Local Organization's Database Project
I just started volunteering with a local organization that works with the homeless. They were looking for someone to help with creating a database for holding their clients' exit survey results.
Initially, the project was going to be done with Microsoft Access. I lightly suggested LibreOffice, but they said they preferred Access in this case. I didn't want to argue since I'm just starting there. There may be more room for free software in the future if I stay with them.
I created the structure for the database and started making a form that would be used by other volunteers to enter data.
While creating the form for data entry, we ran into some problems.
I started thinking about alternate solutions involving something like PHP & MySQL, but I don't have very much programming experience, and I'm not sure how long they want to wait for my solution, or if they would be able to provision a server or whatever to host the web application.
They are now thinking of using Google Forms. I played around with it some and it might work for them, however it's not free software. In addition, Google does not respect freedom/privacy.
Are these my only options, or are there others I am missing?
I am a translator!
MDB tools can open files in Microsoft Access's proprietary formats and export them to .csv format which you can then import into other database management software such as SQLite.
Does anyone have experience with building a form-based GUI? I'm thinking of using GTK+ and Glade with C code, but I feel like it's kind of a steep learning curve.
Could I use some kind of HTML form? Something with PHP perhaps? It would be running on a local computer there, not a real server, by the way. So like localhost.
I'm not convinced that they need a database yet, either, so SQLite is on hold. I'm thinking a CSV text file might be enough.
Trying to explore all my options.
A tutorial for HTML Forms, if you go that way: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Forms
Do not forget to make your JavaScript (if any) free software: https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/free-your-javascript.html
> They are now thinking of using Google Forms.
Limesurvey is a good free replacement. I used it recently, and it seems to have more features than Google Forms, potentially giving you a practical argument for using it. The moral argument is more important, but if that doesn't convince them it is better to make a practical argument than to use the proprietary software.