Databases

[JessicaNunez]

I didn't know where to post this question. I'm sorry if it's in the wrong spot.

I am selling a product online and will have commission sales people working for me. I need to be able to track which sales were referred by which sales people. I thought that a code, given to the customer on a business card by the sales person, could be entered in at the time of purchase. Each sales person will have their own code, and somehow I need to have something set up that will keep track of it for me. I was told a database is what I need, but I know nothing about them. Where can I find information on how to build a database? Is it something I can do with HTML or do I need a special program? Thanks!

[hostingspeeds]

You can go to http://www.hotscripts.com/
They have tons of scripts there.

[Stephen Philbin]

You can get many databases for free, that's not your problem. Your problem is going to be getting the data into the database and having the database structured and implemented properly and making sure people can't cheat the system. For that, I'd strongly recommend you hire a professional to make sure it's done properly.

Offering work here is against the terms of use though. You can find a developer from Jupitermedia's subsidiary site - http://www.dice.com/

[buntine]

Data modelling should not be taken lightly. I would also recommend you hire a developer/analyst.

Regards.

[ray326]

I agree with Buntine. If your business depends on this then get a professional developer to do it. It sounds like you're looking for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) so one tactic might be to get someone to review open source alternatives in that domain.

[JessicaNunez]

I appreciate the help! Where can I get a database for free?

[ray326]

Almost any Linux distro you install will have MySQL and PostgreSQL on it. There are also a couple of good ones that run on Java.