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Combined info, news, links

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Combined info, news, links
Hi there,
Sorry if I post a qeustion thats allready asked, but I couldnt found a good answere.
Some info first:
- I installed dbman (its a breeze! :) )
- I have looked at the possibilities of "links" .
- I like to have one program does it all.
- I have space enough (our sponsor give it all)
- We have no sql (to expensive)
- We have 10 - 1200 visitors a day.
(depend on the actions of our non-profit foundation)
(I see in the preview that I cant use tabs in here to show some context in the listing below, so I rework the thing)

Well, I like to have a program that have:
A. links:
1. with a picture,
2. with the URL,
3. with a subscription,
4. with a rating and short remarks,
5. with catagories with description,
6. with subcatagories with description.
(I tought I make a db for:
- catagorie
- subcatagorie
- a db for each subcatagorie)

B. Information (same a links)
C. News (catagories and a db for each catagorie)

The questions:
1. Can this all work together (without conflict) with one db.cgi?
2. If I'm in the db program at catagories and I pushed at a link to the next (subcatagories) program to start that with a given sub, will then the catagorie program close first and free the db program (and the server memory) ?
3. Is there a way to get those db's relational?
I would be greatfull for advise :), thansk in advance!
Regards Karel (secretary foundation Child Defence NL, the org HESP (social thing for the poor) and De Computeroloog (Helpsite for victims of abuse)).



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Re: Combined info, news, links In reply to
Karel:

I think your best bet would be to go with using a relational database. Since you are having a subscription to your database you may want to create say the following databases (example names only):

1) Members - as your main database.

You would then be able to maintain all the member information within this database and bring it into your other database displays as needed.
This is where people would signup and from there you could provide the access to the other databases.

2) Links -
3) Information -
4 ) News -

I'm not sure if I understand what you want to do with the categories and subcategories? Would these just be selections of where people are to be listed? If so, you could just provide the selection and have them choose a category and provide the description. Or are you going to have predefined descriptions for all the categories?

There is a mod in the resource center to create a relational database, and also a sample file with the setups.

There is also an excellent DBMan tutorial which contains information regarding setting user permissions, etc. And a great configurator which can be used to setup your initial fields and page layouts. From there you would just need to change the html coding to your specifications and needs.

There is also the FAQ noted below which provides many tips and tricks that have been presented in the support forums over the past couple years. You would find many ideas and options to help you decide exactly the best way to put this all together.

Hope this helps to get you started, please ask any further questions as you move along with your database.


Unoffical DBMan FAQ
http://webmagic.hypermart.net/dbman/
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Re: Combined info, news, links In reply to
First: Thank you very much for you clear and usefull explanation :).
I get started with this.
Second: Answere to your question about catagories;
One list of catagories isnt clear enough to find.
I give an example: We are working on a list to find first aid centers for victims of abuse and/or others that are treated badly, all over the world.
There are many countries with more then one helpcenter, but also many sorts of helpcenters.
So wouldnt it be logic to put up first the country of your choice, read there what the specifics are for that country (desription) and then the sort of helpcenter one needs (with there specifics in a description).
They promised all the helpcenter-adresses of a well known Christian organisation and we have some already. I think we got a db with thousands of centres in the end.

Then we have a list of therapist and therapy with the speciality, where they live, if they are willing to help for free or give first aid, etc, etc.
Think about how many sites there are with information that is relative to the goals I named. They have to be split up to give more sence to a listing by catagories.

Well thats explain it I think (sorry for the length, but I like to be clear).

Greetings Karel.


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Re: Combined info, news, links In reply to
Karel:

I have many ideas floating around in my head as to how you can do this.

You could make this a directory and have the countries be a category also .. this way people can search by country and then locate the various helpcenters (as another category) or have other options.

I do want to mention that I also think it would be a great idea for you to use the userfriendly short/long mod for your databases. This will make it much easier to work with and you can define all the main variables for all your databases in one file (format.pl)

I can't stay online long this morning as I'm waiting for a phone call, but will send you a private message for sharing ideas.

Unoffical DBMan FAQ
http://webmagic.hypermart.net/dbman/