Thanks JPD,
Your No.2 idea sounds best to me too.
Is there any kind of existing modification that I could use? Or can you suggest where I start? I am prepared to put the time in to get this set up but I'm just not sure where to start. I am good at modifying existing perl script but I not too confident at starting from scratch.
Also, If I set this up using DBMan will I have trouble when I upgrade to SQL?