Web Databases for MadamCurry.com
 

 

Some Background.  As I've said earlier, this whole case arose primarily so that someone could develop a website with certain features.  Doing the purchases through emails and snail mail isn't as desirable as doing them directly online through credit cards.  But there are also plenty of other features that will work better on the web.
  • the client database is only resident on one computer
  • this single computer is not likely a server or on a hard drive that is accessible to some LAN workgroup

This implies that even if you copy this database to other people's computers, when one person updates something the others do not automatically have it.  This is a limitation of almost all client databases.

  • if the forms were web-based
    • everyone could input their own information
    • everyone would have the same form or format to work with
    • middleware would be validating the presence of particular inputs
    • people could likely update their own information online, assuming this sort of feature is built-in

There are other features that can be built into the web-based format

  • access to certain pages can be restricted based on some criteria such as
    • someone has bought the book
    • someone is on the email list

So, in general, there are quite a few advantages to having the database be accessible on the web