I know very little about programming and such like but I am planning to create a horse racing program that can do the following:

A large database, to do it manually would take forever so if there was a way I could get the info from a site and pull it all together into a database, that would be excellent.


To use the database mainly to sort out the data depending on what I was looking for, say a horse running at a certain course with a certain jockey on board and to present this information in a presentable way. I assume that its easy enough to sort a database and for the results to be listed but to do this with a neat interface is the aim.


Probably also be able to take this info and work out statistical calculations with it.

Now, I dont know if this is possible but if it is can someone tell me how I can do it?

Thanks, Martin

: I know very little about programming and such like but I am planning to create a horse racing program that can do the following:
:
: A large database, to do it manually would take forever so if there was a way I could get the info from a site and pull it all together into a database, that would be excellent.
:
:
: To use the database mainly to sort out the data depending on what I was looking for, say a horse running at a certain course with a certain jockey on board and to present this information in a presentable way. I assume that its easy enough to sort a database and for the results to be listed but to do this with a neat interface is the aim.
:
:
: Probably also be able to take this info and work out statistical calculations with it.
:
: Now, I dont know if this is possible but if it is can someone tell me how I can do it?
:
: Thanks, Martin
:
:
:
:
Hi Martin,
I Have not Understood the first part of your question...
From what I understood you wish to have a program with a front end in which a user enters details of the reports he wishes to get .... then the program searches the DB to get the details requested and performs the various operations(calculate Statistics etc..) and then Displays it to Him in a Proper formatted order..Am I right??? But then i didnt get the part about getting the data from a Web Site????

First of all you have to decide what data you will be storing in the database...Like here do you wish to keep the previous history of the races and what details of the race you would like to store..

Next you decide on how the user Is gonna Interact with the system... ie what details can he request for and waht statistics r going to be shown to him....

Depending on u r Requirements u decide the business logic that U will use to calculate the Statistics etc.Most of this can be done in the front end itself..

Bye,
MacNeil

Thanks for the reply.

Im working on getting the data at the moment and have that sorted just about.

Once I have it I will have years of racing results, including race position, jockey, trainer, class of race etc etc. What I want to be able to do is have the information in the background so to speak and have an easy to use interface. Then via menus, the user can, for example, search for the % of races won by a certain horse with a certain jockey and such like.

For a better idea, the demo on www.raceform.co.uk is what Im aiming for.

: Thanks for the reply.
:
: Im working on getting the data at the moment and have that sorted just about.
:
: Once I have it I will have years of racing results, including race position, jockey, trainer, class of race etc etc. What I want to be able to do is have the information in the background so to speak and have an easy to use interface. Then via menus, the user can, for example, search for the % of races won by a certain horse with a certain jockey and such like.
:
: For a better idea, the demo on www.raceform.co.uk is what Im aiming for.
:
Hi,

You might have to learn some kind of Scripting Language(if you Plan To use WEB Interface) for the front end .... The Business Logic can be Implemented using JAVA or you could use anything you feel you can be comfortable with....(however I guess since you have no previous experience programming and have to start learning a language anyway i would suggest Java... But go Ahead and Learn any language you feel you can be comfortable in...)

Once you Have decided what is going to be incorporated you design the logic and the flow of the program....(example if user request for this data what should be done..like retrieve results etc..)

You will also have to decide how and What data has to be stored in the DB...(I guess u have Alredy Done That)..Plan out what PL/SQL procedures you might need..
Performance Issues of the DB also Have to Be Considered....(things Like Indexing, Storage parameters etc..)

Do tell me which language you plan to work on...
Bye,
Macneil

Sounds heavy going! I'd be as well to use Java as I am using that to get the data into the database