Need help creating a database

Greetings. I want to create a database for recipes. I have finally found a program that can download recipes from resources online. The program allows you to export a recipe as HTML and plain text. As of now, you can't mass export them. It has to be done one-by-one. That's not my concern at the moment. I have some database experience and I'm learning more and more at work. I'm going to use Access, unless someone knows of a free database program for Mac.

1. How should the recipes be stored in the database?

2. Let's say I export a few hundred recipes into separate text files. What happens next? I've been brainstorming... Would using Excel as a middleman help at all?

3. I'll update this when I think of more questions. I think the organization of the database is my first challenge.

Thanks!

Quote from akkkmed : Greetings. I want to create a database for recipes. I have finally found a program that can download recipes from resources online. The program allows you to export a recipe as HTML and plain text. As of now, you can't mass export them. It has to be done one-by-one. That's not my concern at the moment. I have some database experience and I'm learning more and more at work. I'm going to use Access, unless someone knows of a free database program for Mac. 1. How should the recipes be stored in the database? 2. Let's say I export a few hundred recipes into separate text files. What happens next? I've been brainstorming... Would using Excel as a middleman help at all? 3. I'll update this when I think of more questions. I think the organization of the database is my first challenge. Thanks!

Many ways to do this. You can create a table for each category of recipe, like Breakfast, Dessert, Pies, Lunch, Brunch, Dinner, etc. How you want to organize your tables is completely up to you.

Records can be input into those tables with fields for recipe name and recipe ingredients.

What happens next after exporting is that you'll have to find a method that you would prefer to put that information into the database you created. You can create a form in Access to allow you to input this information in one recipe at a time. To automate the importing into the database from an HTML or text file would be difficult unless there are clear markers for recipe name and the ingredients then you could use VB to parse out that information and take the marked areas and put into the database however you like.

have you looked at something like this http://www.inakasoftware.com/
not sure which OS you are using you mention Mac then Access there is no Access for Mac?

Something like evernote might be a good choice. The closest free equivalent to Access would be: http://www.openoffice.org/product/base.html
Which does run on a mac.

Paid choices would include bento and file maker pro. If you really want access you can always go virtual.

Would really need to see the text file format to give much guidance. Does the text file have a category in it? If so, no need for multiple tables. Just use one table that can be filtered very easily. Can make it as nice and pretty, or as crude and ugly as you want.

Unless you are dealing with several thousand records, I'm thinking Excel would work for you as well. Throw an autofilter in there and you can quickly see all of the recipes in the Breakfast category that contains Eggs. Of course, if you are wanting to be able to print these recipes in a very nice and structured way, Access or an equivalent would be the way to go.

You could also have a look at this Access template from Microsoft [microsoft.com].

you dont need a database, just create a folder in your mac called "recipes"
and then for each recipe you export, give it a descriptive file name like "garlic chicken with lemon grass.txt" and place it into that directory.

then when you want to find a recipe, just goto your recipe folder and type in the recipe name in the search bar ie, "chicken" and all the recipes with chicken in the name will show up........

Quote from koby333 : then when you want to find a recipe, just goto your recipe folder and type in the recipe name in the search bar ie, "chicken" and all the recipes with chicken in the name will show up........

That is the simplest, but it doesn't address situations where you might have all the minor ingredients on hand but be lacking the main thing. It would be nice to say "show all recipes with x, y, z" and return something like:
to make abc you will need ingredients a, x, y and z.

You got it exactly right.

The database isn't for me. I have an idea and after talking to developers, I need to make a database of recipes first. That's why I need the end product to be a database.

I didn't realize Open Office had an Access equivalent. Thank you for the suggestions.

How should the ingredients be entered in the database? If I want it to work like vivahate said, will each ingredient need to be in a separate field?

Quote from akkkmed : You got it exactly right. The database isn't for me. I have an idea and after talking to developers, I need to make a database of recipes first. That's why I need the end product to be a database. I didn't realize Open Office had an Access equivalent. Thank you for the suggestions. How should the ingredients be entered in the database? If I want it to work like vivahate said, will each ingredient need to be in a separate field?

Ask yourself....how do you want to recall this information from the database? By ingredients? By name? By category of food? By health content?

Quote from akkkmed : You got it exactly right. The database isn't for me. I have an idea and after talking to developers, I need to make a database of recipes first. That's why I need the end product to be a database. I didn't realize Open Office had an Access equivalent. Thank you for the suggestions. How should the ingredients be entered in the database? If I want it to work like vivahate said, will each ingredient need to be in a separate field?

If you follow normalization rules everything should be broken down in to its own tables (ethnic type, heath type, ingredients, etc) then your "recipes" table should be mostly be a name and links to the other tables.

You should check out Epicurious on Android (and I think IOS), it is a good recipe app and give you some ideas on what you might want to do.

Let's use this [tripod.com]recipe source as an example. If I copy and pasted all of these into one text file, is there a secret way to import it correctly into Access? Would saving it to Excel instead be beneficial?

I'm just spit-balling ideas here, so I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I create database under Access isn't hard to do. Instead of using Excel you can add the data you want into access.

Which MS Office do you?

1. Start off with a blank template
2. Use the Template design mode

Here you can setup your layout and what you want to add.

Recipe ID
Description

Qty
an etc..

You can be creative. Most of the info can be generalized too with references codes up to 20 total. If you need to look up how to make chili and such.

Quote from tipstir : I create database under Access isn't hard to do. Instead of using Excel you can add the data you want into access. Which MS Office do you? 1. Start off with a blank template 2. Use the Template design mode Here you can setup your layout and what you want to add. Recipe ID Description Qty an etc.. You can be creative. Most of the info can be generalized too with references codes up to 20 total. If you need to look up how to make chili and such.

Creating the physical database isn't the issue. The issue is taking my current data (text) and correctly and efficiently putting it into the database.

Quote from akkkmed : Let's use this [tripod.com]recipe source as an example. If I copy and pasted all of these into one text file, is there a secret way to import it correctly into Access? Would saving it to Excel instead be beneficial? I'm just spit-balling ideas here, so I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Wow, missed this response.

So based on this example, you'll want fields for Recipe Name, Amount, Measure, Ingredient/Prep Method, Measure, Instructions.Serving Size (optional), and Prep Time (optional).

I'm not sure what importing it into Excel then exporting it to Access will accomplish honestly. Seems a bit of an unnecessary step and the file is not really formatted in a way that formats in Excel very well.

You could do manual entry and put each item into each field then save the database record or you can simplify it to Recipe Name and Recipe Body and enter the recipe name and then a wholesale copy/paste of the recipe into a large character field. All depends on what you want to perhaps cross reference later.