[BiO BB] database design question

[Pooja Jain]

Hi John,
About four months back I was in the same state as you are. Then I decided
to use MySQL and it went fine with me. Its very easy, even for novice and
you will get very good manuals/Tutorials (online and books) to learn it.
You can use Google to find the one that suites you. Though, you can start
from www.mysql.com.

Although I never used MS Access, but I can assure you using MySQL will not
be difficult. Once you have done with the conceptual model (class or
entity diagram) as other list members have also suggested, you can easily
convert it to a relational model using MySQL data model.

MySQL is providing new feature with its every new release where various
integrity constraints are being solved gradually. Also handling more
tables is not a problem with it. Making Queries across multiple table and
collecting fields for different tables in a single result set is quite
easy.

I am not an advanced user of MySQL but certainly it has some exceptional
features (that I am in process of learning !) that has made it so popular.

Moreover, with the growth of java and the rise of database-powred web
applications, in future you may need to use java as well as may want to
write small PHP scripts. These two technologies goes well with MySQL.

Following book will be a great help for you to start:

"Understanding SQL and Java Together - A Guide to SQLJ, JDBC, and Related
Technologies"
Authors : Jim Melton and Andrew Eisenberg
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Good Luck.
-Pooja
>
>
> On Sat, 2004-02-21 at 17:28, Rowland, John G A wrote:
>> I am currently in the process of building a small database in MS Access
>> for the
> purposes of storing (in a computationally searchable format) protocol and
> results
> data from published and unpublished material.
>>
>> I would like to be able to search this database for a particular
>> gene/protein and
> see all instances of its occurrence, regardless of the use of synonyms and
> not
> restrictiong it to only pulling out a specific Accession number.
>>
>> Unfortunately I am unsure of the best table/relationship setup to
>> acheive this!
>>
>> Can anyone offer any insight into this problem? (I have googled and
>> googled for
> about 6 months...)
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> John
>