Alright, so let me explain how I got here.
We're a small company in a small office with a small budget. Did I mention we're small? Anyway, we have been wanting to transition our company databases (largest has 30,000 records, smallest around 1,000 records) to a web browser-based solution for some time, but have been unable to because we're small and don't have resident programmers to build our custom web interface for our database. We're used to using Filemaker Pro and we'd like to maintain the same ease of use for the end-users. We like web-based for the common reasons, namely, platform independent, access from anywhere, and no software licensing fees (sorta).
Remember that I said our budget was small? That means we can't afford to pay monthly hosting charges to host our databases somewhere. We don't even upgrade our Desktop software because if it ain't broke... So, we are looking for a DIY solution that has a quick learning curve and relatively low level of tech expertise required and little to no maintenance costs other than man-hours to perform occasional updates or upgrades. Something like Wordpress but for custom databases implementation.
I've looked around the web for solutions and mostly what I have found are either cost-prohibitive hosting solutions, cheap hosting solutions that are going out of business, free hosting solutions that are too limited in capability, broken or abandoned open source projects that don't seem very promising, suggestions to alter a stock CMS (like Drupal, which feels a little like trying to make a screwdriver do a hammer's job, or better converting a screwdriver INTO a hammer to get the job done), and then there's Alpha 5.
Alpha 5 is an intriguing idea, and it sounds promising in terms of what we're trying to do. But I do have some concerns.
1. I'm afraid that we're using a swiss army knife to spread butter on bread. What we're trying to achieve is very low tech. No iPhone or Android implementation, no shopping cart, no chat or banner ads. Just data basics, like you would get when you open up Filemaker Pro...search, display, print, export records, etc. Isn't there something even simpler than Alpha 5 for what I'm going for?
2. Standards and options. Now I may be displaying my ignorance here, but the sales rep I spoke with said that these apps only run on IIS servers and that they use XBasic predominently. Is this a choice, preference, or what? All of a sudden I feel restricted. I'd like the option to export my apps in PHP and run on a Linux box w/ Apache using MySQL. It's the de facto web standard. I presume it would be a lot easier to find support with PHP than XBasic and easier to find cheap hosting on Linux boxes than Windows boxes. In any case, I like options and I dislike proprietary oriented solutions less and less each minute.
3. Costs. Besides the upfront cost of the license, I'm guessing we'll need to pay for "mentoring" which could quickly add up. In fact, in the end, it might be cheaper to contract a PHP programmer to write a custom front end to a MySQL database. Even though the learning curve is relatively small from general consensus, there seems to be a definite learning curve for novices.
So, in conclusion, I'd like to drink this cool-aid, but I'm just not on board yet. I'm on the fence. I'm feeling like we're in an age where there should be a cheap solution for our simple needs. Ideas?
We're a small company in a small office with a small budget. Did I mention we're small? Anyway, we have been wanting to transition our company databases (largest has 30,000 records, smallest around 1,000 records) to a web browser-based solution for some time, but have been unable to because we're small and don't have resident programmers to build our custom web interface for our database. We're used to using Filemaker Pro and we'd like to maintain the same ease of use for the end-users. We like web-based for the common reasons, namely, platform independent, access from anywhere, and no software licensing fees (sorta).
Remember that I said our budget was small? That means we can't afford to pay monthly hosting charges to host our databases somewhere. We don't even upgrade our Desktop software because if it ain't broke... So, we are looking for a DIY solution that has a quick learning curve and relatively low level of tech expertise required and little to no maintenance costs other than man-hours to perform occasional updates or upgrades. Something like Wordpress but for custom databases implementation.
I've looked around the web for solutions and mostly what I have found are either cost-prohibitive hosting solutions, cheap hosting solutions that are going out of business, free hosting solutions that are too limited in capability, broken or abandoned open source projects that don't seem very promising, suggestions to alter a stock CMS (like Drupal, which feels a little like trying to make a screwdriver do a hammer's job, or better converting a screwdriver INTO a hammer to get the job done), and then there's Alpha 5.
Alpha 5 is an intriguing idea, and it sounds promising in terms of what we're trying to do. But I do have some concerns.
1. I'm afraid that we're using a swiss army knife to spread butter on bread. What we're trying to achieve is very low tech. No iPhone or Android implementation, no shopping cart, no chat or banner ads. Just data basics, like you would get when you open up Filemaker Pro...search, display, print, export records, etc. Isn't there something even simpler than Alpha 5 for what I'm going for?
2. Standards and options. Now I may be displaying my ignorance here, but the sales rep I spoke with said that these apps only run on IIS servers and that they use XBasic predominently. Is this a choice, preference, or what? All of a sudden I feel restricted. I'd like the option to export my apps in PHP and run on a Linux box w/ Apache using MySQL. It's the de facto web standard. I presume it would be a lot easier to find support with PHP than XBasic and easier to find cheap hosting on Linux boxes than Windows boxes. In any case, I like options and I dislike proprietary oriented solutions less and less each minute.
3. Costs. Besides the upfront cost of the license, I'm guessing we'll need to pay for "mentoring" which could quickly add up. In fact, in the end, it might be cheaper to contract a PHP programmer to write a custom front end to a MySQL database. Even though the learning curve is relatively small from general consensus, there seems to be a definite learning curve for novices.
So, in conclusion, I'd like to drink this cool-aid, but I'm just not on board yet. I'm on the fence. I'm feeling like we're in an age where there should be a cheap solution for our simple needs. Ideas?
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