Hi, I have been searching for a good Database Engine, and I've found DBMan to be excellent quality. I have tested in on a database of over 8000 records and it works flawlessly.
My problem is that I wanted to create a search engine that would search multiple databases for a given name (ie John Smith), in one go. (ie. 1850 Census Report, Ship Passenger List, Cementary List etc) and produce a lined report of the given name occurences.
I thought at first this may be impossible, if not very very difficult, as each of the databases have varying number of fields.
However, I thought that it might be possible if I simplified the script. As it would be an open to all search engine, there would be no need to use or modify the 'add,delete,edit,modify,login,logoff,or even admin' functions in the script. Just the search query function.
Secondly, the one common field in every database would be the second field storing the name of the individual ie John Smith (the first field begin an id number), and this would be the only available search criteria.
I thought with these limitations it might be possible.
I have make a sort of outline..
First, the user would select various databases to search through checkmarking the boxes, type in an individual in the search field, and press go
The Script would then one by one search each of the selected databases, and return the results all on the same page (for example)
1850 Census Report, Essex County
John Smith, Age 34, Sex:M, farmer...
1645 Passenger List, The Mayflower
John Smith, Age 24, From: England
that's a simplied version of course.
For the programming part of it, I need help.
I assume that I would need a different .cfg script for each database. And I was hoping that the built-in html report template would suffice, since it just uses the field variables in the cfg.
And hopefully, the search function could be put into a loop to search each database one at a time, and then on to the next
How would I implement the check box buttons for each database, and put the search function into a loop that would be based on the databases the user chooses to search.
and then return the results on a single page
To me it seems too easy but I'm definitely not a programmer, so I may be missing some problems that the script would be faced with. Am I oversimplifying things? Can it be done?
Thank you in advance for your help
Trev
My problem is that I wanted to create a search engine that would search multiple databases for a given name (ie John Smith), in one go. (ie. 1850 Census Report, Ship Passenger List, Cementary List etc) and produce a lined report of the given name occurences.
I thought at first this may be impossible, if not very very difficult, as each of the databases have varying number of fields.
However, I thought that it might be possible if I simplified the script. As it would be an open to all search engine, there would be no need to use or modify the 'add,delete,edit,modify,login,logoff,or even admin' functions in the script. Just the search query function.
Secondly, the one common field in every database would be the second field storing the name of the individual ie John Smith (the first field begin an id number), and this would be the only available search criteria.
I thought with these limitations it might be possible.
I have make a sort of outline..
First, the user would select various databases to search through checkmarking the boxes, type in an individual in the search field, and press go
The Script would then one by one search each of the selected databases, and return the results all on the same page (for example)
1850 Census Report, Essex County
John Smith, Age 34, Sex:M, farmer...
1645 Passenger List, The Mayflower
John Smith, Age 24, From: England
that's a simplied version of course.
For the programming part of it, I need help.
I assume that I would need a different .cfg script for each database. And I was hoping that the built-in html report template would suffice, since it just uses the field variables in the cfg.
And hopefully, the search function could be put into a loop to search each database one at a time, and then on to the next
How would I implement the check box buttons for each database, and put the search function into a loop that would be based on the databases the user chooses to search.
and then return the results on a single page
To me it seems too easy but I'm definitely not a programmer, so I may be missing some problems that the script would be faced with. Am I oversimplifying things? Can it be done?
Thank you in advance for your help
Trev