I am seeking an Open Source alternative to MS Access, at least ‘as good as’ Access97 - as I have a number of Apps I developed around 1995 - '97, that I want to convert to an Open Source alternative, with as little modification to the Access design as possible.
According to Wikipedia there is very little choice on the Windows platform. I read article ‘Open office dilemma: OpenOffice.org vs. LibreOffice’ of Feb 2011, but that has little on ease of migrating Access Apps to ‘Open’ or ‘Libre’. It stated “expected Microsoft Office compatibility to be a major area of competition between the two suites, but alas, not much work seems to have been done there”
About 8 years ago I tried ‘importing’ 1 of my Access 2.0 Apps into OpenOffice.org (think Ver2) but it was a waste of time as only the underlying tables imported ok - the simplest bit; the complex part: Forms, Reports, Queries and other glue tying them to the Tables, failed to import.
My Forms made extensive use of ListBoxes, ComboBoxes, RadioButtons wherever it helped ease the UI - a central part of design. Also used SQL & Macros, and a feature of Access that autoprinted a helpful table-link schema showing all Fields & Relations. I need the best alternative RDBMS offering closely equivalent functions to minimise the work in converting the older Access 2 & 97 Apps.
In my initial search for documentation like a ‘Reference Manual’ for ‘Base’ in order to compare its specification with Access, I couldn’t find much at libreoffice.org only a very basic “Getting Started with Base” …was then directed to Open Office ! Further links took me to hsqldb.org where I did find what looks a dated but useful “Base tutorial From Newbie to Advocate” In all that, I got impression the bigger documents were writen for the ‘Open not Libre Office’ version of ‘Base’.
Is BASE identical in Open & Libre suites ?
Ideally, I would like a link to a ‘Reference Manual for Libre-Base’, a ‘Designers Guide to Migrating Access to Libre-Base’ - that shows what Functions in early (access97) have no direct equivalent in Base, and suggested workaround.
One Function I would like to know its limits, is max range of real ‘Date’, and if Julian Date is supported. - a Reference Manual should have that info.
If needed, can BASE be run standalone without need to load or even install the spreadsheet & WP ?
Any help in understanding what features of Access97 are missing from Base, and maybe suggested workarounds will be much appreciated
I thank you for your time and help in advance.