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Thread ID: 67219	2006-03-21 09:52:00	Database programs	Shortcircuit (1666)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
439680	2006-03-21 09:52:00	This might be in the wrong forum, but here goes... I'm trying to do the following: Have a database (currently have open office db installed) The database/tables part I can figure out but then it gets more difficult. I want to have a nice looking form view where I can type in info such as date/text, have drop down boxes with pre written info, be able to save info I put in to the DB, search info in DB and print info formatted in a text doc. At the moment the DB will run on single comp, but maybe later run off a server as a web page and I've downloaded MYSQL to try and have a play (yes, my eyes glazed over after about 2 minutes!) My main concerns are that once I've got the DB and the form view set up I want all the seperate pieces of info from the DB table to drop into a nicely formatted text doc when I hit the print button on the form. It sounds like a steep learning curve to me and I'm flying blind, so any suggestions about easy programs or ways to do it would be much appreciated :thumbs:	Shortcircuit (1666)
439681	2006-03-21 10:15:00	I want to have a nice looking form view where I can type in info such as date/text, have drop down boxes with pre written info, be able to save info I put in to the DB, search info in DB and print info formatted in a text doc. For the drop down menu's and stuff you'll want to use a form (MS Access can do these, I'm going to guess OpenOffice Base or whatever it's called can to). Basically the drop down menus and stuff are populated with rows from a table and these rows are linked (usually through the primary key) to the field of the table you're going to be entering data for. At the moment the DB will run on single comp, but maybe later run off a server as a web page and I've downloaded MYSQL to try and have a play (yes, my eyes glazed over after about 2 minutes!). If it's going to be setup on a single PC, you could use a stand alone database and let it go as is, however, the problem will arise when/if you want to migrate it onto the net or use the database over a network. The way around this is to setup MSSQL/PostGres (my personal favorite)/MySQL/etc as a data source (using ODBC) then link the tables to your "Access/OpenOffice Database/Forms". Basically what this will do is tell Access/OpenOffice Base that all the data it needs is to come from the SQL server, it's to save all the data to the SQL server and all access is really doing is just being a nice purty front end where you can use forms and other neat things. It does this by storing the tables in the database and using it's own built in features for forms/reports/etc - so at the end of the day you'd just have to create the tables in your SQL server of choice and then link the tables. My main concerns are that once I've got the DB and the form view set up I want all the seperate pieces of info from the DB table to drop into a nicely formatted text doc when I hit the print button on the form. As for printing the database into a nice formatted text document (do you want to "print" to a document or just print the document?). If you want to print to a document, I'm not sure just how you'd do this - maybe export (Macro or some other means) to an Excel or a CSV/TSV sheet and then open the page in Excel/Word and manipulate the data as needed? Then again Word might have the capacity to do a "Mail Merge" type thing from an ODBC source which you would be able to use to output your database to a textfile. However if you just want to print to a standard printer, then a report will do this for you no problems. You can use Macro's and other nifty features like that to do 101 miscellaneous things on top of this such as checking user input, only printing one page in a report and so forth - they pretty much just fine tune and give extra control over forms and reports.	SilentNight (10027)
439682	2006-03-21 10:55:00	Thanks for the great info... it's becoming clearer. By the sounds of it I can just 'run the database' off the mysql server on my comp for now (ie not hooked up to the net) ... best option if I want to run it later over the net/local network. The print side is the fun one, I will be printing the data from the DB into a text doc template with headers/footers and images and info from the DB in predefined places, won't be 'printing' (saving) as a document. I don't know that I'd call the form design view in OOo 'purty', but that's not too much of an issue for now, guess I could got out and buy a copy of Access down the line.	Shortcircuit (1666)
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