Need advise in DB development
 

I looking at developing a database that contains student information like contact information as well as class schedule, report cards and transcripts. I want the database to link to another database that contains teacher information like classes taught, and class roster (obviously the class roster is going to be generated from the student infomation database), and similary the report cards be linked to the teacher's class roster. There are some other functionality I want the database to have.

My issue is, what good is a database if there is no way to easily add entries, update infor and generate reports from the information. So, I don't know how to go about interfacing with the database. What I am leaning to is MySQL and interfacing it with web pages using PHP. The problem is using web pages may not be feasable because of security issues. Is there another way, maybe an easier way, to creat a database and interface with it?

Thanks,
Ionexchange

Most languages used in the commercial world have some sort of database connectivity available, whether it's built into the language or its libraries, or provided through third-party libraries.

As long as you design your database well, the choice of language doesn't really matter a whole lot. If you want ease of use, you can go with something like VB.NET, but if you're familiar with Java, C++, or C#, you can use those as well. For C++, you'll need to get a third-party lib, as database access isn't provided by the standard library, but both Java and the .NET platform have it included. You could still make it a web app with JSP, ASP, or what have you, but of course you then need a server, but making it a web app won't make it any less secure than a non-connected app. The only concern is that if it's going on the internet (as opposed to a school LAN or something), it's potentially the target of many more attackers.

Anyways, it's been a while since I've done any database stuff, but if I were you, I'd start by creating the database itself, and then decide on how to build the front end.