I was looking for a personal database system. The only one I could find was MS Access. Too expensive. So, I want to make one on my website, which is set up to use ASP 2.0. I'm using Microsoft Expression web. I want to have a protected directory where I can use the database. I've 6+ years writing SQL statements, and built MS Access applications, and I'm familiar with XML, and a little familiar with ODBC connections, but have never actually built a database, except a few XML records for a small .net application. Any suggestions about where I could start, or maybe a suggestion about where I could get a stable personal dbs for ~$50.

What plan type do you have? Most of our plans come with a free MySQL database, which is an enterprise level database platform.

Check out, http://mysql.com/, for more info.

http://www.hostmysite.com/support/mysql/

Thanks nathacof:
MySQL runs ~$600. Of the thousands if not millions of programmers there are in the world, I wonder why there are only a very few database authoring applications, and even fewer options for home users.

Anyway, I've installed MS SQL 2005 Express with .Net 3.5. That is a really cumbersome product. I worked with it a few years ago. The learning curve is steep. I'll use that for the web and give sqlite a shot for home use. Thanks.

MySQL's dual licensed, it's a free product, and MySQL Community Server is a full fledged server. The only real additions for enterprise are client/analysis applications and support, the server part of it is free and the same for both community and enterprise.

Also, if you want a really great SQL compliant db, postgresql is a good one. It's not supported at HMS, but for personal use (and production use on a ded server or elsewhere), it's a great product.

dbodner thanks. I did not know that about MySQL, and had not seen anything about PostGRE-SQL even lately, so I'll check them out.

I did take a look at SQLite. The first thing I saw was #include <stdio.h>, which I hadn't seen since OOP began. The message that I got from that, rightly or wrongly, was that if I didn't want to pay the big bucks for Access that I could just write a db from scratch. So I got a chuckle for the day. Haven't been back to the db work yet. It's on a list.

Have a good weekend.

UPDATE

MySQL was acquired by SUN in January, and PostGRE-SQL uses Apache server. That said, the best choice for me would be to adopt MSSQL for all my database needs. That way I only have to learn one set of commands (language) over the range of web and home based programming tasks that include data modeling, design, security etc. The other consideration was software integration. I don't need the headaches associated with developing for two or more platforms, even if they 'can' be integrated. Given the choice of diving into multiple library pools, I would rather stick with the single MSDN library just to keep things (simple).