Advise on database for Steam Risers 1

[PMEGR]

Good Day,

I'm a General Engineer working within in the government doing PM work. My group members have been tasked with creating a database of the steam risers we have in our government building. And we were told by our supervisor, that he would like the database to allow the users to type in a room number, output the steam risers, and what returns go to the room. Vice versa if a user insert a steam riser number and it outputs the room numbers that coordinate to the steam riser.

I'm a little new to doing something like this. But what kind of software would we use to utilize a database for something of this magnitude. Instantly I think Microsoft Access. But my team members think Microsoft Excel but see some drawbacks. What would you all think would be best to utilize for this particular job/method?

Thank you.

 

[SWComposites]

Suggest Excel with maybe some VBA macros.
Access is a pain to learn if you have never set up and programmed a database.

 

[mk3223]

Unless the application parameters are welly defined with complexity, the latest Excel program with advance function should be a simple and useful tool to solve the majority of the engineering problems today.

 

[3DDave]

This is a perfect application for a Wiki. It's a database backend with a web interface front end so only a web server is required and no one else needs to install anything. They can be locked down with passwords against changes or access as required.

The structure would be simple - each room has a page and each riser has a page. The room pages just have a link to the riser. You can look at "links to here" on a riser page to see all the rooms that are linked to the riser. You can have a reference page of links to all rooms and a reference page with links to all risers, though those would be manually maintained. Errors are typically by linking to a non-existent page (where the link will be flagged that way) or a page that is created and not linked to (can be found by asking the Wiki about orphan pages.) One can verify by searching for all pages starting with "Room" or "Riser" if required. Not nearly the problem that editing a database can cause.

Wikis have an editor built in and keep a history of changes and who made the change. If a password to make changes is enabled, the related user name is available. Otherwise the IP address of person making the change is recorded.

It would take less time to start adding this to an existing Wiki than it has to write this out.

Better than a database, the Wiki will also give a place to add any other information about the risers or the rooms that is relevant, no additional design effort.

 

[PMEGR]

Hello everyone, I'm seeing some good suggestions by everyone. let me evaluate with my team members and get back to you all if we have questions. I wouldn't of thought of a wiki usage. Do you have like any examples of these things be utilize for a system similar to what we're trying to do through an Excel database or through a Wiki application?

Thanks.

 

[MintJulep]

If your first post is really the full set of requirements then all you need is three columns in an excel sheet.

I'd use a separate sheet for the user interface to avoid people messing up the data.