Database front end with serial port event handling

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:17 am

Currently, I'm trying to migrate a database from MS Access.
The database has been working fine over the years, but now it is time to move on. OpenOffice (especially Base) seems to have everything I need.

If I create reports, forms and queries in Base, will I be able to access them from the OpenOffice SDK? That would mean that I can use Base for the Front End and create a nice user interface with the form designer.

If so, then I should be able to also make use of sun's java communications api, which support asynchronous event notification for the serial port.

Is this too good to be true?

edit this topic's initial post · Post by **Villeroy** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:00 am

Simply use any databse you like, such as MySQL. Base is just a frontend. The database you can create as a single file in Base is nothing but a http://hsqldb.org wrapped into a zip file, extracted every time you "open" the database document and wrapped again on close (if the close is a controlled one). Do not use this crap for anything serious. You do not need any office suite to fill a database with data from serial ports. Base is good enough to import data into office documents independent from file formats (reports, serial letters and input for spreadsheet calculations). You may even create some fairly usable input forms attached to office documents. The Sun Report Builder extension can generate more professional reports attached to Writer documents. That's all about Base.

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:53 am

Villeroy wrote:Simply use any databse you like, such as MySQL. Base is just a frontend. The database you can create as a single file in Base is nothing but a http://hsqldb.org wrapped into a zip file, extracted every time you "open" the database document and wrapped again on close (if the close is a controlled one). Do not use this crap for anything serious. You do not need any office suite to fill a database with data from serial ports. Base is good enough to import data into office documents independent from file formats (reports, serial letters and input for spreadsheet calculations). You may even create some fairly usable input forms attached to office documents. The Sun Report Builder extension can generate more professional reports attached to Writer documents. That's all about Base.

thanks for your reply.

That's what I was leaning towards... use MySQL and then Base as a frontend so I can use it as the main user interface for the person in the office. Also I would use Base to design forms, reports and queries.
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough regarding the serial ports, but I do need it for my database... I need to interface to a system that sends/receives serial commands. There are a pair of keypads, connected to this interface so people can control a gate and the database is keeping track of customer/unit allocation for a mini-storage business.

All I need to know is whether I can open the forms/queries/reports via a java app. I have seen references to OpenOffice SDK and StarOffice SDK.

edit this topic's initial post · Post by **Villeroy** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:14 am

Open forms and reports programatically? Yes, shure. Another question could be: Are OOo's forms and reports worth to be opened?

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:48 pm

Villeroy wrote: Another question could be: Are OOo's forms and reports worth to be opened?

my apologies if I was asking a stupid question...

Previous to finding out about OOo, I was experimenting with BIRT, which can generate some decent looking reports. However, I then still needed to find some way to create forms. Also, it wasn't clear whether BIRT can generate dot matrix printer friendly reports.

ms777 · Post by **ms777** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:50 am

Villeroy wrote:... Another question could be: Are OOo's forms and reports worth to be opened?

I like your sarcasm vs OO ... I feel it already coming, too, although I am just at a fraction of your posts ...

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:25 am

ms777 wrote:
Villeroy wrote:... Another question could be: Are OOo's forms and reports worth to be opened?
I like your sarcasm vs OO ... I feel it already coming, too, although I am just at a fraction of your posts ...

trying to score brownie points?

I'm just starting to find all the excellent documentation links for the developer's guides. Yes, I got a bit too excited. I know exactly what I want to achieve, but it is a bit overwhelming how many roads lead to Rome.

Thanks for the kind words of advice.

ms777 · Post by **ms777** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 2:55 pm

wienerschnitzel wrote:trying to score brownie points?

Yes

let's see if Villeroy awards me one

I see the largest difficulty in your task in responding to serial port events from OO. Rereading this thread, I found an earlier remark of you:

wienerschnitzel wrote:If so, then I should be able to also make use of sun's java communications api, which support asynchronous event notification for the serial port.

I was not aware that java has this capability. Can you give me a pointer to some docs ? It is quite easy to involve Java code from OO

edit this topic's initial post · Post by **Villeroy** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:13 pm

Far more than brownie points.
In another forum's thread http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=37471

Villeroy in response to ms777 wrote:You're the light house above the API cliffs

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:16 pm

ms777 wrote: I was not aware that java has this capability. Can you give me a pointer to some docs ? It is quite easy to involve Java code from OO

sure thing: http://java.sun.com/products/javacomm/

I haven't actually used it yet as I first wanted to get over the hurdle of opening a Base report via OOo SDK - still trying to find some sample code. I found this link:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... _Documents

There is no reference to report in the Database component ?!

edit this topic's initial post · Post by **Villeroy** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:32 pm

Loading embedded forms or reports is such a ridiculously difficult task, I'd never ever open my reports programmatically as long as I have fingers to perform a double-click in the database window. You can find several different Basic-macros in this forum and in the older forum http://www.oooforum.org/forum/search.phtml
[Solved] Display report for current record

All the reports and forms are Writer documents embedded in the database document which is a zip basically. You may also create reports in stand-alone documents and load the document like any other document. I prefer "poor mans reports" on spreadsheets. They can be used for further calculations in place, for pivot tables and charting.
[Tutorial] Using registered data sources in Calc

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:27 pm

Villeroy wrote:Loading embedded forms or reports is such a ridiculously difficult task, I'd never ever open my reports programmatically as long as I have fingers to perform a double-click in the database window. You can find several different Basic-macros in this forum and in the older forum http://www.oooforum.org/forum/search.phtml
[Solved] Display report for current record

All the reports and forms are Writer documents embedded in the database document which is a zip basically. You may also create reports in stand-alone documents and load the document like any other document. I prefer "poor mans reports" on spreadsheets. They can be used for further calculations in place, for pivot tables and charting.
[Tutorial] Using registered data sources in Calc

Thanks - it will take me some time to digest this as I'm trying to figure what this will look like to the user.
I'm somewhat forced to use java because of the serial port stuff and I wanted to consolidate the user interface into one application, i.e. java app.
You have to understand that a certain action that takes place in the database will require a command to be sent out COM1 to an interface board. Then an event may happen at any time, which will cause a command to be sent from that same interface board to the PC using COM1.
In the old database (MS Access), I wrote a C++ DLL which did all the asynchronous communication with the serial port, but unless I can import that DLL into Base, I will have to find a different way.

The reports I need don't have to be pretty, but they need to be dotmatrix printer friendly.

ms777 · Post by **ms777** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:40 am

How did you call the DLL from Access ? Are you aware that you can use OO Basic DECLARE to call at least system libraries ? maybe you can reuse your DLL ...

edit this topic's initial post · Post by **Villeroy** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:23 pm

Just another snippet to load an embedded form. http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic ... 634#311634
Never seen that variant before. Base is still evolving.

wienerschnitzel · Post by **wienerschnitzel** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:33 pm

ms777 wrote:How did you call the DLL from Access ? Are you aware that you can use OO Basic DECLARE to call at least system libraries ? maybe you can reuse your DLL ...

I didn't realize that this is possible... this will surely be the easiest route - thanks for the tip.

Database front end with serial port event handling

Database front end with serial port event handling

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