Edit Access database with Ruby?

Question

Is it possible to edit (make new records, add and change content, etc.) an Access database with Ruby? If yes, how?

If it is not possible, does anyone knows a good alternative to store information from HTML forms?

Answer 1

If you intend to have this running on a Windows box then yes, it is possible to manipulate an Access database from Ruby via ODBC or OLEDB (ADO). However, the Access Database Engine is a poor choice for a web application's back-end database. In fact, "Microsoft strongly recommends against using Access in web applications." (ref: here).

If you plan to implement this on a non-Windows machine then I would recommend that you simply don't bother messing around with Access ODBC. You might be able to get JRuby and the UCanAccess JDBC driver to update the Access database, but that would also not be a good choice for a web back-end.

You really should investigate other more suitable back-end databases for your web application: Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, etc., etc..