Contao for relational database ?

[Babkun]

Dear all,

I am new to Contao and would appreciate some piece of advice.

I am doing a phd in politics and would like to set up an online version of an existing database made on Excel, but I am not looking for any import solution.
This is a relational database of robots in Japan : model (name or ID), field of service (elder care, rescue etc.), shape (humanoid, animal etc.), status (available, prototype etc.) and so on.
Each robot may have one or several "makers". They can be companies with fields such as type (start-up. conglomerate. industrial group etc.), field of expertise (medical, electronics etc.). Or laboratories (host university, head researcher etc.). Another type of makers is the public sector such as research institutes.
Moreover, projects can regroup all theses actors. A Humanoid Robot Project for example may involve Kawada industries, the AIST and other satellite companies.
I apologize for the long introduction to the subject but I thought it would important to define my needs.
Concerning Contao, I would like to create pages for each object, sort of an IMDB type database, with the following required points :

- ability to cross-reference pages, possibly with a table type display for the reference field.
- an efficient search engine
- the possibility to list according to criteria like we can with an optimized excel table.

I was thus wondering whether Contao would fit these needs, and if so for how much work.
I have a 2 week period of "free time" ahead of me that I can dedicate to this project, but I wonder if this will be enough.

I had a previous Drupal experience in that matter with CCK, and so on but I have to say it became a bit out of hand and was not very satisfied with the backend administration that I found a bit overwhelming.

In advance, many thanks.

[FloB]

Uhm … you might wanna have a look at [efg] and/or [catalog]. Generally, it's possible to do what you want to do in Contao, though I can't tell you how much effort it will be (i. e. configuring efg/catalog or creating an own extensions).

[Babkun]

Hi,

thanks for your answer.
I indeed went with Catalog and with a few tricks, I was able to do something close to what I wanted.

Thanks a lot for your answer.

[NancyFrell]

I thought [Catalog] works favorably for relational database..It allows you to manage with ease in grids also..Using Contao it is possible to manage data in columns also.