Database

On the Windows side of things I have been using FileAmigo for a long time to keep data about computers, what software is installed on each and a few free form notes. I tried running it under Wine on the AA1 but it wouldn't fly. Can anyone suggest a replacement? I need something that can take about 30 fields, text, numbers, Y/N, dates etc, and can sort on different fields. This would need to be a stand alone application, all I can seem to find is some that need to be installed on a web server. A spreadsheet is the closest thing I currently have but it doesn't quite do the job.

Thanks for any help.

 

Learn to use (My)SQL and you can make what ever kind of database you want :geek:

 

You can also try SQLite in case MySQL might be overkill for the purposes you need. Though mainly a CLI tool, there are some frontends that manage it, and plus you can embed it into any application that you might be developing.

If FileAmigo is anything like MS Access (a standalone database), note that OpenOffice does have Base which is an Access equivalent. It should already be installed in your AAO (open Writer, then go to File>New>Database). It does the job, but be warned it is very slow.

Knoda and Kexi are faster alternatives (and I believe Kexi uses SQLite for its engine), but are still relatively young projects.

 

Thanks for the info. I think learning MYSQL is a little overkill for what I need. I have enough on my plate right now and am looking for something that is pretty much enter fields, drag out a report and off we go. I'll keep my eye on those couple of projects you mention though. Thanks again.

 

Try Glom, it does have a Filemaker style, it is a very good database...

 

You could also install the database application of openoffice - which for some reason is not installed by default.
Then again, mysql is much faster and more elegant.

http://www.openoffice.org/product/base.html

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I am trying Glom but am having some problems with it. Basically, I input all the fields, about 28 of them and that goes fine but the detail screen layout is proving a problem. I am trying to design it so all the fields are visible on one screen. The main problem is that you cannot set the width of text fields, so even if a field is only for 3 characters it takes up 30 characters on screen. And I just cannot get the layout right, if I set it to 3 columns in the group the third item can be way off the right of the screen.

Anyway, I notice that the version installed by the add/remove package feature is 1.6.5 and looking through the Glom website it looks like there is a 1.7.1 out. How can I upgrade to the latest version? Has anyone tried it on the AA1?

 

I'd recommend trying sqlite - there's a Firefox addon for it that provides a GUI front-end

 

I had to give up on Glom, couldn't get it to do what I wanted and was unable to get the program updated. I feel like it is one of those projects that got so far then the developers got tired of it. These things happen. Maybe sometime in the future it will be something worth revisiting.

So, next up is OpenOffice's Base. I have long been a fan of OpenOffice and have used the Writer and Calc parts extensively, but had never actually sat down and given Base a real try. Some parts are really slick but there were a couple of points were I was stuck, but after some googling and reading some tutorials I discovered what I had missed and voila! The data I had in a spreadsheet was imported to tables and I had quickly put together a really nice looking form with all my data on one screen. The more I get into this the more I like it, very powerful, easy to use for simple databases but it seems to have the advanced features, which I haven't really got into yet, which cover just about anything you may want to do. Kudo's OpenOffice.

And yet, just like Glom, the version in the package manager is a step behind. This is 2.3 and 2.4 has been out for quite a while now. I really don't know how much trouble it is to keep software packages up to date, and how many people work on it, I just wish they were a bit more on the ball. There are a lot of linux newbies out there, maybe trying the Aspire One Linux version for the first time. It would really help if the software was kept up to date.

 

Whilst you are probably right that OOo2.4 could reasonably be expected to be in the repositories for Linpus, one thing to remember if you always want the most up to date versions of software is that the most recent version numbers may contain unresolved bugs.

Personally I run Sidux on my main machines; that's Debian Sid with extra advantages, and is usually using bleeding edge packages. The advantage is it's all bang up to date; the disadvantage is that just occasionally it breaks horribly. With Sidux you can check the forums before updating to see if there are screams of agony coming from anyone who's updated earlier today, but even then someone is going to hit the issue first (I've never had a major problem so far...)! However, this isn't the right territory for newbies; if something breaks it can take a deal of unbreaking.

For a machine with a simple new-user aimed front end like the AAO, it's probably safer to use slightly out of date packages as a matter of course, and allow the adventurous to find alternatives!

Personally I'm sticking with Linpus on this machine for the moment (I've only had it for a day!); no doubt one day boredom or frustration with some limitation will set in and I'll work out how to Sidux-ise it.....

 

FYI - it's really NOT out of date. It is up to date based on the dependencies. Linpus is based on Fedora 8 - and as was reported elsewhere on this forum, OOo 2.4 requires Fedora 9 core. There are ways around this, but it's a bit more than download and install.

To make the jump to most of the extremely current packages you'd need to update Linpus lite to a Fedore Core 9 based build. Something we haven't seen yet.

 

Excuse this newbiest of the newbie questions but is the OO database already on the machine or do I have to download all of OO and install the whole thing? I really want a basic database that I can keep and order lists in.

 

OO-base does not need a full OO install.

Code:

yum install openoffice.org-base

 

That will however upgrade all the components to the official fedora.8 version for dependencies.
Better to back up icons beforehand, since they will be overwritten...

Also see: http://macles.blogspot.com/search?q=OpenOffice

Note that Base is quite a big application. It is overkill for small database needs.