Database Basics

[Mark Schonewille]

Hi Tom,

I made a very simple database example, which you can find in  
RevOnline, username Mark. It keeps all data in properties. I have also  
a much more complex version, which has no problems searching for a  
string in several tens of thousands of records, but I must admit that  
it takes quite a bit of scripting to keep it speedy. Using MySQL takes  
this hassle away.

The Revolution documentation tells you how to connect to MySQL, but it  
doesn't tell you how to make correct MySQL syntax. The MySQL tutorial,  
available in the standard MySQL documentation at www.mysql.com is very  
useful for starters. Just start reading at the beginning. You'll know  
enough about MySQL within a few hours.

--
Best regards,

Mark Schonewille

Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
http://economy-x-talk.com
http://www.salery.biz
Dutch forum: http://runrev.info/rrforum

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On 7 dec 2008, at 22:37, Tom Cole wrote:

> Dear Revolutionaries,
>
> I made a sort of flat database with tons of redundancy in HyperCard  
> to track all of the birds I have seen for many years. I love it, but  
> it's time to move it to OSX and make it more efficient. I can easily  
> convert most of the data to comma delimited records like the  
> following with four items to sort: birdname,date,place,notes
>
> Abert's Towhee,8/8/1971,Cotton Fields Safford Arizona,scratching in  
> an arroyo
> Abert's Towhee,10/23/1971,Headlight Pond,mask particularly dark
> Abert's Towhee,11/27/1971,Verde River,heard only in the mesquite
> Acorn Woodpecker,12/22/1971,Mount Ord,spectacular sighting
> American Water Pipit/01/04/1972,Phoenix Sewer Flats,odd he was on a  
> fencepost
> Band-tailed Pigeon,01,20,1972,Sunset Crater Arizona,high in the  
> ponderosas
>
> I'm experienced with revolution and want to make the front end  
> interface using my familiar scripting -- then I can blaze away. But  
> imagine the above list with 17,757 lines. That's how many individual  
> birds I have seen and recorded. The field sorts fast in Rev by item  
> (date, birdname, etc.) in the field but that's about all I can do. I  
> realize belatedly that I don't know how the heck to make this  
> database. I want to filter out all the birds seen in a particular  
> place on a particular date and have that appear somewhere and  
> endless things like that.
>
> Is it possible to filter information quickly with 17757 records in a  
> field?  I know that's what SQL for (as the backend I think you call  
> it), but does Rev have the power to allow me to stay happily in Rev?
>
> Forgive my ignorance on this. I guess you might advise me to learn  
> SQL. If so, then if there is an easy layout or flow chart that might  
> help, that would be great. I tried a couple of the tutorials on SQL  
> available at runrev.com, but remain kind of stuck. What's an easy  
> book perhaps with a simple hands-on project?
>
> Thanks
> Tom