OpenOffice.org Base

Embedded Database

OpenOffice.org 2.0

Document - ID	Specification Owner	Last Change	Status
	Ocke Janssen	11/08/04	final
Conforms to	
Applies to	dba
Task ID(s)	i33348
Category	Feature

Abstract

The embedded database allows the user to create a database file which included not only queries, forms, and reports but also the data as well.

i-Team Members (The specification owner is part of the i-Team)

	Name	E-mail Address
User Experience	Christian Jansen	cj@openoffice.org
Development	Ocke Janssen	oj@openoffice.org
Quality Assurance	Marc Neumann	msc@openoffice.org
Documentation	Uwe Fischer	ufi@openoffice.org

Approved for Implementation

	Approved by	Date
User Experience	Christian Jansen	08/11/2004
Development	Ocke Janssen	08/11/04
Quality Assurance	Marc Neumann	08/11/04
Documentation		
String Review		

Document Change History

Rev. Level	Change	Initials	Date
1.0	Initial revison	OJ	8. Nov. 2004

Contents

Glossary	1

1	Motivation	1

2	User Scenarios	1

3	Goals	1

4	Requirements and Dependencies	1

4.1	Requirements	1

4.2	Technical Dependencies	1

5	Competitive Analyses	2

6	Detailed Specification	2

6.1	Configuration settings	2

6.2	Database application	3

7	References	3

Glossary

Term	Description
database file	The file contains the queries, forms, and reports. It is created by the database application.
database	This is the database itself which contains tables and the corresponding data.
database wizard	This wizard is started by the database application when a new database file should be created.

Motivation

The difference of database data and other database aspects like queries, forms, or reports is for the user often hard to understand that they are saved in different locations. If the database itself is not included in the file, the database application creates, it is always possible that the user forgets to copy the database as well, when he wants to e.g. send it via e-mail. Therefore the database application has to write the information about queries, forms, and reports but also the data if the user selects the embedded database as well.

User Scenarios

An user scenario could be for example sharing database files, the description above is more a bug description.

Goals

When a user creates a new database file and simply wants to create a new database which only exists on his computer and not on a database server, it must be possible to create a database which is embedded into the database file, so that the user can move the file everywhere or send it via e-mail, and afterwards he is able to edit the database as before.

Requirements and Dependencies

Requirements

It must exits a possibility to store an embedded database format into the database file

Technical Dependencies

The application define in http://dba.openoffice.org//specifications/Database_application.sxw must be existing.

Competitive Analyses

There exists several competitive solutions which already have the possibility to store the database and the queries, forms, and reports in one file.

Detailed Specification

The Database Wizard has to be extended in that way that the database wizard (see http://dba.openoffice.org/specifications/Wizard_Database.sxw) has to use the embedded database which is set in the configuration (see Configuration settings) when the user selects to create a new database. The fall back when no configuration setting exists is to create a DBase database.

Configuration settings

The configuration org.openoffice.Office.DataAccess includes the settings for embedded databases. The section “EmbeddedDatabases” contains all embedded databases which are allowed. The property “DefaultEmbeddedDatabase” specifies the name of the embedded database to use. “ EmbeddedDatabaseNames” is a list of all embedded databases currently available.

<group oor:name="EmbeddedDatabases"> <info> <desc>Specifies the default embedded database which should be used.</desc> </info> <prop oor:name="DefaultEmbeddedDatabase" oor:type="xs:string"> <info> <desc>Specifies the name of the embedded database to use.</desc> </info> </prop> <set oor:name="EmbeddedDatabaseNames" oor:node-type="EmbeddedDatabaseName"> <info> <desc xml:lang="en-US">Specifies all embedded database names which are registered.</desc> </info> </set> </group>

The entry “EmbeddedDatabaseName” describes the URL schema for an embedded database. The URL must start with “sdbc:embedded”. E.g.

sdbc:embedded:hsqldb

for an HSQL database. The "UIName" property defines the UI string which will be shown in the status bar of the database application. To give the possibility to set any specific properties for the database, the list "EmbeddedDatabaseSettings" can contain any setting. These settings will be part of the connection parameters.

<group oor:name="EmbeddedDatabaseName"> <info> <desc xml:lang="en-US">Describes the URL schema for an embedded database. They must start with sdbc:embedded:.</desc> </info> <prop oor:name="URL" oor:type="xs:string"> <info> <desc xml:lang="en-US">Specifies the URL for the embedded database.</desc> </info> </prop> <prop oor:name="UIName" oor:type="xs:string" oor:localized="true"> <info> <desc xml:lang="en-US">Specifies the name of the embedded database which will be diaplyed in the statusbar of the database application.</desc> </info> </prop> <set oor:name="EmbeddedDatabaseSettings" oor:node-type="EmbeddedDatabaseSetting"> <info> <desc>Specifies the settings of an embedded database.</desc> </info> </set> </group>

<group oor:name="EmbeddedDatabaseSetting"> <info> <desc xml:lang="en-US">Describes a setting for an embedded database.</desc> </info> <prop oor:name="Value" oor:type="oor:any"> <info> <desc xml:lang="en-US">Describes the value for an embedded database setting.</desc> </info> </prop> </group>

Database Application

The database is of type embedded some functionality isn't available for the user.

Following isn't available:

It is not possible to change the connection type of an embedded database later on, and is also not possible to change from another connection type to the embedded database type.

to open the user administration

to open the properties dialog

to open the advanced dialog

References

http://dba.openoffice.org/specifications/Wizard_Database.sxw

<Embedded Database>

Page 2

<http://dba.openoffice.org/specifications/Embedded_Database.sxw>

Ocke Janssen

2004-04-16T10:59:09