Revisiting Genealogy Research Organization Project

[Tamblyne]

About a year ago, I was trying to develop a database to organize my
genealogical research.  For those who do this kind of thing and are
familiar with what out's there, I was looking at something with the
capabilities of Bygones (which is no longer being updated) and Clooz
(which is not free, and which I haven't even been able to use yet
because of the tight restrictions on the "free trial" -- i.e., I used
up all my chances just trying to get it to work on Vista).  

I ran into quite a few showstoppers, despite some great help here, and
quit working on it last year -- again.  

Recently, I decided to give this another try and have had great
success with my local web server set-up using PHP, MySQL, HTML and
ODTPHP -- so I know I can do it.  Unfortunately, doing it that way,
it's really not feasible to make it publicly available.  And there's
enough work involved it would be a shame for just one person to be
able to use it, especially considering the lack of alternatives.  

But my uber-geek days are long behind me.  Technology advanced much
faster than I did, so I'm now at the point where I can get things to
do what I want them to do, but I'm definitely not up on everything I
should be.  

So before I jump into this thing with both feet again -- i.e., trying
to get develop this with OOo Base -- I have a few questions for you
guys who *do* know what you're doing:  

One of the problems that brought it to a screeching whoa was the
inability to browse a directory, select a file, and have the file name
saved to the DB.  Drew, you told me a couple of times you'd send me
the code to make this work, but if you did, I didn't get it.  Sorry!  

Since I can manage to do pretty much what I want with PHP, I'm
thinking if I learn the language OOo uses for macros, I can do the
same with OOo Base?  I'm aware of Andrew Pitonyak's book and macro
site.  Is his book "the source" for the language?  Like a "OOo Macros
Bible?"  Is there another, or additional, book that I could use?  

I'm not sure how "distribution" would work.  People who wanted to use
it would have to download OOo, of course, and then the .odb file.  But
how could the forms, queries and reports be updated later without
destroying the user's data?  I know how to do this with MySQL, but not
OOo Base.  

The other problem I had was with reports.  The OOo Base reports are
not suited at all for this data.  I need to generate .odt documents
from the form data -- is this possible?

Or, is what I *have* been able to accomplish with my local web server
set-up so different that I should just stick with that and forget
trying to do anything "bigger?"  

Thanks!  


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[Andreas Saeger]

Tamblyne wrote:
> But my uber-geek days are long behind me.  Technology advanced much
> faster than I did, so I'm now at the point where I can get things to
> do what I want them to do, but I'm definitely not up on everything I
> should be.  
>
There is nothing in Base which was not part of any database tool in the
early 90ies. But this does not comfort anybody.

> So before I jump into this thing with both feet again -- i.e., trying
> to get develop this with OOo Base -- I have a few questions for you
> guys who *do* know what you're doing:  
>
This tool is full of bad surprises.

> One of the problems that brought it to a screeching whoa was the
> inability to browse a directory, select a file, and have the file name
> saved to the DB.  Drew, you told me a couple of times you'd send me
> the code to make this work, but if you did, I didn't get it.  Sorry!  
>
See simple code at the bottom.

> Since I can manage to do pretty much what I want with PHP, I'm
> thinking if I learn the language OOo uses for macros, I can do the
> same with OOo Base?  I'm aware of Andrew Pitonyak's book and macro
> site.  Is his book "the source" for the language?  Like a "OOo Macros
> Bible?"  Is there another, or additional, book that I could use?  
>
You have a *working* and well structured MySQLDB? You can use that one
with your PHP based toolset and with Base as desktop frontend and bridge
to the office suite.

> I'm not sure how "distribution" would work.  People who wanted to use
> it would have to download OOo, of course, and then the .odb file.  But
> how could the forms, queries and reports be updated later without
> destroying the user's data?  I know how to do this with MySQL, but not
> OOo Base.  
>
The Base file contains only the configuration to connect with your MySQL
, additional queries, forms and reports.

> The other problem I had was with reports.  The OOo Base reports are
> not suited at all for this data.  I need to generate .odt documents
> from the form data -- is this possible?
>
Download and install the more professional report builder:
> http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/reportdesign

You can dump any (sub-)form's data like this:
While using the form, hit the last button of the navigation toolbar and
drag the upper left corner of the displayed row set into a document.

An alternative approach which requires an addtional table where users
can store their filter settings:
> http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19440&p=88591#p88591
Apply filter in the form and call the report.

> Or, is what I *have* been able to accomplish with my local web server
> set-up so different that I should just stick with that and forget
> trying to do anything "bigger?"  
>
A stated above, Base is not a full featured database application. It is
hardly more than a bridge between the office suite and several types of
databases. The database in a single file is an additional goody (at
best). You made you database already and now you can use OOo tools for
manual input through forms and output into office documents.

Pushing a file picker's text into a form field:
1. Add a file picker control to your form.
2. Property "Additional Information" takes the name of the form field
you want to write the path into.
3. Assign the "Text modified" event to the following macro.

sub filePicker_Modified(oEv)
        oFP = oEv.Source.getModel()
        sTag = oFP.Tag
        oField = oFP.Parent.Columns.getByName(sTag)
        oField.updateString(oFP.Text)
end sub

Hope that helps.
Andreas Säger


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[Tamblyne]

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:12:01 +0200, Andreas Saeger
<saegerei@...> wrote:

> Tamblyne wrote:
> > But my uber-geek days are long behind me.  Technology advanced much
> > faster than I did, so I'm now at the point where I can get things to
> > do what I want them to do, but I'm definitely not up on everything I
> > should be.  
> >
> There is nothing in Base which was not part of any database tool in the
> early 90ies. But this does not comfort anybody.

Especially since I wasn't doing anything with databases until about
five years ago.  :-D  

> > So before I jump into this thing with both feet again -- i.e., trying
> > to get develop this with OOo Base -- I have a few questions for you
> > guys who *do* know what you're doing:  
> >
> This tool is full of bad surprises.

Ut oh.  :-)  

> > One of the problems that brought it to a screeching whoa was the
> > inability to browse a directory, select a file, and have the file name
> > saved to the DB.  Drew, you told me a couple of times you'd send me
> > the code to make this work, but if you did, I didn't get it.  Sorry!  
> >
> See simple code at the bottom.

Thank you -- this will help.  

[snip]

> A stated above, Base is not a full featured database application. It is
> hardly more than a bridge between the office suite and several types of
> databases. The database in a single file is an additional goody (at
> best). You made you database already and now you can use OOo tools for
> manual input through forms and output into office documents.

Ah!   The light is starting to come on.  This explains a lot!  Thank
you for the help!  



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