Dbase Solution. HELP!

Hi Guys!

First of all, glad to be back. It's been yonks since my last visit. Been busy with work and family. Yes me and angelic_ky got married and now have a little girl.

Anyhow, to my question. I need to create a database app for work. Thing is, our machines at work do not have MS Office, so using Access is out of the question. We do however have OpenOffice.

My question is, what would be a reliable and quick soltion...

1) just create the dbase app using Open Office
2) create dbase on MS Access and just code a FrontEnd using VB.NET.

Thing is, I've done MS Access dbase with a custom FE coded using VB.NET. However, it is a pain to do the FE coz of all the components I have to code (the gui, classes, the bit that convers vb commands to sql, the bit that connects the client to the remote dbase, etc).

I need the database to be accessed by multiple user at same time, and i'm not sure if OpenOffice allows that.. actually I'm not sure anything about OpenOffice.

Any ideas?

Hi,

I would just do a small POC with Open Office. Base will support multiple users in read mode, but I am not sure if the whole database is locked when a single user is updating it. The point is that these apps are "containers" rather than true databases and they may not handle record locking too elegantly.

All you need do is create a database with a couple of records in it on your network. Log on in update/amend mode then see if you can log in as a different user.

:)

Incidentally, the latest version of oo is 2.4

What kind of DB are you looking to create?

What is the OS of the back end server?

What is the OS of the clients?

Is just an application with basic functionality?

Does it need to be web based?

Just some questions that might help us give you a better direction :)

Why not use sql server express or mysql?

In the latest version of .NET, they made working with databases a whole lot easier. Read up on LINQ.

In response to your question, though, we need some more info than that. Are you locked into a particular backend if it is MS-based? How many users will be accessing the DB? Will it need to be relational?

The most practical DB for small stuff is MySQL and Oracle for big stuff IMO. I tend to stay away from MSSQL but all 3 are relational so I am not sure why you would ask that delstar...

And running a database server for a flat DB is kind of useless, you might as well just use a text file :-P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oofki

And running a database server for a flat DB is kind of useless, you might as well just use a text file :-P

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Not necessarily. One advantage would be that multiple users could access at the same time, which is a requirement. You could simulate that with a text file, but if you have more than 2 or 3 users, I wouldn't suggest it. In response to why I would ask, there's more out there than just those 3.

The biggest issue is the number of concurrent users and the total size of the database over time. If this is business-related, I would personally suggest SQL Server. Oracle is great, if you have plenty of RAM. MySQL is good if you like PHP and open source. You can get a version of SQL Server 2000 for free, at least as long as you keep the size under 2 GBs. That might be perfect for a small business. The .NET framework supports it easily. (Don't forget to use read and write locks so that you keep data integrity, and implement a time-out so that the program will wait for a user rather than aborting the instant it encounters a lock.)

Why go sql server 2000 when you can get the equivalent in sql 2k5 for free?

You can also use ado.net with mysql, you just need to pick up a decent mysql driver.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Juridian

Why go sql server 2000 when you can get the equivalent in sql 2k5 for free?

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You can't get SQL Server 2k5 for free. You can get SQL Server 2k5 Express for free. Unfortunately, the Express edition doesn't allow remote connections, which is a requirement

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/edition...omparison.mspx

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services
How does the Express Edition with Advanced Services for SQL Server compare to the other SQL Server Express Edition products? SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services is perfect for use as a backend to a small, multiuser application that requires more advanced features such as Web reporting or Full-text Search.


Finally, by default remote connections are simply turned off on express like it is on any other version with default settings.

Here are the steps to enable:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlexpress/arc...05/415084.aspx

It looks like you're right, and it even increases the limit to 4GB. =) I wonder if there are any negatives to using 2005 Express instead of 2000. Do you know of any?

I don't know of any yet, but then I usually have to work with standard and above. It 'should' get you more pros than cons.

If I see anything I'll post it up.