Thanks, Megan! I guess that helps scratch one off the list. Much appreciated.
Database software (ISO pros/cons)
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Hello all. Could anyone share some thoughts on the pros and cons of Dabble DB (http://dabbledb.com/) and/or Zoho Creator (http://creator.zoho.com/) as alternatives to Caspio for presenting databases online? Experiences (positive or negative) with any of the three would be appreciated; links to examples built on any of the three also appreciated.
The data/research unit I work with is looking to maximize the ability for users to drill down in our data and customize searches of medium-sized tables (up to about 4,000 rows and 10 columns wide.) We are interested in other alternatives as well, but I have less information about those two. We’re especially looking for platforms that enable presenting the database’s contents graphically. Thanks very much.
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In my experience, Zoho Creator does not do what you're looking for, at least not in an intuitive way. I've fiddled with it a few times and just didn't get what I wanted out of it.
I've never used DabbleDB, so can't advise you on that.
Megan Taylor
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For just basic put your database online and let the user look up his neighborhood/neighbor/whatever type of application I've always found the jquery plugin tablesorter to do everything I need -- which is what I see lots of people using Capsio for. It's free and it doesn't require you to learn whatever proprietary scripting language Caspio uses.
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Jason, Thanks!! This is much more helpful, and I really appreciate your taking the time to come back to it with more detail.
Thanks for reminding me about the REST API. It let me discover, despite no formal announcement, that the new City of Chicago data site (built with Socrata) exposes the API: http://data.cityofchicago.org/api/docs
I forgot it also has a REST API based in Python that you can tap into for your own custom visualizations or data formatting.
Also, the ability to enable comments on data sets and “filter” data. For example, If I want to access the some kind of logs, but I only want to see data from my county, I can create that filter and save it for myself.
You can also create filters and have people view those individually.
I’m sorry I should have been more specific.
I don’t use Socrata regularly (still stuck with Caspio for now) but what I remember from researching:
Solid data storage, fairly good uploading speed/storage
Dedicated ‘data’ page that you can link a subdomain to, fairly customized design
Embeddable data (including tables and visualizations)
Customizable visualizations – so far have pies, columns, bars that I know of, they are adding more as requested
Mapping isn’t the best I’ve seen (not as good as http://www.rhizalabs.com/, for example.) but it’s easy to use geocoded data.
Jason, Thanks. We’re also looking at Socrata as an option to buy. I was really looking for specific experiences with different software by people who use them regularly. Do you have any details about what makes Socrata fantastic? I’d really appreciate hearing them!