On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:20:35 -0500, Ken Elliott
<kelliott4@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> <Frank>
> >> From a pure simplistic of connection point of view which would be the
> easiest
> >> to: set up, work with, transfer data into not using Open Office data
> >> transformation tools as they are non existing as yet?
> </Frank>
>
> It sounds like you want to have an application that runs on almost anything.
> Here's a few possible approaches:
>
> MySQL, Apache and PHP - You create web pages that function as data
> entry/query pages. Since they rely only on a browser, you can use Linux,
> Windows, Mac or even a PDA. There is some coding involved, but it's not
> very hard. You can get a thin $10 book at Barns & Noble that will get you
> the basics. Downside - you have to actually write code. Here's a tutorial:
> http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql
>
> MySQL ODBC driver - Install this in your Windows Boxes (or Mac and Unix
> boxes), and you can use any ODBC-aware app to work on your MySQL data. This
> does not export the data - it's a live connection to the MySQL server. You
> can use Access or Excel (for example) to work on the data. So if the goal
> is to provide Win-folks with the ability to get to the data, this works
> pretty good. Downside - different apps on different platforms.
> http://www.mysql.com/products/connector/odbc/
>
> MySQL ODBC driver + Open Office - If you install Open Office on the Win
> boxes, you have a common set of tools on both Windows and Linux. Downside -
> little. Here's a "how-to" (PDF):
> http://www.unixodbc.org/doc/OOoMySQL9.pdf
>
> Of course, you can do all these things, and have all the benefits. You can
> work on Open Office in any machine, the Win user can use Excel to analyze,
> and use PHP web pages for query/data entry.
>
> But I'm sure the more experienced will chip in with more refined
> suggestions. These may not be as simple as "mysqlcc", but they give you
> other abilities, depending on what you are trying to do.
>
> Ken Elliott
>
> =====================
> -----Original Message-----
> From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net] On Behalf Of SOTL
> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 5:45 PM
> To: Linux SLUG
> Subject: [SLUG] Databases
>
> Hi All
>
> As usual I am a bit confused, which goes especially with new ventures and a
> database is a new venture.
>
> To my knowledge the best desktop frontend for a simple database is the
> database frontend end in Open Office. If there is a better one I would love
> to know about it.
>
> Anyway, I desire to locate a data base in a server and connect to it from
> eventually 4 computers but at present one.
>
> To translate for those of you who have seen my equipment I would like to put
> a database in the MSI box and connect to it with the Thinkpad. Later to add
> 2 additional computers hopefully from that nasty manufacture located in
> Redmont but since I will mot be using one of those computers I am not
> overtly concerned about their working or not.
>
> Anyway Open Office provides connection to a number of different types of
> data bases including direct connection by URL to Oracle JDBC, MySQL, LDAP,
> and JDBC. Open Oddice database will also connect to Adabas D, dBase, & ODBC.
>
> From a pure simplistic of connection point of view which would be the
> easiest
> to: set up, work with, transfer data into not using Open Office data
> transformation tools as they are non existing as yet?
>
> Would it be best to use dBase and NFT as the only data transformation tool
> in Open office is to dBase? Or are there other tools which would make using
> one of the other types preferable?
>
> Thanks
>
> Frank
>
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> This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
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Frank,
I have been playing with a database setup for a few months (3 or 4)
and am getting better and better at it each day. Mind you, up until I
started this project I had just about 0% experience with databasing,
and even less with any type of coding (I'm really just a hardware guy
:) ).
I have set up a LAMP configuration on my local box (testing right now
but have plans to have it go live on our LAN), and I would like to
expound on what Ken said. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
(or Perl, but I use PHP). There is plenty of help and HowTo's on the
web to get you set up. I run SuSE 9.2 Pro and all of these RPM's come
with the standard installation of my distro, but all can be installed
from source if need be.
One thing I am not clear on, do you intend to simply administer the
database with the front end you are looking for, or do you plan on
giving access to all users? **You'll want to watch out for that.** I
am going to assume that you just want a few select users to access and
administer (preferred). With that said, I use PHPMyAdmin as my front
end administrator.
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php
This is a program that also can be installed via RPM or source,
whichever you prefer (it also is included with Suse). It can add,
edit, drop databases and add, edit, drop tables within the databases
(and myriad other things) all from a browser window (which means that
you can access it from any Linux/ Mac/ Windows box on your network).
For standard user access to my database I have written a number of
html/PHP pages that execute queries/updates/deletes/searches etc etc
without the user actually having access to the database (and therefore
the potential to mess it up!). As Ken said, with this set up you will
have to learn to write some code (html and PHP) but there is lots (and
I mean LOTS) of help on the web and it isn't that hard.
My html is pretty basic, but I am getting better each day I work on
it. It just depends how much you want to learn it. I am having a ball
!!
There are quite a number of open source projects that utilize a LAMP
configuration as the preferred setup, and one in particular that we
are using here is Webcollab (featured in the March issue of Linux
Journal). Webcollab is an open source project management program that
runs best on a LAMP setup (per the article). There are many many more
out there, so this setup is quite popular and adaptable.
Just my 2 cents, and I can only speak of this setup/programs as I have
personal knowlege only of these. You should do the research and find
one that best suits your needs, but I hope this little bit of info
helps.
Good luck,
Eric
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