LV2012 into OpenOffice Base?

[sjn]

I'm currently working with LabVIEW2012 VIs that dump data into microsoft Access.  We're planning to start moving-away from MSOffice to Apache OpenOffice (v4 released 23 July 2013) next month, and I'm hoping for any information on whether I'll encounter any problems getting my data into AOO's database app.  Has anyone any experience(s) with how well LV & AOO play together?

[DennisKnutson]

Microsoft Office should have nothing to do with writing to an Access database. You write to the jet engine using MS ADO functions. These are used by the Database Connectivity Toolkit or one of the free alternatives. If your new database has an odbc or ole driver, your changes to the SQL statements should be minimal.

[tst]

Dennis, are you trying out a new look?

[DennisKnutson]

No. Screwed up my password and login on my phone. Just haven't taken the time to ask to have it fixed.

[Eric1977]

I think sjn wanted to go from Access to Open Office Base.

I haven't looked into this too throughly, but it appears that this is doable. I know Open Office has some programming capability, but to what extent, I am unsure of. I'd think it should have some objects associated to it but it might not since it is freeware.

A better approach may be to place the data in to a CSV file and import this into a Base table. Read here to get some ideas. --> http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=37013

[DennisKnutson]

But ms office and openoffice are irrelevant to database reads and writes. If someone is using office's ActiveX interface to connect to Access, then that is the most inefficient and least portable method. The connection should have been to the Jet database engine that Access uses with ADO functions. That should be the method used for whatever database engine they have switched to.

[sjn]

Thanks Eric.  I probably should have phrased my initial question better.  I'll try to elaborate:

I currently have VIs (created by others) that work with ActiveX to put data into Access *.accdb files.  'The Powers That Be' would like to move away from Access (microsoft products, as much as possible, in general really) to open-source.  OpenOffice seems to be The Big Thing.  From what I've read, I know I can't work directly with those .accdb files in OO but hope to modify the VIs so that they can work through ActiveX(?) into OO's database (named 'Base') in whatever format Base stores stuff.  I can then work on a way to convert all the existing .accdb files to Base's format so I can keep everything together.  I've seen in some postings that ActiveX works with OO's spreadsheet app (named 'Calc') and I'm hoping it also works with Base.  I've put postings in the appropriate forums about ActiveX/Base functionality and will be downloading the latest OO package tonight so I can start to get things going.

I've many years experience with LabView but nothing so far with databases; Access, Base, or otherwise.  Spreadsheets (Excel, Calc), yes.  I've not done a lot of work with ActiveX in LabView either.  I know all that's soon to change if I'm going to be the one working on this project, and I was looking for anybody's experiences with getting LabView-generated data into an OpenOffice database.

[DennisKnutson]

Then pursue the ado approach - not ActiveX. ActiveX would be appropriate for other components. Even the openoffice base wen page talks about ado to connect to the database engine.

Why don't you at least provide some code on how its done now.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

http://www.openoffice.org/api/  looks like it is a good place to start

[sjn]

> Why don't you at least provide some code on how its done now.

Not an original idea, friend.  😄  It's compiled and I can't get my hands on the source yet.  Yeah, it would be A Good Thing To Do.  Everything I've related so far has been from conversations with others - I believe they said it was all through ActiveX...  I'll check out the ADO stuff too - never heard of it before, but it looks like I'll be learning it; now.  This stuff is all new to me.