I looked at Quartzy at one time. I thought it was nice. This parse site was presented to me and at first I was skeptical, but once I got in to it I found that I could do as much with parse as with any commercial product, and it?s free. I look at databases in a simple way. You need to be able to put data in (easy enough). You need to be able to manipulate/change data. And you need to be able to query data. If you can add security on top of that - that?s perfect.

What I showed you all yesterday does all of that. You never really interact with the database (though I of course can - and that is a bit powerful). None of my users see the actual data (I?m the only one). Most just query data. Only a few of us are administrators who can add/change data. It?s very powerful - really as good as anything I?ve used commercially. Realize that I have unlimited users (as opposed to commercial sites where you pay per user), and I have control of the data (it is off site - but it?s mine - not theirs - in a format I define).

Chemicals get an id on them. You do have to come up with a way to print barcodes that are scannable. Most ink jets will print labels for you - I do it using an old barcode printer. Works fine for me.

A few things I forgot to mention. To run the reports - you need to have pop-up blockers off (or allow the pop-up from my site).

Another thing is that this database is written for chemicals. But with a few changes - you could easily make it an equipment database (you can make it anything you want). So it doesn?t take a lot and you are entering beakers, etc?

I thought of using this for the total CHO package, adding training records, simple quizzes to show that people went through haz mat training, etc? I was going to have all of our students this year go to a page and put in their names and answer a quick question about our safety training. That would give me an easy database with electronic signature on when they did hazard training. Not a lot to change in the page to make that happen.

To use this on your site - you simply need to do 2 things. 1. Generate a parse account (free). 2. email me and I?ll send you a zip file. Put that file in a web place - browse to it - edit a few places to add your new javascript keys and such, and you?re good to go. You are adding data to your site right away. Very fast.

I?ll gladly help anybody with this if you?re interested. Just let me know

Dave

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