Which is the best solution for shared database meeting these requirements?

Question

Which solution would you recommend which has:

• a relational database with a user interface
• access for 20-50 users potentially working in parallel
• user authentication
• log of changes
• customizable forms, to input data in the database
• different access rights levels (read, read & write, admin)
• data hosted on my server
• very little to absolutely no "programming" to be implemented
• as low cost as possible :)

Some background:

I currently have a Microsoft Access database, with different forms to facilitate the user interface. I would like to now give access to this database to roughly 20 users - so I need to be able to track who updates what.

Ideally I would like to have a Web 2.0 look and feel, but this is optional.

So far, I have looked into:

• Microsoft ASP.NET; but this seems to me like a lot of programming will be needed
• Open-source CRM, like Joomla, Drupal, or SugarCRM; though it looks like an overkill for my objective, and I am not sure it will be easy to implement or manage
• Zoho creator; this was the closest I have seen to my objective, but I understand the data is hosted on Zoho servers which I do not want

Any suggestion is most welcomed.

Answer 1

"Scafolding is usually some type of code generation where you point it at a database, and the technology creates basic CRUD (create, read, update, delete) screens." found here. Sounds interesting.

Is there an easy method to implement scaffolding?

Answer 2

Dabo looks interesting:

http://dabodev.com/

It appears to be something like Visual FoxPro but in Python.

Answer 3

So far, the closest I come to my objective was:
- an mysql database,
- an apache http web server,
- with phpmyadmin to administer the database,
all packaged in xampp;

But I am missing at least some front-end web forms, for example based on php, to let users view and edit the database content.

There are some tools that generate php forms. I have tested for example PHP Mysql Web Database Application Code generator. This software created for me with a click of a button a complete set of web forms, including menus, and forms to view and edit content. BUT... there were some bugs so I dropped it...

so I am still looking.

Right now, I am looking into phpmyedit for creating my web forms. It is free, and seems to work so far. I have created some forms. But I am not satisfied yet with the forms and need to customize them.

Answer 4

Programming frameworks like CakePHP, Django, and Rails all offer easy ways to scaffold an application. It requires more technological expertise than commercial database products, so you may need to hire a web/application developer to set things up for you.

That aside, I hear FileMaker is pretty decent. Not sure if it'll run on your hardware, but it may be worth looking into.