Decission Making! yayy!

WinterDragon

Alright, so I am supposed to be programming something that documents the reports submited everyday by people, they will range in reports. They are all going to be different errors... For instance: 691, 678, No browse, and just different DUN errors such as that. But here is the catch, no database usage... not that I don't have access to it, but upper management does not want to use databases... long story. So what I am needing to know, is what should I use? XML or text files? I will have to continually append to it, but only for a day because they are archived files. Ok, so here is what needs to be stored, just for a rundown... each file will be named as the date is: 2004-05-20.txt or 2004-05-20.xml or whatever it needs to be... Alright in there, will be stored, lets say 5 things: Username, password, issue occuring, dial-up number, techname
so, now thats what needs to be in these files, and there might be 40 of these per day, all different of course, but that information will be in there. They will be appeneded to at the bottom of course. And it needs to be searchable to where I can search for lets say 691s on a certain file, count how many there are, and what numbers they are on... etc. So I am needing opinions on what to use to get this accomplished, without databases... (grumbles here). Thanks for any opinions.

AstroTeg

Personally, I'd lean towards the text file. Maybe comma delimited or something like that so you can keep the data organized. With delimiting it, you could, in theory, import it into Excel or Access pretty easily and then do whatever search or reporting tricks you like.

nasty_psycho

I personally Suggest you to you XML FILES.
and you can use one xml file for all the dates ( that would be easiter to manage through your script.

and XML is a world wide standard so you can edit it and work on it from any programming language and/or platform.

Weedpacket

All this of course is merely an attempt to reimplement databases in-house, instead of using existing database software. Does your management realise this?

Incidentally, I've mentioned a textfile-based SQL DBMS a couple of times on these forums. (Oh, and XML files are text files - just formatted a particular way 🙂).

If you're not planning on exchanging these files between different applications or organisations, then XML is kind of overkill; you already know what format the data is in, you don't need the file to contain all that handholding stuff as well. Your data just doesn't sound complex enough.

WinterDragon

I know XML files are text files with a specific format.. I've tried explaining reasons to use mysql but he won't listen... bah. Ok ok, so here is the thing, like you said, create an inhouse db...etc.. Whatever, but maybe explain further on the textfile-based SQL DBMS... (I am assuming Database Management system?). Anyways... I will search for it, but just explain a bit... 🙂

Btw, one large file? er... It is supposed to be really searchable, and as well... like maybe a few hundred megs.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by WinterDragon
Btw, one large file? er... It is supposed to be really searchable, and as well... like maybe a few hundred megs.

Oh, ye Gods, and the PHB's don't want a database? Why don't they ask you to write a whole new operating system while you're at it? Do they actually have any arguments against it?

Anyway, I used Google to find the package I mentioned: PHP Text DB API (a flat file database supporting SQL) (knew it had the abbreviation "API" in it somewhere), but I'm going to strongly suspect that it will bark like a dog on that sort of scale. Oh, well. It's not like MySQL or PostgreSQL is expensive or anything....

(I am assuming Database Management system?)

Yeah; a DBMS is the software that manages your databases. Not to be confused with the databases themselves (though all too many people do!).