Please Help!!!
Hello
I need to create a application that will keep track of hardware problems on the computer we run. The old way they(users) used an excel spread sheet to keep track of hardware problems.
Now I want to create an HTML page with text boxs a couple of buttons...and after they type in the problem they press submit and it either needs to be written to a database or written to the excel sheet and email a list of people the problem that was just summitted...
How should I create this?? Should I use HTML with JAVAscript?? How would the emails be sent?? What does it take to do this?? I am not a HTML programmer. So please help...
I need to create a application that will keep track of hardware problems on the computer we run. The old way they(users) used an excel spread sheet to keep track of hardware problems.
Now I want to create an HTML page with text boxs a couple of buttons...and after they type in the problem they press submit and it either needs to be written to a database or written to the excel sheet and email a list of people the problem that was just summitted...
How should I create this?? Should I use HTML with JAVAscript?? How would the emails be sent?? What does it take to do this?? I am not a HTML programmer. So please help...
I'll prefer PERL
the easiest way would be to install iis, or personal web server and then you can use HTML with .asp files.
.asp is an easy-to-learn scripting language that can connect to databases, write and read files, and so on.
there are tons of examples available, and lots of free source code.
if you HTML pages are simple you might want to use visual interdev, or some other "visual" tool to create your pages,
then you don't have to know much about HTML.
the advantage when using .asp is that it is inserted inside the HTML code...
.asp is an easy-to-learn scripting language that can connect to databases, write and read files, and so on.
there are tons of examples available, and lots of free source code.
if you HTML pages are simple you might want to use visual interdev, or some other "visual" tool to create your pages,
then you don't have to know much about HTML.
the advantage when using .asp is that it is inserted inside the HTML code...
Personal Web Server is a perfect choice for windows 95 and / or windows 98. If you have a windows 2000 machine then it comes with IIS 5. PWS can be found on the windows 98 CD or can be downloaded at Microsoft's site. If you have a different web-machine that the ones I wrote above you should probably look into Apache webserver.
Once you have a webserver set up, you will need to have a database in which you can store the information. Depending on the web server you can use different scripting technologies on the server. For windows system / webservers you can use ASP in which it is VERY easy to make a connection to, for example, SQL server or a plain Access database. The database should be designed in a correct way of course, but looking at your question there should not be too much information in the table. A couple of fields should be enough with a unique identifier (autonumber), title, description... I think those fields should already be sufficient, but that's up to you.
The webpages which should be downloaded to the client in which they enter their information can be easily built using a normal text-editor or with a WYSIWYG tool like Frontpage, dreamweaver etc.
You will also need 1 form on your page which has the action set to a system page (one of the asp-pages for example). Once the form is submitted to that page you will do the back-end processing like connecting to the sql server or any other kind of database, and use an insert statement to insert the record in the database, which you can then later retrieve in any of your webpages again for a list of all bugs (just an example).
If you need help with the server-side coding I can probably help you out.
Regards,
CJ
Once you have a webserver set up, you will need to have a database in which you can store the information. Depending on the web server you can use different scripting technologies on the server. For windows system / webservers you can use ASP in which it is VERY easy to make a connection to, for example, SQL server or a plain Access database. The database should be designed in a correct way of course, but looking at your question there should not be too much information in the table. A couple of fields should be enough with a unique identifier (autonumber), title, description... I think those fields should already be sufficient, but that's up to you.
The webpages which should be downloaded to the client in which they enter their information can be easily built using a normal text-editor or with a WYSIWYG tool like Frontpage, dreamweaver etc.
You will also need 1 form on your page which has the action set to a system page (one of the asp-pages for example). Once the form is submitted to that page you will do the back-end processing like connecting to the sql server or any other kind of database, and use an insert statement to insert the record in the database, which you can then later retrieve in any of your webpages again for a list of all bugs (just an example).
If you need help with the server-side coding I can probably help you out.
Regards,
CJ
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Your problem is not simple. For that reason the solution is not simple too.
I preffer next method:
Use of SQL server, Web server and Transaction server.
Allmof this is possible to resolve with Sybase SQl Server, PowerDinamo, Jaguar Transaction server and PowerSite for developing application (presentation).
If You are interested in it post some comment/question for me.
I preffer next method:
Use of SQL server, Web server and Transaction server.
Allmof this is possible to resolve with Sybase SQl Server, PowerDinamo, Jaguar Transaction server and PowerSite for developing application (presentation).
If You are interested in it post some comment/question for me.
ASKER
Can you guys point me to a website that will walk me though the steps of sending emails??? Is there a site that does this and maybe I could cut and paste code and then tweek the code to my liking..?? I will be doing this on a NT 4.0 workstation. Please point me to freeware Webserver stuff?? My boss does not want to pay for anything, but he wants it done...
Check out: http://www1.domaindlx.com/
they also have some pages that show you how to send emails, and they support database access! Including some additional help on those.
Regards,
CJ
they also have some pages that show you how to send emails, and they support database access! Including some additional help on those.
Regards,
CJ
ASKER
Can you guys point me to a website that will walk me though the steps of sending emails??? Is there a site that does this and maybe I could cut and paste code and then tweek the code to my liking..?? I will be doing this on a NT 4.0 workstation. Please point me to freeware Webserver stuff?? My boss does not want to pay for anything, but he wants it done...
ASKER
I think you pointed me in the right direction. I am giving you the points...thanks for your help
ASKER
I think you pointed me in the right direction. I am giving you the points...thanks for your help
Glad to be of service. If you need additional help related to the question you have asked here (ie. what to use or what to do...but not things like code-writing) you can ask them here and I will try to help the best I can.
regards,
CJ
regards,
CJ