Dictionary database template

[Monica Macaulay]

SSILA folks - for the next bulletin/newsletter.  Algonquianist folks  
- something we can talk about at the conference...

**************

A group of us at UW-Madison have developed a Menominee dictionary  
database template (with funding from NSF) which we would be happy to  
share with any interested parties.  The database template was  
designed for our work on a Menominee dictionary but could be adapted  
for use with other languages without too much trouble.  It uses  
Microsoft Access as the front end and an SQL database as the back  
end.  (Because of the font required for Menominee, additional work  
was needed on the backend to allow our Unicode font to display  
correctly.)

There are new database programs in other office suite  
installations,and we believe you could easily use our template in  
those programs as well, if you wish, but some functionality may be  
lost.  We used MS Access 2002 aka XP.

You would need a database, either locally (for a single user) or on a  
server (for multiple users, or to allow use of the database from  
multiple locations) in order to adapt it to your own use.

On the server side, any kind of SQL database can handle this type of  
interaction; providing there is an ODBC driver for it.  We used  
PostgreSQL because of its simplicity, security, and in-house  
knowledge and support.  The database is run off of a server, in our  
case, to provide interaction for multiple users over varying  
distances; however, a local installation of a database for a single  
user could easily accomplish the same feat.  In addition to this, if  
you planned on running this over an ODBC connection, you would have  
to work with your server administrator to allow users to connect over  
firewall connections to ODBC ports, to troubleshoot the connections,  
and to allow access to the database from specific types of  
connections for specific users.  We recommend working closely with  
your server administrator to develop a secure connection policy.

We would be happy to share this with anyone who's interested but must  
stress that we would not be able to provide technical support.  There  
are still a few issues to be resolved and we are working to fix them,  
so it is important to note that this would be distributed *as is* and  
that you would need to customize it to fit your needs.  We'd be happy  
to share improvements we make, and we'd be thrilled to hear about  
what changes you might make.  Please keep in mind that this would be  
distributed as a template for how to use Access with a server  
database to create a dictionary, rather than as a program to create  
one.  Familiarity with MS Access (or a computer consultant who has  
such familiarity) would help the end users familiarize themselves  
with the template, and make necessary adjustments.

Keeping in mind our no-technical-support caveat, I would be happy to  
answer any simple questions (or refer them to our computer consultant).

Monica Macaulay
Department of Linguistics
1168 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI  53706
phone (608) 262-2292
fax (608) 265-3193
http://ling.wisc.edu/~macaulay/monica.html


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