Hey Guys

I am looking, (with hardly any prior experience; some unix scripting knowledge), to write a Time Record program, which keeps track of how long people spend on each tasks. This may incorporate some Billing aspects at Version 2.

I am willing to learn all the programming aspects required, and invest in neccessary literature, research, to gain the skills required to complete the project, but I would really like some direction, on where to focus this effort.

I would like a GUI front end, in which the user can enter;

- Username, (Drop down list)
- Task performed, (drop down list)
- Task Ref - field
- Time spent on task - field

Additionally I want the program to track the time of entry, and some extra info to track "Task Performed" to a relevant department. I would then write a script, to get different data from the database, to export to Excel.

The program would likely be run by many users at the same time, (so I think that rules out using MS Access).

Last constraint, I can't spend any money on new software.

Here is the software that I have; Studio MX 04, MySQL, PHP + Appache, MSSQL, Visual Fox Pro (old), SQL advantage, Hummingbird Exceed, SQL advantage.

I am thinking something along the lines of SQL database, php GUI is required, but I'm not an expert, so that's why I need some help. I would be grateful if someone would point me in the direction of how this could be best achieved, and what programming language / database combination would work best, and what software to use, (any freeware advise), to get this working. I can work off that, and do the rest.

Thank you for taking the time, Regards, David.

All of what you desire can be achieved using a high level language, such as java or possibly c#. Java has the advantage of being a cross platform based language, so I would be inclined to go for that.

One disadvantage- you may have to learn databasing techniques common to the language you decide to write it in.
I'm not sure how easy it is to port from an SQL database if your main program is written in something else. Anyway there's your food for thought.