Open Office Base

Have any experienced MicrosoftAccess developers tried OpenOfficeBase? If so, how does it compare? Has its lack of built-in macros or a scripting language been a problem? (A VBA-like scripting language add-on is allegedly available.)

Jan. 2009 - Macros were allegedly added.

I created a simple table to kick the tires, and when in the data grid, I couldn't insert, and the "Record/Insert" menu was greyed out in the menu. Greying-out without explanation is evil design! Anti-Kudos. Drats! If you let it add an ID automatically, it then works. However, adding an index with a "unique" setting doesn't work, and there is no menu for primary key selection. (Version 3.0) I figured it out. You have to right-click on the inconspicuous square box at the very left of the table designer grid, not on the column name. Sigh. Intuitiveness: F-

In general the error messages are cryptic. It appears that in order to be database-vendor-neutral, the error system farms off error messages to the driver, which may not "understand" what environment it is reporting to. At least its native DB engine should have more intuitive messages, but the integration appears half-ass. Maybe the designers don't consider it "native", and hope to switch. It's a worthy goal, but to be competitive with Access, it may have to focus on a given engine first.

The SQL editor of the query builder only allows SELECT statements. This is greatly limiting. (One can run an "immediate" SQL command via Tools menu, but it's not saved anywhere.)

CategorySoftwareTool CategoryDatabase CategoryOpenSource