n00b needs help

danswan

danswan

danswan

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Morning all

I am after some advice please. A task has fallen on me at work and I need to know if it is possible and the best way to approach it.

I'll elaborate.

I work for a software company and amongst other things, my job involves designing reports for customers which are then emailed back to them. We have a folder on the server containing a few hundred of these reports which have been previously designde and what I want to do is to catalogue them in some sort of database, with a web based interface that we can use to search when we get future report requests, to prevent us repeatedly producing the same or similar reports.

What I would also like is a system where in future, when a report is sent to a customer, we can then enter some details and upload the report into the same database so it is available for future use.

I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible - I have literally no knowledge of HTML, MySQL etc which are the sort of things I think I need to know. I've started trying to learn Dreamweaver but I'm still not sure this is the right direction to go in.

I have a few months to achieve this so if I need to learn something I am happy to do so, I just really need to know what I need to learn, if you know what I mean...

Suggestions and comments please....
 
yep it sounds like a sql reporting services type of thing to me too.

you should be able to do all of what you require with it and probably a lot more
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm not sure that is what I need - the reports we design are specific and it's not that side of things I need help with. It is the cataloguing of these files that I need. I think my use of the work 'Reports' is probably misleading, so can we think of them as just 'files' instead.

Each file has a particular purpose, what I would like is for me and around 8-10 of my colleagues to be able to open up a webpage which allow me to enter a description of the file and then to be able to upload it.

I then would like to be able to do a google style search for keywords which have been entered in the description and find files meeting my requirements.

Also, regarding resources, these are limited (although we do have a Dreamweaver license which is why I have been looking at that) so purchasing anything new is not going to happen unfortunately.

Any other ideas?
 
So you want a file management type system?

I take it you won't be building it yourself as you have no expierance of programming.. Don't really know or use any.

A decent file structure for what your after would do, wouldnt it?
 
One solution would be to document the specification of each of the existing reports, ie, data fields present in the reports, any sub sets of data based on the main data set, ccalculations, data field formats, sorting and grouping etc.

You could use an excel spreadsheet to store the specifications then either load that into access for filtering and querying etc or just use the excel file for retrieval of report contents via auto filter and some PivotTable or something along those lines.

The time consuming part is creating the specifications in the first instance, however, once documented you will be able to keep on top of it.


Rgds
Binty
 
Thanks

Yes Ciphon it's exactly that, a file management system. I was hoping to put something together myself, and learn a little along the way, but if that's too complicated then maybe I'll have to rethink.

Binty I had looked into using excel but I need to be able to easily upload the file into a database and have it available for others to download when required, and this doesn't seem easily possible in excel. The files in question are really small, 10-20Kb in size on average. Also I like the idea of having a google style search via a web interface if possible.
 
Have you got a SharePoint site available to you, you could upload them to a SharePoint site and use this to manage the reports via a web interface.

To get the excel file into access is easy, just import it with a macro linked to a button on a form.

However, there seem to be plenty options for you, good luck whatever direction you take.


Rgds
Binty
 
Hi Binty - we do have a sharepoint site, I'm interested in finding out more about managing the reports via a web interface - any ideas where I can find out more about this?

As an alternative, I have just found this which looks like it might be exactly what I need...
 
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