How do I distribute a Base App to other workstations?

In MS Access you just use one .mdb file as the “backend” database and just store Tables in that one. Then you put all the rest (Forms, Reports, Queries) into a separate .mdb file and simply copy that file to all the workstations. Then you link the Tables in the Backend .mdb to each copy of the FrontEnd .mdb. And you’re done.

I’ve connected two workstations to a common PostGreSQL 9.1 database successfully. But I need to do more than just share the underlying data displayed in the forms. I need to make sure that the forms on the second workstation are indeed the same exact forms that the first workstation is also using.

It would make sense that the form data might be stored in the .odb file that is created when you first connect with PostGreSQL. However, this can be problematic because the login information might not match properly if you just copy that file over to the new workstation.

There really should be a more “User Friendly” way to distribute an app for a LAN at a small company. (Browser based interface might be nice…but just a Base app will work for now) In any case, documentation seems lacking concerning this issue.

Here’s another interesting thought - What if I want to store my “Forms” in the PostGreSQL database where the actual “data” resides? How hard would it be to make LibreOffice Base do that kind of thing?

Any help would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Arthur Baldwin

  1. Store your ODB containing your queries, reports, forms, etc, on a file share (NFS/SMB) accessible to each user and set the read only flag on it. You might have an issue with not being able to set the db user/pwd combo when connecting to the db (it has been a long time since I did this).

OR

  1. Distribute a copy of your ODB without the forms to each user. They can then tailor their individual experience and add their own locally stored copies of queries, etc. Store the forms outside of the ODB in read only mode on an accessible file share, and give your users links to these forms on their respective desktops.