Re: [libreoffice-users] Adding fields to existing Base table

All,

I want to thank all of you for your very helpful responses.  Yes, it has
bee a long time since I have used databases.  Last was about 10 years
ago when I used Access with SQL for a real time data acquisition system.
 That was a challenge!

What I'm doing now is creating a database of data that changes about
twice per week, but the number of areas (of the US) covered will grow
from 12 now, to over 100 if the project gets the go-ahead.  I likely
will be stuck adding the data as I am developing a program to acquire
the raw data automatically.  I will also create reports that get sent to
a few individuals (for now), and more later if the project is go.  There
has been some talk about adding a web site that is interactive like some
stock web sites or the really nice Weather Underground site, but that is
a bridge to cross in 2015.

My take-away for the discussion is that LO Base will not take me to
where I need to be, and I need to make some decisions ASAP.  I did a lot
of Googling this afternoon, and some reading.  The plan based on your
input is:
1. Use LO Base to do the quick demo since the data is currently in a
spreadsheet I don't need to worry about loosing it altogether.  The
reason for the spreadshet is that eraly on I have no idea what the data
is going to look like, and spreadsheets are easier to creat and modify.
2. Move to an industrial strength database engine.  After some fast
research, I'm leaning toward MariaDB.  It doesn't appear to have a GUI
client for input forms or a report generator, so there will be a lot of
work here.  JasperRreports and Next Reports seem to be good for the
output.
3. Plan on spending a lot more time than orriginally budgeted for this
porject - but that seems to always be the case with developemnt.

Thoughts or comments??

Thanks,
Dave

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014, at 03:27 PM, dave boland wrote:
> I'm setting up a database that is small (three tables, may grow to 3GB
> over next year).  I need a strategy to deal with the unknown, which is
> how to add fields to an existing table.  I read in the docs that doing
> this can be painful and it is required to put something in each field
> for each record.  Do I have this correct?  If so, how do I handle the
> inevitable "...would you add..." that is sure to come within the next
> few months?  I would add them now, but I really can't anticipate how
> many fields will be added or their requirements.
>
> In general, do other databases have similar restrictions?  At some time,
> when I have time, I will consider MySQL, MariaDB, and others.
>
> Thanks,
> Dave
> -- 
>   dave boland
>   dboland9@fastmail.fm
>
> -- 
> http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and
>                           love email again
>
>
> -- 
> To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
> Problems?
> http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
> Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
> List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
> All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be
> deleted
-- 
  dave boland
  dboland9@fastmail.fm

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and
                          love email again


-- 
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted