Task #5 - Database interface

This assignment aims at further strengthening our scripting skills and working more closely with a database.

In this assignment you will work with your group to modify your data collection script so that it interfaces with a database.

You will take the questionnaire that you developed in your group and make a new version of it that interfaces with a MySQL database.

Skillsets

You will be exposed to the following skillsets;

1. Scripting user input (this comes from your original script)
2. Writing to temporary files
3. Scripting database interface

Expectations

I expect you and your team to develop a script, based on your last one, that will allow you to write the information gathered into a MySQL database instead of into a CSV file as the final output form.

Prerequisites

You will need Bash, text files, and MySQL, all of which are available in CodeAnywhere.

Instructions

You will need to do the following for this assignment to be considered complete.

As a team:

1. Decide who will do what tasks (e.g. - manage main files, look for information online about scripting MySQL, write scripts, test scripts, etc.)
2. Designate a member of the team that will hold your main repo: the repo czar.

Designated repository czar:

1. Create a new repo with your group name.
2. Add the rest of your team as contributors.

As a team:

1. Clone your original script and .csv files from assignment 4 in this repository. Then cd into that new directory and rm -rf .git to remove the assignment 4 git tracking. Do not do this in your assignment 5 repository.
2. Make a branch with an archived version of your first questionnaire script.
3. Switch back into the master branch to work on this assignment.
4. Create a database that has the appropriate variables and variable types (this might be an accessory script or a conditional statement in your script).
5. Modify your script to do the following:
   • connect to a MySQL database (HINT: this will involve setting variables for MySQL username, password, and location)
   • enter the data input by users into a MySQL database
   • dump the MySQL database into a .sql file in your repository directory with the rest of your files after it has been modified with next data
6. Run your script several times to collect data.

Bonuses:

• Use SQL INSERT statements to put data into your database instead of loading a CSV file
• Display nicely formatted tables of all the data in your database at the end
• Provide a user interface to import and export data via dumps. These imports should append data if able
• Make another table in your database to store information about the users who complete your survey. Once you have this table, figure out how to join it with their responses when you print out the data you've collected.

Individually:

1. Sync your repository fork with the main fork at the end of the work (Look here for how to do this: https://help.github.com/articles/syncing-a-fork/).
2. Write a blog post that links to your fork of the repository and write a brief explanation of what your scripts actually do.
3. Include a reflection of what you did, what you learned, challenges you encountered, etc.
4. Email me a link to your published post by the assignment due date.