Writing a DB-Oriented Web App - Platform?

[raindog308]

I have a huge comic book collection.  My database of it is very out-dated and I want to re-inventory and create a fresh database.  I'm not a desktop programmer so I'll probably do a front-end as a web app.

I could certainly write something from scratch using php/perl/python (+MySQL or even SQLite).  But I know there are a ton of frameworks.

Should I use a general-purpose framework like Laravel?  Or is there something that's better for database-oriented apps?

My only concern is that typically general purpose frameworks have awful SQL/DDL.  I would prefer to have, for example, one table of publishers and then an FK for all books that were published by that publisher, rather than repeating "Marvel" 5,000 times.  Then again, the entire DB will probably be less than 20MB, so...maybe it doesn't matter 

I really want the GUI front end mainly for data entry.  Typically if I'm headed to a shop or show I take a print-out with me...though if it was online, maybe I could just look live.  But still, a pre-tagged report is all I need.  Just keeping track.

I'll be the only user so it doesn't have to be pretty as long as it isn't too cumbersome...

Recommendations?

 

[Nikki]

Laravel has an AMAZING ORM called Eloquent. You can have relationships defined in your model to attach it to a publisher, and also get all books for a publisher too. When loading a book, if you defined your publisher relationship under "publisher()", you could do $book->publisher->(whatever field it is), allowing really easy access to information when using the Blade templating system (which is also really amazing)

Your best bet is probably Laravel, since it offers the most and is the easiest of all the frameworks I've used to pick up.

 

[drmike]

Not a very complicated system.

No framework needed for this one unless for some reason you are already happy and proficient with one. 

As for your data de-duplication, you are normalizing the data into respective silos - like breaking Marvel out to publishers.

While daunting, perfecting the SQL up front, it's a learning experience you'd benefit from and we'd put our minds to slapping some queries together as a group.  Minimal queries in such a project.

 

[raindog308]

While daunting, perfecting the SQL up front, it's a learning experience you'd benefit from and we'd put our minds to slapping some queries together as a group.  Minimal queries in such a project.

I worked as a DBA for seven years...I don't need more SQL practice  :lol:

Was just wondering if writing something from scratch or if there was a framework that was designed for this, or if a general-purpose framework was best.

 

[trewq]

Something like this shouldn't need a framework.


Because of the volume of books you may want to consider inputting them by scanning the barcodes. Plenty of online resources for book barcode lookup.

 

[stim]

I started using Ruby-on-Rails with Hobo and I'm enjoying it.

http://www.hobocentral.net/

So easy and quick to set-up a functional db-backed site. 

 

[jcaleb]

Hi, boss. Give portofino a shot. Can do CRUD without coding. Might save you time.

 

[jcaleb]

http://www.manydesigns.com/en/home