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ColorWerx Data - Need Help


TruColor

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Hello all...not sure I'm posting this in the correct forum, but...

I recently purchased a maxed-out iMac (27", 32GB RAM, 4GB VRAM, 3TB Fusion Drive) after years of working with antiquated Dell laptops. (My former laptop was vintage 2006.) Even though I will continue to work on my various ColorWerx-related databases via Windows (I'm using Boot Camp + Parallels 9), it is high time that I move all of this data out of MS Access into a different back-end, and also come up with a better way to generate the color swatch images.

I've been toying with moving the data to MySQL; this would allow me to work cross-platform between Windows and Mac, and also finally get out from under the sizable limitations of using Microsoft Jet. However, I really need advice for the presentation of the data itself. For years now, I've been running Access reports and using SnagIt to save the report as a PNG image. This is SO laborious and honestly a colossal waste of time. And, I don't like the look of them anyway...since these images are essentially created from a Print Preview function and have highly pixelated fonts.

I would appreciated any advice as to how to move this to a better format...obviously, I need a complete overhaul of my site: I have a Creative Cloud subscription, and am thinking of using Dreamweaver to build a new site, and for certain I need to make the data searchable and data-driven. I'd like to incorporate my blog into the site as well, and have the ability to post projects (RGB-optimized) within the site itself.

I'm looking for feedback/advice/comments from any of you that might have ideas. First and foremost is the redesign of the site, but the presentation of the color data is key for me as well.

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Not totally versed in the database and database visualization world, but have you thought about using a CMS for the site at all? It could give you a user-friendly front end very quickly, and house your blog all in one. I just think of building a site of this magnitude in Dreamweaver and cringe -- but to each his own :) Wordpress is so easy to work with and manage that it would probably make managing your site a little easier, too.

The site I manage at work uses a separate database for insurance plans, which is visualized in PHP and pulled through in an iframe on the website (the plans are managed through a separate backend than the rest of the site). Could be a solution for you. Depending on how your workflow operates, that would make things a lot more automatic — but I'm sure it'll require a good bit of MySQL and PHP knowledge and coding time.

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I echo Doug's sentiments about Dreamweaver. Get a good CMS site built. I've been using DotNetNuke for a while. It's free, is a very good complement to Dreamweaver (I do all of my coding in DW and import it to DNN), has tons of free and pay modules, and is heavily supported.

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"I secretly hope people like that hydroplane into a wall." - Dennis "Big Sexy" Ittner

POTD - 7/3/14

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OK - interesting. I've been looking at Wordpress anyway...I don't really have time to reinvent the wheel anyway. I'll look at DotNetNuke as well.

Thanks.

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