Gentle-DB

A simple web database written in PHP, licensed under the GPL.

Goal

The goal is to allow anyone to create a simple database for the web. No need to install and manage a database server, no need to code an interface. The web interface should build itself automatically from a description of the schema.

Design

schema -> web interface -> dbm
Currently, the schema is a text file. It is a 2D array that describes tables and fields.
The web interface is written in PHP for portability.
The database is any one of the dbm hash tables, such as gdbm.

Examples

Perhaps you want to keep track of your books.
Your schema file might look as follows:

$schema = array(
   "books" => array(
        "ISBN" => "",
        "title" => "",
        "author" => "",
	"publisher" => "",
        "purchase_date" => "",
        "purchase_price" => "",
        "notes" => ""
        )
);

Here is the result
Now, lets say that you want to create a table for publishers.
Edit the schema to add a new table called publishers, and have the books table point to it.

$schema = array(
   "books" => array(
        "ISBN" => "",
        "title" => "",
        "author" => "",
        "publisher" => "publishers",
        "purchase_date" => "",
        "purchase_price" => "",
        "notes" => ""
        ),
   "publishers" => array(
        "name" => ""
        )
);

Here is the result
If you loan these books often, you might want to keep track of that.

$schema = array(
   "books" => array(
        "ISBN" => "",
        "title" => "",
        "author" => "",
        "publisher" => "publishers",
        "purchase_date" => "",
        "purchase_price" => "",
        "notes" => ""
        ),
   "publishers" => array(
        "name" => ""
        ),
   "friends" => array(
        "name" => "",
        "phone" => ""
        ),
   "loans" => array(
        "friend" => "friends",
        "book" => "books",
        "date" => ""
        )
);

Here is the result

Notes

Don't use spaces in field names. Renaming fields just creates a new field and ignores the old field, so don't try it yet. The first field of any table will be used in drop-down lists, so make it unique.

Get the Code

gentle-db.tar