A question about SQL

[JohnoLFC]

Hey chaps,

I've been looking into PHP/SQL for a few days to put together a new site which can be used by my workplace. After looking at many directions (through amateur eyes), I think the best course of action would be to create a HTML site, which pulls through information stored in a database via PHP.

Before I begin this mammoth task, I have one question which would determine if I continue or not. Due to the devices and locations the engineers work from, the website would need to be put on an SD card. I know this would be fine with a HTML site, but I'm not sure how it works with databases. Would there be a way to store the database as 'static' on the SD card for the HTML site to pull the information from? Or would the database need to be stored on a server?

If the database does need to be stored on a server, would the end user need signal to access it?

Sorry for posting a vague question on here, but I really haven't had any luck from Google,

Cheers

[oddz]

The php files could be stored on a external drive. The database would need be dumped to an export file. Either way the end user would need to know how to set-up the site locally on their machine/environment for this to work. Which means they would have to install php/mysql/apache set-up local hosts, set-up a database and import the data. From the way things sound that seems highly unlikely. In short, a dynamic website can't simply be moved from one machine to another without setting up the environment and dependencies on the hardware required for a local web set-up based on the given technology being used. If this software is going to be used locally it would be more appropriate to make a desktop application a compiled language like c/c++ or java.

[SpacePhoenix]

There's a webserver (can't remember if it's a LAMP, WAMP or XAMP stack) that can be run off of a usb stick, I think it's called something like usbserver. Is there a central server which all the engineers have access to?

[JohnoLFC]

Thanks for the replies guys

Nah, they can access a server from a laptop...the only problem is that due to their remote work locations, a signal isn't always available. They only need basic instructions on error code resolutions, so the idea was that we can store the information in a database, and use a mobile HTML 'offline' site to pull and display the database info.

The idea seemed simple in my head at the time, although after spending a week on this I'm more confused than ever! haha

Cheers