News
24 June 2008
Lip-DB now with Super-Easy Install
Lip-DB version 0.1.2 has been released with the major new feature being the
Super-Easy Installation feature. It is now no longer necessary to perform complex
configuration to set it all up - allowing any non-expert to set it all up quickly and simply.
Other new features include better cross-browser support, links added for related
records and better filtering for invalid user input.
Version 0.1.2 can be downloaded from
here.
5 March 2008
Lip-DB version 0.1.1 Released!
The latest version of Lip-DB has been released and is available for
download.
Important bug-fixes have been included which will ease installation and allows
it to run on PHP 5. If you had difficulty running version 0.1, please try again!
Security was the primary driver behind this release: login is now required to
use the database. A user management function has also been added. Images are now
viewed as thumbnails on the search results/table browsing page.
What is Lip-DB?
A free, easy-to-use Data Management Tool
Lip-DB is a small, free, and easy-to-use tool to allow you to manage
your important data with a minimum of fuss and computer knowledge.
It doesn't matter how much data you want to store, Lip-DB is as quick
and easy-to-use as an Excel spreadsheet for storing data - without
all the disadvantages.
Why not use Excel?
It's easy to see why people reach for Excel when they suddenly realise
they need to store important data such as customer's names and
addresses - it's almost certainly there at the moment, it's very simple
to use and at first fulfills all your data needs. So why shouldn't you?
It doesn't scale well
Excel is great when you only have 10 customers. But what if your hobby
business starts to grow? Excel becomes more and more difficult to use
as you put more and more data into it. Even with just 50 customers,
Excel can be trying and you start to run the risk of losing data accidently.
Lip-DB is just as quick and easy-to-use as Excel, but it will work just
as well with 10, 50, 500 or 5000 customers.
Only one person can use it
One of the biggest problems with Excel is that only one person can
use it at a time. When more than one person needs to access the data,
it's very easy to lose data. Lip-DB provides easy access to anyone
who needs to use the data at any time, with no risk of data loss.
It's a pain to migrate
The above two problems with Excel are the most common ones which
cause people to realise that they need a better solution. But if you
started off using Excel, you have all that important data which needs
to be migrated to your new solution. This is often very difficult
without computer expertise.
It is necessary to avoid using Excel
for data storage altogether to avoid this problem. If you don't
start with Excel, you won't need to migrate. Lip-DB is a free,
simple alternative to avoid these real issues.
Microsoft Access has the same problems
Don't think that you can avoid the above issues with Microsoft Access
either. Although Access is better than Excel when it comes to scaling,
as databases go, it is an inferior solution. Lip-DB uses MySQL, a free,
high-powered database which allows scaling just as good as the most
expensive database that you can possibly buy. Furthermore, many
people can use it as once, which is not possible with Access.
Avoid the Excel/Access traps right from the beginning!
To avoid the traps with using Excel and Access, you need to use an
alternative right from the very time you think to yourself "I need
to store this information somewhere." Lip-DB is a free, open-source
alternative that provides you with the easy-to-use data storage
capability that you need now - and the scaling and multi-user
access that you'll need later.
Try Lip-DB right now!
A working
demo is available right here! You
can easily
download the program from Sourceforge. A
super-easy installation walkthrough
is provided for people who know nothing about webservers and databases,
as well as a
custom installation walkthrough
for those who have existing databases they wish to use with Lip-DB.
The
Getting Started page tells you how to
begin using Lip-DB. If you need
help, you can contact me at dox96 at users.sourceforge.net, or post
a question on the
forum.
Important Security Information
Lip-DB has some basic security capability which, with a little care by
the user, should prevent access to the database by unauthorised users.
However, as data flowing to and from the server is not encrypted, if
it is used on a public website, it is not suitable for storage of
highly sensitive information, such as credit card details.
Usage on a stand-alone computer or on a private internet should provide
adequate protection.
