Put Your Access Database Online with Caspio

This web site has in part been an effort by me to make information that I have collected during my work days, and nights, freely available on the internet. Like many paralegals or litigation support professionals, I have spent many hours compiling data in Access databases. Making the information in an Access database freely available on the web to others can be accomplished very easily with Caspio.

Caspio allows anyone to set-up online searchable database. You can get a free trial of its service here: https://pages.caspio.com/free-trial.aspx. Follow the very well done tutorial available on Caspio's YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/ergspWuAGS8

The tutorial will show you how to import data from an Access table like the one shown in Figure 1 below. [N.B. this database contains accurate, but incomplete information on e-discovery cases that I cribbed partially from E-Discovery for Dummies. It's just an example, and is not meant to be a data source you should rely upon.]

After importing the table, you are given the option to choose between different types of data pages. The YouTube tutorial noted here shows how to create a Tabular Report, which is in essence a searchable online database. When enabling a search form in the Caspio set-up wizard, you can select whether you want search results to be returned only if the entered values fully match those from a cell in a column; if the entered values are contained as part of the data in any cell; or if you want to prompt the user to select different values from a drop down list.

It's also possible to select which of the fields from your Access table you want to use as a basis to sort the search results.

When setting up the online database be sure that you have the 'display only' option selected so that it's not possible for another user to edit your data.

If the import of the Access database has been performed correctly, and all of the necessary steps in the set-up wizard have been followed, you should end up with a search form that looks like that shown in figure 2 below. Enter '2008' in the field for year, and all of the cases decided in that year will appear. See Figure 3. To go back and run another search click 'search again'.

There is a drop down list in the 'Venue' field from which the abbreviations for different courts can be selected. (See Fig. 4) You can select values from two different fields to filter the search results by. (See Fig. 4 & 5).

To see all of the information for any one case, or row from your Access Table, click on 'View Details' to drill down.

Once you're satisfied that the database is operating the way you want it to, go back to Data Pages in Caspio, click on 'Deploy', then choose 'Enabled'. You will see options to either embed the database as html code on your own web site, or allow users to access the database through a URL. Click here to see a version of this post with the Caspio database I created. Browse down and you'll see that I have embedded the Caspio database at the end. It is fully interactive. Test it out. NOTE THAT THE FREE VERSION OF CASPIO'S ONLINE DATABASE ONLY LASTS FOR A LIMITED PERIOD.