hello please am kenny and am working on a desktop application using java and ide netbeans the thing is that am to have my database online so that the applications database can be accessed by all those who install the application on their systems the problem is i dnt know how to get my database online some have suggested i use an online database service others say i create a server using my system others say i host it on the cloud pls am confused which is the best and easiest to implement? any other options all i need is to get my database online so that d desktop applications can access them once there's network connectivity

Simply pay for a web hosting service online, you can get one for as low as N2,500 (use this package development purposes depending on amount of connections). A large number of the hosting service providers come with mysql support for free. you can try www.syskay.com or http://philmorehost.com/.
The next thing you have to do is to export you local database as a .sql file. Subsequntly, login to your online domain account management portal (e.g cpanel) and access you database management admin such as phpmyadmin, then import the said .sql file. NOTE other methods exist.

thanks bro

The best thing is to do webservices app. In this approach you will have your mysql online and some script(php, jsp, aps etc) that interact with the database, hence your desktop app call these scripts(via url, HTTP connections). To do this with just java then you will need to do java hosting of your application.

You will need to read on:
deploying javaEE,
deploying RESTFUL Webservice or SOAP

And if you will be using php to querry your database the just try to know how to do RESTFUL webservice in php

I agree with @olyjosh, that would be a much better and safer way AFTER you have hosted you database online. If you want to go RESTful with php(which is easier) you can try Slim php. It's a very simple yet light framework for providing restful services with php. For enterprise applications I'll most likely use a Java web service rather than php.

One other benefit of using a RESTful service is that, in the future if you decide to develop mobile versions of the same app. They can still feed off the same restful API as the desktop application.