Base - Phone book ?

users
#1

Base
its been quite a few years since I've perplexed myself with a database, but
needs must

i want to print my Thunderbird address book, (the phone numbers mainly) i
can do this from within Thunderbird but i cant choose the fields or set up
the display so the output is hardly user friendly
using Base i can connect to the Thunderbird MAB file choose the fields and
out put a print, but again not particularly user friendly output
What i want is someone to point me towards a tutorial/resource that will
show me how to do the design bit or/and give me advice or even a template.

All help gratefully revived

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
Hopefully the guides on this page might help?
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Base_Guide

If you scroll up the page from that link you find the Base chapter in the "Getting Started" guide might be quite useful too.
Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

That is easy. Open the Base document which connects the TB address database
with this office suite.
Go to the query section.
Let the designer or wizard create a new query from the table in question.
Add only the columns you need.

#4

Andreas Säger wrote

That is easy. Open the Base document which connects the TB address
database with this office suite.
Go to the query section.
Let the designer or wizard create a new query from the table in question.
Add only the columns you need.

Continued:
Save the query
Save the database
Use the query just like you would use a table.

#5

IGraham wrote:

Base
its been quite a few years since I've perplexed myself with a database, but
needs must

i want to print my Thunderbird address book, (the phone numbers mainly) i
can do this from within Thunderbird but i cant choose the fields or set up
the display so the output is hardly user friendly
using Base i can connect to the Thunderbird MAB file choose the fields and
out put a print, but again not particularly user friendly output
What i want is someone to point me towards a tutorial/resource that will
show me how to do the design bit or/and give me advice or even a template.

All help gratefully revived

You can export the address book in tab or comma delimited format. You can then import that file into Calc and do whatever you want with it.

#6

You can export the address book in tab or comma delimited format. You
can then import that file into Calc and do whatever you want with it.

No, you can't do anything with database data in Calc. You can not query
virtual tables nor can you generate reports nor serial letters. The TB
export to csv is completely pointless.
Once you connected a Base document to the address book you have the all the
contained tables plus the groups defined in TB plus database queries in
Writer and in Calc for multiple purposes without further export/import
procedures.

#7

Where do you get that idea? You can create a database using a calc document
as your data source and create queries and forms and reports as you would
with any other data source. Your only restriction is that you can't do data
entry, so any changes have to be made in Calc.

#8

Compare this:
Thunderbird > CSV export > Calc import > Base document > Report

with this:
Thunderbird > Base document > Report

The Base document provides a direct link to the current TB data. You don't
need to update any intermediate files. The availlable features and
limitations are the same for all file based data sources (spreadsheet, csv,
address books etc).

#9

far be it for me to distract from a good developing 'discussion' :wink:

thanks for the input people

the calc option, as much as i like a good spreadsheet i don't really think
its going to produce a booklet type phone number book without a good deal of
tweaking and as has been pointed out calk wont connect directly to the
thunderbird database
thanks for the suggestion though

base, I've already connected to the database and got a output of the fields
i want, what i want now is to know how to go into design view and build an
output that would look and print off something like a purchased phone book

Tom, havent had a chance to have a proper look at the links yet - thanks

and if anyone does have a suitable template

#10

Search for Base Tutorial by Mariano Casanova. Perhaps this will
help.

--Dan

#11

Andreas Säger wrote:

You can export the address book in tab or comma delimited format. You
can then import that file into Calc and do whatever you want with it.

No, you can't do anything with database data in Calc. You can not query
virtual tables nor can you generate reports nor serial letters. The TB
export to csv is completely pointless.
Once you connected a Base document to the address book you have the all the
contained tables plus the groups defined in TB plus database queries in
Writer and in Calc for multiple purposes without further export/import
procedures.

--
View this message in context: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Base-Phone-book-tp3744152p3745361.html
Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

I thought the OP simply wanted to print his address book, after selecting the columns he wanted to print. That is easy enough to do in Calc.

#12

That is easy. Open the Base document which connects the TB address database
with this office suite.
Go to the query section.
Let the designer or wizard create a new query from the table in question.
Add only the columns you need.

--
View this message in context: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Base-Phone-book-tp3744152p3744554.html
Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

All,

#13

James Knott wrote

I thought the OP simply wanted to print his address book, after
selecting the columns he wanted to print. That is easy enough to do in
Calc.

The question was about printing specific columns only which is even more
easy without any calculator software or using Calc as report medium.
TB addresses > Base > Calc report or embedded Writer report

#14

Joep L. Blom wrote

All,
3.4.5 on Ubuntu 10.04 it is impossible to link with the TB address-book
although the choice is given (see the referenced mail). Or is this
feature finally implemented in 3.5.
Joep

Just do not use your distributor's LO. The downloaded version from
http://libreoffice.org( includes the TB address book driver in all versions
of LibreOffice.org. Same with OpenOffice.org. For some reason I never
understood, the Linux distributors used to cut off the TB support from OOo
Base. I used to use the TB address book driver since OOo version 1.

#15

Hi :slight_smile:
It's always good to have choices.  So, i think James deserves thanks rather than criticism. 
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#16

Linux users who can not connect to TB can export csv files from TB and
connect LibreOffice to this data source. Notice that you can export any
virtual address list you have created in TB and that the exported csv is a
snapshot of the current address data. You need to repeat the export
procedure in order to get the latest address data into your csv files.
TB address book tables > CSV directory > Base > Calc/Writer reports

Create a dedicated directory to take any csv list exported from TB .
Export all the lists you need (including any virtual lists) into that
direcory.
In OOo call File>New>Database...
[X] Connect to existing db
Type: Text
Specify the csv folder and the usual csv import delimiters.
[X] Register the new database
Save the new database document.
You may want to add some simple queries to query only certain rows and
columns in a certain order of rows and columns.
Close the database document and forget about it.
Now you can hit F4 in Writer and Calc and read any of the exported csv files
plus the additional Base queries without any further configuration. Just
drag some icon from the left pane into your document. For mailing list
labels you may drag column headers from the right pane into a Writer
document.

#17

Wow, time travel! Soon be 2013 for you then! Here in the UK its just
16-02-2012.

Sharon.

#18

Sorry,
Slippery fingers!
Joep