You can extend the HSQL database application by means of Java libraries
and you can extend the office by means of macros. Both apps are strictly
separated from each other although they are bundled in your office
installation and despite the fact that database data and the office data
are wrapped in one "database document".
Do not think of writing macros before you are sure to understand 90% of
the application you try hacking upon.
I use one embedded HSQLDB for 7 months. I'm sure that I know both apps
very well and I can write macros. It is a true relief for me that this
project runs well enough(!) without a single line of macro code. When
this project is finished, I will spend another weekend with the Sun
Report Builder extension. For now I use Calc as provisional reporting
engine.
Basically it maps thousand of items to thousands of persons and dozends
of cost units. I can enter all info almost as quick as my wife reads
them from paper records. I adjusted myself to the slightly awkward
keyboard-navigation which is far more efficient than writing stupid
Basic code to save a few dozend keystrokes per hour.
Base is very, very simplistic, which is why it is so difficult to
handle. You have to follow certain concepts very strictly.
To make things worse, most of the wizard stuff is misleading.
Nevertheless Base is extremely helpful to connect office documents with
various data sources, import csv, make spreadsheets more reliable and clear.
Just forget about input forms across tables before you have reached a
stable structure of normalized tables with primary keys and referencial
integrity. On top of a valid database structure you can build input
forms reflecting relations between lists and making all the relations
editable by humans, but the wizards won't do it properly.
FIXSORT(ENTRY) where FIXSORT is
a macro that I've written which maps one string onto another one.
Use a table to map items. Compose queries to derive tables from other
tables in any order of rows and columns.
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