Need suggestions for a charity project

I'm doing GiveCamp again in a few weeks. A women's shelter is looking to build a database for tracking domestic violence, since there are no good official ones. They'll be sourcing from a few feeds, but mostly manual entry based on news articles.

They've got a WordPress site now, so we could do a plugin. Problem is all the ones I've seen that are flexible enough to do ad-hoc reporting are expensive - typically on a monthly basis, too.

If I were building this for myself I'd use a local database, possibly even MS Access until I needed multiple users, then switch to a real DB on the back-end. But I know my way around a database.

Since they're coming to us, I'm guessing they don't have a good data analyst in-house.

Basic requirements:
* Capture data into multiple fields. (They's saying up to 100 data points, no list given yet.)
* Ability to query and identify patterns, which would then become reports.

They haven't specified that the data entry or reporting needs to be web-based, but most of the clients at these events assume that.

What would you do? Are there any plugins or services to do this online? If not, are there any plugins or methods to simplify/automate pushing reports from a local DB to the web?

It is a beast* to run but it may be better suited to store "100 data points" and allow ad-hoc queries that an RDBMS.

The complete stack includes Logstash, which can be used to feed data into the search engine and Kibana, a graphical webbased front end that can be used to visualize things in various ways, including plotting on a map.

(The price is that it isn't really suited to producing traditional n-level text reports.)

* It is Java, so the more RAM, the happier it is. It is designed from the ground up to be a distributed system, so it needs to be detuned if run on a single box or it will eat it alive. That said, I have it running on a 2GB P4 based host and although sluggish, it is functional.

Post #418,859 by drook 7/12/17 1:26:30 PM 7/12/17 1:26:30 PM Reply	Need suggestions for a charity project I'm doing GiveCamp again in a few weeks. A women's shelter is looking to build a database for tracking domestic violence, since there are no good official ones. They'll be sourcing from a few feeds, but mostly manual entry based on news articles. They've got a WordPress site now, so we could do a plugin. Problem is all the ones I've seen that are flexible enough to do ad-hoc reporting are expensive - typically on a monthly basis, too. If I were building this for myself I'd use a local database, possibly even MS Access until I needed multiple users, then switch to a real DB on the back-end. But I know my way around a database. Since they're coming to us, I'm guessing they don't have a good data analyst in-house. Basic requirements: * Capture data into multiple fields. (They's saying up to 100 data points, no list given yet.) * Ability to query and identify patterns, which would then become reports. They haven't specified that the data entry or reporting needs to be web-based, but most of the clients at these events assume that. What would you do? Are there any plugins or services to do this online? If not, are there any plugins or methods to simplify/automate pushing reports from a local DB to the web? -- Drew
Post #418,863 by scoenye 7/12/17 11:18:30 PM 7/12/17 11:18:30 PM Reply	Elasticsearch? It is a beast* to run but it may be better suited to store "100 data points" and allow ad-hoc queries that an RDBMS. The complete stack includes Logstash, which can be used to feed data into the search engine and Kibana, a graphical webbased front end that can be used to visualize things in various ways, including plotting on a map. (The price is that it isn't really suited to producing traditional n-level text reports.) * It is Java, so the more RAM, the happier it is. It is designed from the ground up to be a distributed system, so it needs to be detuned if run on a single box or it will eat it alive. That said, I have it running on a 2GB P4 based host and although sluggish, it is functional.
Post #418,866 by drook 7/13/17 8:16:56 AM 7/13/17 8:16:56 AM Reply	Reading now, thanks -- Drew

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