Hi Ray / Frank That's not strictly true, the linked table feature of MSA is one of it's strong points, that has not been replicated in any version of OO.
The really good & useful thing about using linked tables in MSA is taht you can have simultaneous access to database tables from a number of data sources, and yet see them in your 'access file' as tables. You can link tables for example, From an Oracle database, Mysql, and Access database in the same Access file. You can then use the standard gui tools, form/report/query builders against these linked tables as if they are native tables in the access file that you are working on. So far in OpenOffice, I have so far only been able to link, say to 1 MyQSL backend database, and use those tables in the gui toools, as in MSA, however multiple data sources are not supported in the same manner as in MSA. The functionality for linked tables in MSA, is basically indespensible for my use, and I suspect many others, and does severely restrict the number of uses for OO Base, so much so, that, even though I use Linux as my desktop environment, I still have to use vmware, with a windows installation, just so that I can use MSA, and those linked tables, allowing me to use, see and manipulate data from my various backends, in a single relevant application. This is a feature request I raised when the first betas of OO 2 were made generally available. Cheers On Wed, 2006-11-01 at 11:13 +0100, Frank Schönheit - Sun Microsystems Germany wrote: > Hi Ray, > > > This may be a naive question, but I just could not find the button in OO > > Base 2.0.4. > > Please accept my apology in case that the solution turns out to be so > > obvious. > > In MS Access, one can achieve the separation of actual data from codes of > > queries, forms, etc., by using the feature of linked tables in MS Access. > > > > MS Access 2003 example: > > File - Get External Data - Link Tables > > will see an arrow at left of the linked table icon > > indicating that it is only a pointer to a table in another file > > > > The data section of database includes table definition, > > table relationship (foreign keys), constraints, triggers, > > etc., and the actual data. Let us call it the server part. > > > > The code section of database includes pointers to actual tables > > (in a different *.mdb or *.odb), view definition, query definition, > > forms, etc., and **no data**. Let us call it the client part. > > Quite funny :) No, no offense intendend :) > > Actually, up to OpenOffice.org 1.x, Base worked exactly this way: We had > only a data source definition, which comprised of forms, reports, > queries, and information how to access the data. The data itself layed > somewhere else on the hard disc, or on a database server. > > With OOo 2.0, we moved to database files containing all client part, > plus (optionally) the actual data, i.e. the server part. That was a > significant change which was done since users, at least those coming > from MSA, repeatedly *requested* this kind of self-contained database. > > No you come and ask for the opposite :) > > Well, in fact the old way does still work. If you do not use the default > database format (embedded HSQLDB), then you'll have the perfect > separation of the client from the server part, as already outlined by > Anthony. Just put your data onto some database server, or use the dBase > format. > > What you currently cannot do is mixing those two worlds. HSQLDB itselfs > supports linking external text files as tables, and can apply its full > power - primary keys, relationships, indexes, whatever - to those > "external text tables". > There's currently no user interface for this, but that's being > developed. This will be similar to the "Link Tables" feature you cited > from MSA. > > Ciao > Frank > -- Tony Smith ICT System Administration West Midlands Fire Service Streetsbrook Road Solihull B91 1QY Tel : 07973810598 Tel : 0121 380 6594 Fax : 0121 711 1699 West Midlands Fire Service Unless expressly stated otherwise, the information contained in this e-mail is confidential and is intended only for the named recipients. 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