Databases and things....

[Murray_H]

I am planning a small project that I have been thinking about for a while but I don't know where to start on the programming side of things.

The project is basically a program which will allow the user to search for a certain page by way of a number of criteria, either via an individual criterion or a combination of them. This will all be carried out through a pretty graphical interface.

As I have very little experience in the realms of databases I would appreciate some guidance; what database would suit my purposes best, and what is the best way to learn about such databases. N.B. I am assuming I need to use a database, but if this is not the case then let me know! Oh and how do databases interact with interfaces? I haven't been able to find much on how the two tie together, especially with regards to editing apperances.

Thanks xxx

 

[Asus]

I've taken a couple of classes dealing with databases but I'm far from an expert at this point. You could use MS Access to make a database. And I know when I worked with Visual Basic .NET for a programming course, I could refer to Access databases or one I made within VB .Net for use with the program.

 

[Cole]

A database just makes it easier to store and retrieve information. Although for speed considerations it's not my preference.

I prefer to write out all my data into an XML file(Program generates this upon save).
On Program Load it will load the xml file up, then put the proper data into my own arrays, classes, and what-not.

If a database will benefit you all comes down to how you use the database. In the database you could store all the page, tags for all the pages, etc.. However at the same time could instead make a class that represents a page, tags, data etc.. then have an array of this class and search through it when they do a search based on the tags and whats on the page.

For me, if I was using C++ i'd go with a database. Less handling with strings.
If I was using C# I would make my own custom class to store information, and have an array of this classes.