP easier to program. My initial thought was that I would try out MySQL for Windows to see if I liked it and then consider moving my whole database to the Unix world (Solaris) and the Apache server. However, my first impressions of MySQL is that it is very user-unfriendly. I'm not afraid of command line interfaces, but I miss the GUI environment of Access. In fact I find it very hard to even begin constructing a complicated database or porting my existing database from Access.
Am I going about this the wrong way or should I even be attempting the move to MySQL at all? I would appreciate any input. I can offer more specifics about my database if needed but I feel like I'm getting long-winded already.
Thanks in advance.