Hi,

I've been involved with databases mostly with Filemaker and Filemaker server, but I've had a customer approach me asking for a simple database, without Filemaker. I'm just not sure what solution I should use.

They want it accessible anywhere, which would suggest a web database. But they only have 3 users - 2 in the office and 1 in another location. So if I suggested a local database with an import routine and gave them the pros and cons they'd consider it.

The database they want is primarily a simple contact database, holding the names and details of contacts for the organisation. They have a hosting company that supports PHP.

Does anyone have any suggestions / advice? I just feel that a php hosted database is a bit overkill for such a simple database and I'm worried about the speed of updates to information. I'm also not sure what to suggest otherwise, as they're adamant they don't want to install Filemaker, and filemaker runtime databases can't run over a network.

Thanks,

Jo

use php and a web-based solution

princessjoamy

If you only have 3 users and you just want to access a bunch of contacts then why not just use Google Docs and just provide read/write access to each of the users involved. It wouldn't provide forms etc to fill out but it would be an easy way of allowing 3 people to maintain a document containing contacts at the same time.

I know this isn't a database solution and if you're using this "database" for mail shots etc then it won't work. However, if you're just needing to maintain a simple list of contacts, then this is a simple solution that requires no effort.

Mike