MREInfo.com

I've been getting more and more requests for MRE nutritional information. I've been collecting a bunch of the info - saving posted info from places like longlifefood.com, beprepared.com, etc. - and also saving the labels from most MRE parts I eat. So I have a lot of info and now it's just a matter of getting it entered into a database of some sort that I can easily post to the web.

Do any of you have any suggestions of a way to do this? I'd like to make it so that I can grant the members here access to add their own MRE nutritional information - that way, the database ought to grow big pretty quickly.

The best option I've seen so far is an online database site called dabbledb.com. I can create a free database there if I don't mind the data being available to all or I can make a private database for $8 per user per month. The single user price isn't too bad but if I want to set it up so that 5-10 people can make their own entries, that'll get expensive fast. The public option isn't that bad because the information is going to be public anyway but the for-pay account options seem a little nicer.

If you're thinking of recommending something like MySQL, that's great - I'm with you. But the problem is that we need a nice GUI front-end to develop the forms and make data-entry easy. Any recommendations for front-ends that are nice, clean, and easy-to-implement would be great.

what about filemaker pro?

it has a web engine.

Funny you should mention FileMaker Pro. That's actually what the database is residing on now on my PC. But to make it web-accessible, I'd have to hook a PC directly up to the Internet and that's just not a "good thing" to do with a Windows-based PC. Ideally, it'd be something I could host off the same unix-based account where MREInfo.com is hosted. That way, I can use the MySQL databases I'm already using.

So far tonight, I've tried out http://www.dadabik.org/ and http://www.phpmyedit.org/ . Both programs are nice for what they do but they still aren't quite there for me.

You know, KMan, I'll read carefully all the nutritional information from the MRE label when I'll be somewhere in the snow, frozen to death "No, that's too much sodium! And there's too much calories, I'll be getting fat!" Only fat will be on the bear who will eat me.

You americans simply can't enjoy your lives.

ak, I'm assuming you're just being funny but if there was any seriousness to your post, let me just say that most people who contact me asking for nutritional information are doing it for one of these reasons:

1. They're allergic to specific things (soy, milk, nuts, etc.) and eating the wrong MRE can seriously hurt them.
2. They're nutritionists or students doing a project on MREs and are curious about the nutrition and contents.
3. Their digestive systems are sensitive to things like high fat or nitrates and must avoid certain quantities of those things.

So while I'll agree with you that when you're stuck in the cold woods with nothing to eat, probably the last thing on your mind is going to be how much sodium is in your entree - but there are very good reasons why people outside of that situation might need to have that information.

Yeap, KMan, you're partially right. But I'd like to see new pages about foreign rations instead of an nutritional database. I'm selfish, I know.

Point well taken!

SQL would most likely be the best but most labor intensive. I'd also look into creating something with Access and integrating it with the .net framework. I've heard of it being done but these are things I pay people to do for me. If you would like me to ask around, PM me with some specifics and I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for the suggestions, spinhouse247. SQL is my preferred database of choice since it's already on the site - but the real problem is that I need a front-end to build the user interface - the part where people can add records, update then, search them, etc. I could probably put together the MySQL database itself in 10 minutes...but putting all the stuff togther to access it is the time killer!

oracle front end!

*wanders off*