Data Storage newbie
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At the moment I'm looking to write a simple extension to the build recorder sample provided with VC6 to log the ammount of time a user spends in the IDE, and the events some of the events that they trigger whilst the IDE is running - build / open workspace / close workspace. The idea is to start collecting some information about who and how developers are using the IDE and what they are working on. The end idea is to automate time-sheets and metrics for a final year project next year. I've just completed a very introductory course in databases and SQL and I've had very minimal exposure to XML (my background is robotics so this is out of my programming 'comfort zone'). I'm feeling swamped with choices / alternatives for data storage. * I've got a copy of Access installed, and I've used a sample from CodeProject to use MFC to interface with an .mdb file - I'm fairly sure that with enough playing round I can get MFC to do what I want, but I'm much more comfortable with the STL way of doing things. * I've played with Xerces for a while, and I know that I can get that up and running to parse the data if I end up using XML. I haven't use XPath or XQuery before, and I'm not sure what I need to use them. * Currently the output is to a flat file, but writing my own query routines or even using something like perl seems a waste. * I just visited the MySQL site, which as an STL-like interface for C++, which I would be most comfortable with, but do I need to download database drivers or install servers to get running? The problem is choosing which type of system to use to store the data. - I don't know exactly what summary data I'll need - I'm not even sure the problem is big enough to warrant a database - I don't know exactly how I want to present the data - I'm not sure that once I've got the data from my queries that I'll be able to present it in an appropriate format (images of graphs? html?) - What other tools do I need to know about? Crystal reports? - Storage space isn't an issue - Execution speed isn't an issue - Flexibility, extensibility and maintainability are issues. I'm willing to listen to any advice or suggestions, tips or directions
If you can keep you head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts you aim; Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it. Rudyard Kipling