As manager of a Young Student Drivers program, I was wondering what Apps are out there (for both Mac and iPad) that would create a database for a class of students every 3 months, schedulednroad lessons throughout their period of practical training and some sort of option to keep track (via alarm, notification, etc.) when their Road Test is due.

Thanks.

Since you are in a "Mac Forum" I assume you are looking for a "Mac Solution".

Apple owns a Database Company named Filemaker and you can therefore trust their products to have full Mac compatablilty.
They basically make two database products, one is targeted for "Home to Small Business" and the other would be "Medium Business to Enterprise".
I going to make another assumption that probably the "Home to Small Business" product will work for you.

The name of the product is Bento and is a very intuitive product to learn and use.
There are some additional advantages to this product, in its fairly complete integration with your Mac OS X system. Bento will use your Address Book, Calendar, Photos from iPhoto and probably some things that I did not think about yet.

The product is only $50 and can be purchased from the Mac App Store and is highly rated.
You can view the product and features at the following URL Personal Database and Organizer Software | Bento 4 (http://www.filemaker.com/products/bento/mac.html).

Have a look and see if it would fit.

DavidH

Yep. I'm Mac all the way.
Bento is a possibility but it has options I really don't need like integration with AddressBook, iPhoto,etc. I just ned a database that includes students names, lesson intervals and dates and final road test. Maybe this would be something I could simply create in Numbers? I like a self contained database App, though, that will sync with my iPad.

The three most feared words in database development: "I just need...."
Just because the perceived need is simple, doesn't mean that properly implementing it in a database will be simple.
Then throw in IOS integration...

If all you need is a replacement for a card file or a white board, then a spreadsheet like Numbers may do the trick.
But as soon as you need to incorporate transactional things like automatic reminders, and computations that change results based on several criteria, you are into a different realm.

Bento has companion iPad and iPhone apps, and you can share data. What I don't know off the to of my head is whether it has enough customizability to do what you will want. Bento works off pre-made templates and you have limited abilities to customize screens. "Bento does not have any automation capabilities and does not support Apple Script." < this may be the go-no go for Bento. Once you step over the line of requiring scripting. Filemaker Pro has full customizability of the screens and a strong scripting language built in.

Other things to think of>
Who inputs and can change the data - One person or several?
All at one machine, or at one location, or does it have to be alterable from multiple machines?
Who reads the data - One person or several?

Good thoughts for the search. Thanks.

Bento s probably best if you want simple. The other simple option would be to just create a Numbers spreadsheet and sync to your iPhone/iPad via iCloud.

After taking a look at FileMaker Pro, it looks like that would fit my needs. Nice App.