Writer 4.2 Guide Chapter 12 for review

Hi :slight_smile:
Wow! Fantastic :)) Glad to see you've solved the email problems.

It's better if you can
1. download the chapter,
2. make the changes directly and
3. re-upload the file to the new folder
Odd little comments and queries might be better as you go along, or batched
up a little bit, so that you can build-up an idea of how such things have
arisen or how they would be handled. With Base you probably have more of a
free-reign at the moment because not many people understand the issues.

All/lots comments at the end is ok too.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

I am working through the documentation for the forms. To do this properly I needed a data base. As I have an access data base which I want to convert to Librebase I used this. I exported the tables from Access as Excel files, opened them in Librecalc, saved them in native librecalc format. I made sure the column definitions were correct for dates.

I copied the data cells and imported them into a Base table. I found a problem with all fields which were created as text. If I change the date columns to date format I cannot save the new version of the base table without losing the date data. Is there any way of importing data and preserving the data format?

Many years ago using Oracle SQL I believe you could import text data into an already created table if your text data had been properly formatted. Is this possible with LibreBase?

Thanks for an advice.

This won't stop me from continuing to reviews the documentation but it would be good to know how to import data , retaining the formatting and data types.

Regards

Peter Goggin

Hi Peter,

I am working through the documentation for the forms. To do this
properly I needed a data base.

I thought there had been added the example-databases to the
Base-Handbook. But when I had a look at
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/
I don't fin the translated examples. So I have uploaded them to the
following folder:
http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de/lo_hb_en/

There arae many more examples on
http://de.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/

Some of the content of other chapters will link to this examples - which
aren't translated yet.

As I have an access data base which I
want to convert to Librebase I used this. I exported the tables from
Access as Excel files, opened them in Librecalc, saved them in native
librecalc format. I made sure the column definitions were correct for dates.

I copied the data cells and imported them into a Base table. I found a
problem with all fields which were created as text. If I change the
date columns to date format I cannot save the new version of the base
table without losing the date data. Is there any way of importing data
and preserving the data format?

You have to change the format before you import the data. If it is a
date in Calc it would be a date in Base, too. Could be the import-wizard
doesn't recognize this automatically.

Many years ago using Oracle SQL I believe you could import text data
into an already created table if your text data had been properly
formatted. Is this possible with LibreBase?

If the field contains strings it isn't possible to create a date with
this content.
You could send me some rows of such a table (in *.ods-format) so I will
have a look.

Regards

Robert

Hi :slight_smile:
I think Base is better when you use an external back-end. The Postgresql
people made the effort to work with LO devs to make a native connector that
is built into LO. MySql is another commonly used database program but it's
owned by Oracle so it might be better to go for the drop-in replacement,
MariaDb instead of MySql.

The problem with the internal back-end is that it's been known to have
issues such as data-loss!! Not good for a database program!! The devs are
working at replacing the current ancient, warped version of HsqlDb with an
up-dateable version of Firebird but apparently that runs into problems too
at the moment, at least last i heard which was several months ago.

Base was originally designed to never have an internal back-end but so many
people grumbled that it was alien to Access users that the Sun devs tried
to squeeze in something but then found they didn't have the time and
resources to make a good job of it.

So, i think i'd suggest exporting the Tables from Access directly into
Postgresql or maybe into MySql/MariaDb.

I've forwarded the question to the Users Mailing list to see if anyone
there can help Peter with this.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

They are on the wiki and have been for some time, but I failed to link
to them from the website.
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Base_Handbook

(Unless you are talking about some other examples.)

--Jean

Hi Peter,

Access as Excel files, opened them in Librecalc, saved them in native
librecalc format. I made sure the column definitions were correct for
dates.

As Robert has mentioned, you must make sure that the data type stored in
Calc is really a DATE and not just a text string *formatted* as a date,
otherwise the import to Base will import the text string.

It is also not impossible that the import wizard has a bug when it comes
to interpreting dates, or that this functionality is dependent on the
version of LibreOffice you are using, as the DATE API changed sometime
during 4.1 development and has had further "work" done on it since then.
These changes could have had a knock on effect on the import wizard.

Alex

I finally solved how to transfer the data from Access to Base. The steps are very simple and work well. During the creation stage I did not realize that while the Create button was available there was a Next stage also available where the data types of the newly crated table fields can be modified. (May be the Create button should not be available until the data types have been checked) Setting the date fields to date and the other fields to correct types solved the problems. Since my "ACCESS" data base allows me to fully check the forms documentation I will continue using this in parallel with the proper sample data bases.

Regards

Peter Goggin

Hi :slight_smile:
Congrats Peter!! Nicely done :))

I posted that answer back to the Users Mailing List and consolidated the
best answers from there into this post
http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Re-libreoffice-documentation-Re-Base-Document-Forms-tp4123900p4124035.html
(jic anyone needs to deal with this issue again, hopefully this might
help). I've just realised i should have included some of the answers from
here too! Sorry!
Apols , congrats and regards from
Tom :slight_smile: