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I'm a noob wanting to learn MS Access/SQL

S

Syringer

Lifer
I'm a big time n00b I don't even know what it is I want/need to learn, but basically the situation is:

We work with online retailers who provide us with data feeds which us with information about all their products which include product name, description, price, URL, etc..and some of them include anywhere from 1000-100,000 products.

Our job is to take that data feed and export it to individual shopping engines such as Pricegrabber, Shopping.com, Nextag, etc., each of which has its own specifications for the data.

The software solution we use right now just increased its cost by nearly 10x, so that's becoming a bad option for us.

I want to eventually build a database system which stores all this information (we'll start with one merchant), and then can spit it out to different formats.

All it really is is a matter of taking say 1000 rows which have 10 columns, and renaming the columns around to fit our needs.

How should I start? Should I try out the "essential training" tutorials for Access/SQL? Should I start with Access or PHP/SQL?

Any recommendations?
 
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You should start with SQL. Period. SQL is the query language that nearly all databases (including Access now) that matter use. Once you know what you're doing with SQL, then decide what type of solution you need and work from there.
 
Sounds good..In terms of what I'm looking for then, would you or anyone have a suggestion where I should go afterward? Access, MySQL, etc?
 
It just sounds like you need to be able to query the same kind of data with different field names, field orders, etc. You can easily do that with access.

You just import the data into a table/tables, then maintain a set of queries that will allow you to choose what field you want to see. You can also assign aliases to field names, then save each query
 
Not sure on your exact situation, you might need a database, if you are just going to load and export data, without anything complicated and depending on your input format. If your input format is XML you can just look into performing transformations (XSLT). One input file, multiple XSLT(one for each destination), run the transformation and send the data.

Just an idea - a database is probably better but depending on your requirements this might work for you.
 
The end goal basically would be to have this stored in an online database somewhere, with say 40-50 merchants each with data feeds, and then import them daily (automatically) and then export them daily from there to multiple sources..from what I've read mysql is best from this, but am open to whatever.
 
If you don't have any SQL experience, this site would be a good place to start and they have areas that you can practice.

http://sqlzoo.net/

I learned the basics about writing queries from this site. Very helpful in my job as a functional analyst for Oracle at my company.
 
Start with Access. Just use a sample database, go to Queries, and switch the view to SQL where you can direct execute SQL statements. Access doesn't do some of the more advanced stuff like transactions and nested joins last I messed with it, but it's great to get started immediately experimenting with SQL basics as it has the server, and client all in one.

From there PostgreSQL and SQL Server Express would both work for you if you decide to get serious and go with something more professional and fully featured. From there you'll get to learn about connection APIs like ODBC and being able to connect remotely to a real database server and execute queries from just about anywhere or anything.
 
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Syringer said:
I'm a big time n00b I don't even know what it is I want/need to learn, but basically the situation is:

We work with online retailers who provide us with data feeds which us with information about all their products which include product name, description, price, URL, etc..and some of them include anywhere from 1000-100,000 products.

Our job is to take that data feed and export it to individual shopping engines such as Pricegrabber, Shopping.com, Nextag, etc., each of which has its own specifications for the data.

The software solution we use right now just increased its cost by nearly 10x, so that's becoming a bad option for us.

I want to eventually build a database system which stores all this information (we'll start with one merchant), and then can spit it out to different formats.

All it really is is a matter of taking say 1000 rows which have 10 columns, and renaming the columns around to fit our needs.

How should I start? Should I try out the "essential training" tutorials for Access/SQL? Should I start with Access or PHP/SQL?

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...


SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. Free, with good documentation. Download and use. SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE are the first things you want to look up (after you look up CREATE TABLE, or use the GUI to create a table) in help/google.
 
So it looks like MS Access for now provides a really simple way to manipulate these files.

However we're still wondering what the best method in d/ling the files that our merchants FTP to us, and then export them to other FTPs.

One way would be to get a desktop FTP client that schedules all the downloads at a certain time of day, then we have a macro that goes through MS Access and generates the new feeds, and then schedule an export from there too.

Or, would it be more efficient to write VBA code (I don't know VB at all have found some guides) and have the import/export process work off from there?

Any other suggestions would be welcome as well.
 
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