[vox-tech] collaborative data storage (of excel files)

[Gandalf Parker]

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008, Jimbo wrote:

> "The next step up, sorta, might be to set up a web server with a very
> simple CGI for appending records to the CSV and committing, accessed
> via a web form. From there you could proceed to using an low-admin
> database if you wanted."

Im glad I read thru the answers because that was the direction I was 
heading also.

Apparently its a huge database (unless you are doing extensive math things 
then it should be a database instead of a spreadsheet). But the 
individuals are not working with the entire database?

I would grab a LAMP book. There is even a dummies version which is usually 
great for getting a feel for something and deciding if you want to read 
further. L.A.M.P.  Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (or Perl).

Or you might even want to NOT go with direct updates. Use an old standard 
form CGI to retrieve data if necessary, take the changes, then process it 
by script. The script can update the database thru MySQL, AND also save 
off the original input with info on time, date, terminal, etc for tracking 
and verification purposes. If the updating of the database is done by cron 
working whats in a queue directory then it would simplify avoiding file 
access collisions.

Gandalf  Parker