Thread: Easy but over my head

My question is simple, What should I do?, its my situation that's complex.

The result I am looking for is to have a program (later an app) that will search/browse a database of equipment based on model numbers or equipment type returning records which will include more information about the equipment being searched. Right now I have the info in Excel file however I could move it into Open Office.org/Base or some other Database. I also have downloaded JDK and a MySQL server client.

I have unsuccessfully searched for some off-the-shelf solutions. So now I am thinking about making something myself.

I am not sure if this is easy or hard?
If java is the right thing to use?


Any ideas or help will be greatly Appreciated and If doing it myself is the way to go then I am sure you all will be hearing much more from me.

Thanks

Java can certainly do what you require, but it's now all down to you.

The difficulty of this task all weigh on your requirements. If you want a simple toy program which holds 100 models in a database, then a light embedded database with simple normalisation would be easy to do.
If however, you need a an application which has access to hundreds of thousands ++ of products, which are all access concurrently by many users, you would be stepping into a new zone of indexing and concurrency.

As you've just only downloaded a JDK, then I assume it's going to be the first one but even simpler.
If this is your first introduction to Java, I recommend you start with something more basic. Like hello world.

Thank you for the advice.
I did just run thru "Hello World" it was helpful and informative. I am now getting setup with Netbeans IDE as I have read that it has a nice visual interface, is good for beginners and better for making GUI apps, which is what my end goal is.
I do think that a "simple toy program" is what I am looking for it will have hundreds not thousands of records and only accessed by 2 or 3 people concurrently at most.

If you could please explain more about this "light embedded database"? would this mean I would not have to convert my excel file into a database platform?

Thanks again you guys are the best

Embedded databases are ones which run with your application, tightly integrated but don't need a server. (This might not be a correct definition)
Although I believe some E.D's support concurrent users, I would suggest you go with MySQL for 3+ people, but others might disagree.

Moving data from a csv file is the least of your worries though, as It's probably the easiest part.
I wouldn't recommend you use Netbeans GUI designer though, not unless you've learnt the foundation materials for the GUI side, as it can lead to major issues further along.