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Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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On 4/27/2024 6:17 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> If anybody asks about an alternative to Microsoft Access, I think
> SQLite used in combination with LibreOffice will give you a lot of
> functionality, including comprehensive SQL support and scalability to
> much larger databases.
> 
> Of course you can use other backends, like MariaDB/MySQL, as well.
> SQLite just makes it easy to have an actual database file that you can
> copy/move about the place, without having to do database dumps/restores.
> If you don’t need multiuser support, it is very convenient.
> 
> I notice that libreoffice-base is now a separate package under Debian
> (and I suppose its derivatives as well), no longer included in the
> “base” (heh) LibreOffice package. Make sure to install this, along with
> libsqliteodbc.
> 
> Now, say you have an existing SQLite3 database that you want to access
> from LibreOffice. Suppose it is in the file
> /home/ldo/hack/lo_try/test.db. In order for databases to be accessible
> via ODBC, they need to have entries in your ~/.odbc.ini file. This is
> just a text file, in the good old .ini tradition. The format for entries
> is very simple, e.g.:
> 
>      [test-db]
>      Description=Test database for LibreOffice Base
>      Driver=SQLite3
>      Database=/home/ldo/hack/lo_try/test.db
> 
> Now, when you launch the LibreOffice Base database wizard, you have
> options to “create a new database”, “open an existing database file”, or
> “connect to an existing database”. Choose that last one “connect to an
> existing database”. The popup menu shows the available back-end
> drivers: choose “ODBC”. Now, when you click “Next”, there should be a
> text field with a “Browse...” button; clicking this should show the
> names of entries in your ~/.odbc.ini file, e.g. “test-db” if you used
> the name in my example above.
> 
> Select this, and click “Finish”. Next you will be prompted for a name
> to save the “database file”. This is just the LibreOffice Base document
> that contains the settings for connecting to the actual database:
> LibreOffice doesn’t know or care where the database back-end keeps the
> actual data.
> 
> After having named the LibreOffice database file, you should see the
> main LibreOffice Base window. In the lower half, under “Tables”, you
> should see a list of the tables from the database file. You can
> double-click a table name to see a quick list of all its records.
> 
> That’s as far as I’ve got. I see a “Design View”, “Form Wizards”, and
> “Report Wizards”, and all kinds of other fun stuff. Should be great for
> building simple database applications, with a minimum of programming.

 From what I have seen when I checked Base comes with HSQLDB (but yes, 
can be connected to basically any SQL database)

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Thread

Alternative To Microsoft Access Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-04-27 04:17 +0000
  Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> - 2024-04-27 21:44 +0200
    Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-04-27 22:57 +0000
      Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> - 2024-04-28 17:58 +0200
  Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2024-04-28 03:36 +0200
  Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2024-04-29 06:31 +0200
    Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-04-29 05:47 +0000
      Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> - 2024-04-29 09:26 +0200
        Re: Alternative To Microsoft Access Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-04-29 08:05 +0000

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