File type question - how is it structured?

[photo9guy]

My OOBase table was converted from (originally) Paradox/DOS, then accessed by Lotus Approach. Somehow I managed to convert it to something OOBase can read, but I am unsure of what. When I look in the Windows folder I have two files: one with a dbf extension and over half a meg of data, and the other is a odb extension and only 9kb. I assume the dbf is the actual data file (I know its the old dBase file type), but what is the other one? When I saw the Open Document File Format chart in the help system, I did not see a dbf extension. So am I using a non-00 file type for my data, and do I risk anything by doing so? I know that my previous programs created different files (same name, different extensions) for various related features, is that whats happening here?

Thanks
Andy

[Villeroy]

So you did not convert your database somehow, you connected Base to an existing dBase-dirctory.
The *.dbf is from your old database, the *.odb is a zip-archive which holds the XML-configuration how to connect to the dBase directory (the location and which driver to use). The status bar should indicate what you have done and menu:Edit>Database>... provides editable settings.
OOo's native dBase driver supports dBase as a "database in a directory" with read-write-access to tables in *.dbf files and index files for lookup-indices (*.ndx files). The driver does not support relations between tables which could be one reason among others to use another driver, such as Paradox via ODBC or something. Base forms can fake relations between dBase-tables through subforms where a subform shows all records where certain fields match with other fields of the main form.
If you really want to convert your working dBase into OOo's embedded HSQLDB (I would not do so!) then you need to create a second database newly from scratch and copy the tables from the dBase-connected database into the new database. Copy a table from the tables-container into the tables-container of the new database. Drag&drop may work as well.
A wizard pops up where you have to specify carefully an existing or new primary key as well as the data types of all the columns. The table gets imported from clipboard. The entire import fails when there is any violation of constraints or data types.

[photo9guy]

OK, I read all the links you posted here and my other question, and I think I understand about 2/3 of what you said, mostly the part about use something else! That's too bad, I was hoping to use something new - my Lotus Approach doesn't seem to recognize the turn of the century. I've been looking for a disk I used to have with Paradox 10 that I never used, or my might try Access or Filemaker - any of those you'd care to endorse? And thank you for your help.

Thanks
Andy

[Villeroy]

I just said that you are still working with your old dBase table(s) without having "imported" anything which is just fine as long as Base's dBase driver supports all the features you need. You are just using Base instead of Foxpro to manage the same dBase-directory. Access could do the same trick without copying any data out of the tables into it's mdb-file. This is why it's named "Access". It provides access to databases, although the majority of users use it to produce a proprietary type of database wrapped into in a single single mdb-file. And the latter step is what I would not recommend to do with Base.

Without knowing anything about your requirements, I'd strongly recommend to use any professional or semi-professional *FREE* database backend, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, with a most simple server-setup for a local network and single user.
Then you are free to use any database frontend you like to use for dayily work with your well done database. The frontend can be Base on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, MS Access on Tuesday and Thursday and some web-based HTML forms while you are fishing (the latter with a slighly advanced setup where you log-in at a web-server).

Whenever you have to import data seemlessly into your office documents (mail merge, spreadsheet analysis, pretty printing) then you can connect Base with your database just like you do currently with your dBase directory.
If you have copied (converted, transferred) your data into a single-file Base database, this is all you can do with it.

[photo9guy]

OK, now I'm thinking this might work, I'm understanding more of what you're saying. First off, my usage is only for me, in-house. It will never be online, shown to any customers, or anything else, so I'm not interested in making it fancy or anything. I may print out a report now and then, but mostly its just for keeping track of inventory and sales and vendors and searching on screen.

All I was trying to find out in my original post, and maybe I didn't phrase it well, was find out whether the dbf format was somehow going to be incompatible with OO, and why the import process didn't convert it to a proprietary OO format (doesn't sound like there is one). As long as it works, and it sounds from your information that it does, I don't care what format its in. And if I read you correctly, as long as I leave it in that format, I could, if desired, use a different "front end" like Access, to work with it at some future time? OO is itself, a frontend - at least for my purposes - data entry, searching and reports?

Eventually I would like to link all three tables to produce searches and print reports for myself, I assume that's possible?

Thanks very much
Andy

[Villeroy]

Many users are disappointed once they enclosed their data into this jail, expecting something like Access or even more.

A connection to a database server can be outlined like this:

Code: Select all

[Raw Data] <-->  [Server] <--> [Driver] <--> [Frontend with queries and office docs (forms/reports)] <--registered--> [other office docs]

It's exactly the same picture when using Base's built-in HSQL-server.
[Raw Data] get extracted into a temporary directory when you "open the databse document" (a zip-archive) and wrapped back when you "close the document". This imposes a certain threat to your data. Take care for a reliable backup strategy.

[Server] is some piece of Java-software which comes piggyback with OOo. A stand-alone version of that server is fully documented here: http://hsqldb.org/doc/guide/ch09.html. A fairly recent Java 1.5.x must be availlable (menu:Tools>Options...OOo>Java...)

[Driver] would be something on your local machine to forward your requests to the server. It's also in the office, I think.

[Frontend] is what gets exposed by your database document. All that things that let you point and click something in your database. Forms and reports are Writer documents embedded in the zip-archive.

You can register your database at the office to allow simple drag&drop import into arbitrary documents (hit F4 in Writer or Calc to see registered sources).

Open your connected dBase databse, create a second one newly from scratch and copy (or drag) the table-objects over to the new database. A wizard pops up where you carefully specify the field types and primary keys of your new table. Primary keys are required for write-access.