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Jeff Deutsch
Speaker & Life Coach
A SPLINT - ASPies LInking with NTs
http://www.asplint.com
"Listen to the universe while it whispers before it has to shout."
Marion Grobb Finkelstein, Communication Catalyst --
http://www.MarionSpeaks.com
There is ambiguity in abbreviating AndrOpen Office and Apache OpenOffice since they are both referred to as AOO. I'll use AOO1.x to the former and the customary AOO for the latter. AOO1.x is based on v3.4 of AOO. It's the most usable OOo derivative that I've found for Android tablets or smart phones.
There is also a LO based app but I definitely do NOT recommend it for any serious work YET. I installed it a few months ago but then uninstalled it again as it was definitely not all that usable. Now I don't know where to get it to test it again (help anyone?).
I started using AOO1.x last week for a spreadsheet application after KingSoft Office (KSO) lost a file for me right after it was saved. It also only supports the M$ file formats (e.g. .xls or .xlsx for spreadsheets).
AOO1.x implements all the modules (Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Data Base, and Formula) in Apache OpenOffice v3.4 with a touch screen interface instead of the mouse interface. The screen appearance is unchanged.
The app plays very well with the Hacker's Keyboard app which provides at least full US keyboard functionality via an on screen set of keys.
I have over a dozen issues with AOO1.x Calc:
• The UI is hard to use on my smart phone which has a screen 2/3 the size of a dollar bill. I can't speak regarding tablets with 7" or 10" screens. I know some will howl at the idea but the truth is that a separately scrolling ribbon similar to the one used by KSO is much more usable on the tiny screen of my smart phone than the menus and icons that the traditional OOo family jams into the upper part of the display.
• When saving a file, a password dialog is always offered. I apparently INADVERTENTLY set a password and since it was not intentional I have no way of knowing what it is. I simply can no longer update that file. 
• Help appears to have not been ported to the Android project.
• Being based on AOO v3.4, I can't specify that protected cells are not to be selected.
• I have not found how to specify the directory (folder) when performing a Save As …. It simply has to be possible.
• Not all keyboard shortcuts that I'm used to using work (e.g. to fill a range of cells Upward Alt+E, I, U works in LO but the "I" does not work in AOO1.x). With my 75 year old eyes I cannot see if a different letter might be specified. I guess I could try "F" or "L."
• Alt+O, E (Merge) simply toggles cell merging on/off. This may be a LO vs AOO difference. I don't know. I left OOo shortly after LO came into being and have not looked back until now.
• I have not found a way to Print (even to a PDF file). AOO1.4,1 complains about there being no default printer.
• There is no Exit on the File menu.
* I have found no way to toggle between two open documents.
• There being no title bar, the file name is not displayed automatically and as is true throughout the OOo family, the function call CELL("filename") does NOT get recalculated when a Save As … is executed.
* Swiping a finger across the screen does not scroll. Also, pinching/spreading does not zoom. These functionalities are supposedly provided via a hidable button bar though I haven't figured out some of the buttons.
• It appears that template files need to be saved in one particular directory.
These are the issues that sprang to mind over the course of some three hours. All in all it's a good product and will undoubtedly get better. I look forward to the day that the LO community gets its entry in this environment as good as this.
Didn't read (yet) the rest of your message, but here's something that seem
LO related, Android related, and verybuggyandunstalbedon'tusethis related 
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Android
Hi
I'm not sure but i'd be happy if our devs worked on the AndrOO1.x
instead of our own one, if it's closer to being ready and then maybe
worrying about our one later.
On the other hand it appears that our one is frustratingly close to be
ready but just didn't follow the usual principles of "release early
and release often". So i guess that when it is released it could well
be quite far ahead of the AndrOO1.x one.
Hmm, i am quite torn about this but luckily i have no say in it AND i
don't have an Android so it doesn't affect me. My work-place might
have a proper dev starting sometime soon so i will probably end up
pointing her to LibreOffice and the Android port if she is looking for
somethign to do with her spare-time.
Regards from
Tom
Hi All
I've been using the Base/MySQL combination since mid-last year now and it is fantastic!! It is much faster, never crashes or freezes and just works the way it is supposed to. I can definitely recommend it to anyone!! (In my opinion this should be the standard and HSQL should be dropped)
Now I have a couple of questions...
1) Where does MySQL store the Database? (I think it's in the root somewhere)
2) Is it easy to move it into the /home directory?
3) Where do I find the LO front-end form?
4) If I copy these two files to another machine will I be able to get the Database running on this second machine?
Side question
I have a couple of graphics/photos in each record - Is it possible to 'Link' these instead of embedding them so that if you up-date a photo it will automatically update in the Database? If this is possible will it effect Base at all? (faster, slower etc)
Thanks for any help
IanW
Pretoria RSA.
I found the Base module to be fairly unstable, as in, it crashes a lot,
but the other modules are fairly usable on both my Nexus 7 and Asus
Transformer Pad, the advantage of the latter being that I have a real
keyboard 
The UI does need some work though, but kudos to the people (person) who
managed to get this to run in the first place. I didn't have any problem
navigating to other folders to save documents, I can also confirm that
by default, Writer files at least are password protected (haven't
checked out Calc files yet), and I have to remember to turn this off
when I do my testing.
Alex
Hi All
I've been using the Base/MySQL combination since mid-last year now and it is fantastic!! It is much faster, never crashes or freezes and just works the way it is supposed to. I can definitely recommend it to anyone!! (In my opinion this should be the standard and HSQL should be dropped)
The advantage of HSQL is that it creates a single file and you do not need to run a database daemon in the background (I am assuming that the MySQL connector uses that rather than knowing how to read the MySQL files directly). In other words, it does serve a need.
The disadvantage of HSQL, (speculation, so assume half of what I am about to say is wrong) is that it sounds less stable, if you crash Base, it is more likely to lose data, and everything stays in memory.
Now I have a couple of questions...
1) Where does MySQL store the Database? (I think it's in the root somewhere)
Are you using Windows or Linux? Try looking under something like:
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server #.#\my.ini
Look in that file for the basedir and datadir variables.
And now I see I need to run.
Hi All
I've been using the Base/MySQL combination since mid-last year now and it is fantastic!! It is much faster, never crashes or freezes and just works the way it is supposed to. I can definitely recommend it to anyone!! (In my opinion this should be the standard and HSQL should be dropped)
The advantage of HSQL is that it creates a single file and you do not need to run a database daemon in the background (I am assuming that the MySQL connector uses that rather than knowing how to read the MySQL files directly). In other words, it does serve a need.
The disadvantage of HSQL, (speculation, so assume half of what I am about to say is wrong) is that it sounds less stable, if you crash Base, it is more likely to lose data, and everything stays in memory.
I think the other reason for using HSQL is it is easier to use as an embedded database while MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, etc. require the separate install of the database. The others are designed as stand-alone databases that one can connect to using a variety of tools.
Now I have a couple of questions...
1) Where does MySQL store the Database? (I think it's in the root somewhere)
Are you using Windows or Linux? Try looking under something like:
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server #.#\my.ini
Look in that file for the basedir and datadir variables.
And now I see I need to run.
2) Is it easy to move it into the /home directory?
3) Where do I find the LO front-end form?
4) If I copy these two files to another machine will I be able to get the Database running on this second machine?Side question
I have a couple of graphics/photos in each record - Is it possible to 'Link' these instead of embedding them so that if you up-date a photo it will automatically update in the Database? If this is possible will it effect Base at all? (faster, slower etc)
Storing the link to the photo should make the database query run faster because the text string is orders of magnitude smaller than the photo. One problem is one must be very carefully about naming the photos.
Sorry All
I'm running PClinuxOS (latest) and LO 4.1.2.3 and MySQL 5.1.55
A MySQL 'expert' was telling me recently that HSQL is only meant to be a prototyping utility and should *NEVER* be used for any "proper" work - - interesting!!??
I can confirm that when it crashes it takes everything with it so you have to backup every time you make change. This is what forced me to MySQL.
Thanks again
Hello,
Sorry All
I'm running PClinuxOS (latest) and LO 4.1.2.3 and MySQL 5.1.55
Do you know the path of the installation directory for MySQL? There should be a my.cnf file somewhere in it. If you can't find it, you can run "sudo find / -name my.cnf" in your terminal. Once you find the path, open the file. You can run "sudo cat /path/to/my.cnf" (where /path/to/my.cnf is the path you found earlier to your my.cnf file) in your terminal. Once opened, you should find a key called "datadir," which has the location of the data directory for MySQL. However, MySQL data usually has to be read by the server itself, since the data cannot be gathered easily. You could just execute the SQL query "SELECT * FROM database" with database being the database name.
You could move the data directory to somewhere in /home (like you asked) and change the datadir in my.cnf. I don't know if you could move your database to another server; maybe if the MySQL version was the same, you could the "data" directory, but there are other files that might have to be copied. Even transferring to a server with another operating system could be a difficult task.
A MySQL 'expert' was telling me recently that HSQL is only meant to be a prototyping utility and should *NEVER* be used for any "proper" work - - interesting!!??
I can confirm that when it crashes it takes everything with it so you have to backup every time you make change. This is what forced me to MySQL.
Thanks again
Regards,
xmlhttprequest.open@gmail.com
Ian,
I do not know if HSQL is only intended for prototyping and thus is not suitable for production work. I would say as a MySQL/MariaDB user is that HSQL is probably intended for lighter production work where a small office needs a database. In this scenario the data requirements are modest, maybe a couple GB of data, but their data is complex enough to need the querying features of a relational database.
Hello,
This instability of HSQL is worrying when using the same database year after year, e.g. an address or a bibliographic database.
For my part, all my data remain in separate external tables in dbf format, linked to Base.
Reasons are:
- compatibility with many programmes and readability of old archives, even in case of change of database program ;
- stability in the long run;
- format compatible with GIS software;
- when the tables are not merged in one file, the loss is limited when one of the tables gets corrupted.
The main drawback is the impossibility to make a relational database.
In fact, the good integration of the office suite with a database was one of the main reason's why I began to use OO in 2007 or 2008.
To my great satisfaction indeed: it works very well, except for two instances, several years ago, where the dbf file got corrupted (luckily, recovery from backups was easy).
Since then it works fine without any failure (except, rarely, for some data in memo fields, which can lose the right connection with other data (dbt file connection to dbf file)).
Nevertheless, the impossibility of making relations between tables is rather frustrating.
One solution is to migrate to a mySQL/Base or preferably Postgresql (because of PostGIS). It's my intention but I fear to waste a lot of time in migrating.
What is the best combination for a single user, relational database, stable in the long run, using Base as the front end?
Paul Lens
Hello,
This instability of HSQL is worrying when using the same database year after year, e.g. an address or a bibliographic database.
For my part, all my data remain in separate external tables in dbf format, linked to Base.
Reasons are:
- compatibility with many programmes and readability of old archives, even in case of change of database program ;
- stability in the long run;
- format compatible with GIS software;
- when the tables are not merged in one file, the loss is limited when one of the tables gets corrupted.The main drawback is the impossibility to make a relational database.
In fact, the good integration of the office suite with a database was one of the main reason's why I began to use OO in 2007 or 2008.
To my great satisfaction indeed: it works very well, except for two instances, several years ago, where the dbf file got corrupted (luckily, recovery from backups was easy).
Since then it works fine without any failure (except, rarely, for some data in memo fields, which can lose the right connection with other data (dbt file connection to dbf file)).Nevertheless, the impossibility of making relations between tables is rather frustrating.
One solution is to migrate to a mySQL/Base or preferably Postgresql (because of PostGIS). It's my intention but I fear to waste a lot of time in migrating.What is the best combination for a single user, relational database, stable in the long run, using Base as the front end?
Paul Lens
Paul
PostgreSQL and MySQL/MariaDB are good alternatives. MariaDB is a fork of MySQL and many Linux distros install it instead of MySQL. Both can be used as a single user database. IMHO MariaDB is easier to use in a single user environment. With both you can use Base or database specific GUI (pgAdmin, MySQL Workbench).
If the data can be exported to csv files migrating should not be difficult, only time consuming.
Jay
Hi
A quick "back of an envelope" risk-analysis might suggest that
although the effects can be fairly devastating the likelihood of that
occurring is fairly low so it might be acceptable.
It might be something like that which led Ian's "MySql expert" to say
it was fine only for proto-typing, or it might be that the expert
needs people to all move to MySql and has a sales-pitch against each
different type of other non-MySql program. The argument against
MariaDb might be that it doesn't work on Macs.
The LO marketing team keep insisting on pretending that the internal
database is ok. Most of the rest of us seem to have to pick up the
pieces when/if that goes wrong so we seem to generally advise people
to move to an external back-end asap (within reason). However it's
very rare that people do run into the problem so maybe it is being
over-stated. Plus, how hard can it be to back-up a single file! On
the other hand the effects are TOO devastating and far beyond what
most of us on this list would find acceptable
Just to add 2 extra layers of complexity
1. the internal (embedded) database 'back-end' is apparently likely
to be switched from Hsql to something else 'soon'.
2. Hsql is a separate 3rd party project and it's possible to download
and install their latest version on 'your computer' (or server or
anything) and use that in much the same way you use any other external
back-end.
Apparently the only reason the the internal back-end is sometimes
unstable is because Sun paid-devs insisted on locking in a now ancient
version and they heavily tweaked it. Apparently this was fine "back
in the day" but nowadays means that the internal back-end is. Also
apparently when the newer&untweaked versions of Hsql are being used as
an external back-end then it's quite excellent and very stable.
So i don't think it's really fair to blame Hsql. It's be a bit like
saying that OOo 1.0 is a bit ancient and not great nowadays.
Regards from
Tom
Play around with the new "experimental" integrated Firebird db in LO
4.2. You need to switch on the experimental features to be able to
create tables, etc.
Be warned, it is still very much in its infancy and lots of useful
things that a user would want to do are not yet supported by the user
interface. However, Firebird is as solid a db engine as they come.
Alex
Play around with the new "experimental" integrated Firebird db in LO
4.2. You need to switch on the experimental features to be able to
create tables, etc.
Be warned, it is still very much in its infancy and lots of useful
things that a user would want to do are not yet supported by the user
interface. However, Firebird is as solid a db engine as they come.
Alex
Hi Ian,
For some reason, your question shows up in Thunderbird in the thread
about Andropenoffice, hoping that you haven't hijacked it...
1) Where does MySQL store the Database? (I think it's in the root
somewhere)
It is usually (but not always) stored somewhere in /var on a Linux
system. On Ubuntu based systems, it seems to be located in "/var/lib/mysql"
2) Is it easy to move it into the /home directory?
If you know how to :
- change your my.cnf
- change the ownership and privileges of the new directory to correspond
to those of the user mysql process (i.e. the user that runs the mysqld
daemon)
3) Where do I find the LO front-end form?
In your ODB file. Unzip it and have a look, it'll be in there in a
subdirectory.
4) If I copy these two files to another machine will I be able to get
the Database running on this second machine?
No, mysql doesn't work as a single file that you just copy from one
place to another. It takes more work than that. Use a dump (sql file),
or setup the new mysql server on the second machine to be a replicant of
the first - this presupposes that the two machines can be connected
together over the internet or a local LAN, but if you have two machines
on the same subnet, better to just allow the second machine to access
your first machine's mysql server.
Side question
I have a couple of graphics/photos in each record - Is it possible to
'Link' these instead of embedding them so that if you up-date a photo it
will automatically update in the Database? If this is possible will it
effect Base at all? (faster, slower etc)
Only possible with a macro that takes the location and name of the image
file stored in the database as a string, and then convert that to a link
for you on your form and provide some way of displaying it (e.g. shell
function to an outside viewer or loading the file into an image
control). Provided that you don't go and change the name of the file or
its location, the image will always be up to date even if you modify the
image itself.
Alex
Hi Ian,
For some reason, your question shows up in Thunderbird in the thread
about Andropenoffice, hoping that you haven't hijacked it...
1) Where does MySQL store the Database? (I think it's in the root
somewhere)
It is usually (but not always) stored somewhere in /var on a Linux
system. On Ubuntu based systems, it seems to be located in "/var/lib/mysql"
2) Is it easy to move it into the /home directory?
If you know how to :
- change your my.cnf
- change the ownership and privileges of the new directory to correspond
to those of the user mysql process (i.e. the user that runs the mysqld
daemon)
3) Where do I find the LO front-end form?
In your ODB file. Unzip it and have a look, it'll be in there in a
subdirectory.
4) If I copy these two files to another machine will I be able to get
the Database running on this second machine?
No, mysql doesn't work as a single file that you just copy from one
place to another. It takes more work than that. Use a dump (sql file),
or setup the new mysql server on the second machine to be a replicant of
the first - this presupposes that the two machines can be connected
together over the internet or a local LAN, but if you have two machines
on the same subnet, better to just allow the second machine to access
your first machine's mysql server.
Side question
I have a couple of graphics/photos in each record - Is it possible to
'Link' these instead of embedding them so that if you up-date a photo it
will automatically update in the Database? If this is possible will it
effect Base at all? (faster, slower etc)
Only possible with a macro that takes the location and name of the image
file stored in the database as a string, and then convert that to a link
for you on your form and provide some way of displaying it (e.g. shell
function to an outside viewer or loading the file into an image
control). Provided that you don't go and change the name of the file or
its location, the image will always be up to date even if you modify the
image itself.
Alex
Thanks for the information. I'll have a try as soon as I migrate to 4.2.
Thanks also to Tom and Jay.
It seems that several good solutions are available for the backend db.
Paul Lens
Eau & Environnement
101, rue Haute
5060 Sambreville
BELGIQUE
Tel/fax: +32 (0)71/76.14.31
GSM: +32 (0)471/13.16.87
Thank you, Jonathon (or is it Toki?).
Regarding the password issue, the default action during a Save As … operation is to solicit a password and I might have entered a space in frustration.
When displayed, the navigation panel (which I think I mistakenly called a buttons panel) occupies a lot of screen real estate.
Export to PDF exports all the sheets. I want to print the defined print range from one of five sheets to a PDF file. It should be doable but I guess that might require a change to the Android OS and/or to the code copied from Apache OpenOffice in order to share the print output with an external (not yet available?) app.
The Open Source and licensing issues are indeed troubling. This kills the cross pollenization (sp?) prospects between projects. I thought works derived from Open Source products had to, themselves, be Open Source also. How wrong could I get? (Rhetoric question)
In any case I do find AnOo (as you called it) to be usable if attention is paid to its quirks.