I've been lucky to be the one to build my school's Intranet and want to make it as dynamic as possible, but not too dynamic as the server needs to also process a million other tasks as well (it is being hosted on my school's Novell NetWare server to easily control access).

The technology department usually loans out school copies of software directly out of the software library. The problem is, no one knows EXACTLY how many copies of Windows XP, Photoshop, Office, etc. there are and the list of staff who signed out copies is currently taped to the wall and is a mess.

I could easily figure out a way to store ONE entry, but because there are multiple copies, that won't work.

There needs to be an admin backend to not only add and edit, but to remove as well. I've done adding rows and editing, but I've never done removing entries.

Thanks for any help!

[N]F

huh ? could you be more precise ? What is the problem you have, and how can we hlep you ?
what you are saying looks like the need of a shared Excel spreadsheet. Or do you prefer having a database table with a php display program ? is this your question, "how to write down a program displaying and managing the context of a table with four columns and a number of lines" ?

If it is a 'small' datatable, try using a Comma Seperated flat file. They are simple to work with. And could be exported / imported into Excel or most other decent speadsheets as well.

didn't notice where is the question yet, please make it clear so we may help you in that matter, but if you need some kind of databases stuff that makes you able to do that, i think that MySQL is so good with PHPMyAdmin installed, it gives you the power to add/edit/delete entires, tables and even databases, hope this helpful for you, otherwise make it more clear to us
P.S: Both of them are free/opensource software, but pay attention to MySQL License.

This post has been edited by XIII: Mar 3 2006, 09:38 PM

OK, let me try to sum this up:

I need help with a MySQL database that stores the following information: Software Title, # of copies of Title, and people to whom the software title is lended to.

Now, the admin backend doesn't need to be password protected as the entire system is going to be installed on a Novell NetWare server so permissions will be set. The backend needs to be able to add a title and number available (I know how to do this) and to "sign out" software out (I don't know how to do this)

Example: I load the "software library" page which displays all the software in the database. Then in the admin backend, I want to lend out 2/5 copies of Windows XP so I add two names of people who signed out the disks. The "software library" page then needs to change the qty. for Windows XP from 5 to 3. Then when I get the disks back, I delete the people who signed out copies and then the qty. changes back to 5. I also need to be able to add and remove software titles from the admin backend.

I don't know if this helps, but I think I can figure it all out. What I really need help with is DELETING a row from a database table.

OK, I just got a new idea while typing this. Each software title will get a "profile" page in the admin backend. Now I would like to have a button that will DELETE the entry from the database. How would I do this?

Thanks!

[N]F

To delete a row of information the SQL for MySQL would be
DELETE FROM tablename WHERE clause

To delete a column from a table the SQL would be
ALTER TABLE DROP columnname

Not quite sure what you are wanting to drop, you might just want to update a table like
UPDATE tablename SET column = value, column = value, ...

Hope that helps, now you can drop a row or a column or change the contents of a particular column in a database using one of the above SQL queries.

Maybe, there could be another approach.
what you want to do looks like je job a libraty software does.
So, maybe you could look for a freeware library software, knowing a stock of books (here a stock of software CD and docs) and checking who has the thing and checking the return back to the shelf.

I'm up for a lerning experience, but currently just getting NVIDIA drivers installed on my linux box alone is enough of a challenge. I might do just that. After all, that's pretty much what it is... except instead of books, it's software CDs.

[N]F

I can find lots of place that suppot MySQL and PHP,but why i can't use N@board and Zero board??