Hi! I freely admit to being a newb, and will be as succinct as I can and try and edit this down/organize as much as possible. Feel free to ask for more detail. However, FYI, I’m really terrible at conciseness and knowing which details are important/which aren’t. If anyone has tips on this, especially quantitative/specific ones, I’d love to hear them.
Now, down to business. 
Objective:
- Trying to create a database to keep
track of mods and custom content that I’ve downloaded for
a game - Hoping to be able to share
the project–not the data itself, since
everyone who plays the game will have
a different set of downloaded mods/CC, but the
structure of the database and such,
so that anyone who wants to (hopefully including
non-coders) can have their own
database of their content (to make it
easier for them to know what they
have, what might need updating/be
broken as of the latest official game
patch, etc.) - Basically, I’d love to have this
function a bit like
Calibre,
except for mods/CC instead of ebooks,
and without all the other fancy
features Calibre has like ebook
conversion, etc. (And also Calibre is, as far as I understand, its own entirely separate program, where mine would preferably be more like…like sharing a template for a database, kind of? Like, I’m envisioning sharing a basic “template”-type file, with things like forms/queries mostly built in but blank or sample data, and then also sharing a download link to LO or whatever program(s) necessary.)
Examples of data I might include:
-
Name/title/whatever of mod or CC
-
Creator(s)
-
Description
-
(Preferably) thumbnail/photo of item or what it does, if applicable
-
Date you last updated it
-
Download URL
-
Creator URL(s)
-
File location
-
Compressed file location (if applicable)
-
Game pack(s) necessary for use (if applicable)
-
Maybe custom tags, if possible and not too terribly difficult to implement
-
etc.
Criteria for choosing a database tool:
Absolutely necessary:
- No money spent (I just don’t have any
RN, and I don’t think other players
would generally want to spend on
something like this either) - Pretty darn sure that what I want is
a relational database, since I’ll
probably need/want to include
many-to-many relationships that will
need to be resolved and stuff
Necessary if at all possible:
- Would like to be able to use both GUI and
SQL methods to create the database
(this is what led me to LO in the
first place–was looking for
Microsoft Access alternatives because
I have Access but wouldn’t be able to
easily share my finished product because the software costs) - Would
like to be able to mostly do the
creation and putting-together of the
database myself (I’ve seen a couple
of tool options that seem to be more
for completely non-coders, and I’d
rather not use that kind of thing) - Basically, I’m just trying to keep
this as simple as possible while
still learning/practicing something
in the way of database
design/SQL/computer science skills.
Many of my projects tend to start out
as one thing, then snowball and morph
into ginormous half-impossible
timesinks that half the time never
get finished because I’ve burned
myself out working on them…and I
just don’t have the bandwidth for
that now. So I’m doing my darnedest
to keep that from happening
Strongly preferred:
- As usable as possible for both those
who know what they’re doing with
databases/SQL and those who don’t (if I have to make 2 different versions, I might, depending on how difficult that is, but I would like to keep this as simple as possible)
Preferred but not too big a deal:
- As little downloading things as
possible (both for computer space and
because I feel like other users
(well, and me too!) won’t like the
inconvenience/risk otherwise)
Specific stuff I can think of that I’m willing to compromise on, at least somewhat:
-
Online/cloud-based vs. software
download is nbd. Like, online might
be nice, but I could probably go
either way -
May be willing to do a bit more than I expected in the way of coding
(as opposed to GUI), but preferably
not too much (and also I don’t know
VB, which I think is maybe what you use for
macros (?), so that might be difficult). Like, I’m good with learning a bit, but don’t have the time/energy to learn an entire new programming language or anything like that at the moment
…I think that’s most of it. If I’ve missed anything I’ll try and edit later.
What I’ve already done:
…tbh some of it’s a bit of a blur, both because I’ve been doing so much with it (and I’m busy IRL), and because I don’t understand a lot of the terminology I’ve been seeing in conjunction with this. But a few of the things I do remember doing:
-
Internet searches (with various
search engines) of different
combinations of keywords like
“Microsoft Access alternative,”
“free,” “online” (I was originally
hoping for something that was more
cloud-based so no one had to download
software), etc. -
Looked at some of the entries/reviews on
AlternativeTo.net -
Looked at a few lists of reviews (the ones that are titled things like “5 Free Alternatives to Microsoft Access” and stuff)
-
Asked my dad, who’s a programmer at Microsoft–he doesn’t really do much with databases, but he knows a bit about it at least, and had a few suggestions that I looked into
Did a bit of research (some more or less in-depth, depending on what I found) on at least the following (I may be forgetting some):
- Airtable
- MySQL Community Edition
- MariaDB
- Sqlite
- Caspio
- TikiTrackers
- Xataface
- Firebird, which seemed like one of the most promising options, but apparently doesn’t run on Macs at the moment
- Kexi–also looked pretty promising…and tbh I don’t remember exactly why I wanted to try LO over that? I think it might’ve been something to do with which OS’s it supports as well? Not sure.
Problems I’m running into: A lot of it has been that I have no idea what half the terminology used with this stuff means, and maybe just the general concepts–like, I think I understand the difference between, say, Microsoft Access and MySQL, but I don’t know the proper terms for those differences. I’m attempting to get a better grasp on it but not succeeding very well, I think.
Results so far: I’ve been watching a fairly comprehensive tutorial video series for LO Base (although IIRC it was posted like 6 years ago, so I’m taking it with a grain of salt), and the program been mostly looking like it’ll fulfill my criteria pretty well. But I’m still not completely certain, and especially as regards whether to use LO Base by itself or in combination with something else. I’d assumed I’d just use it by itself, but I came across a question on this site, and one of the comments reads as follows:
I might add that using the default
embedded hsqldb as the database engine
for such a db is probably not the
greatest of ideas, depending on
whether or not you are going to
include sequence data in one of the
fields. You would be better off using
a “split” hsql database (see other
posts on splitting hsql out for how to
do that) or else a server backend db
engine such as MariaDB/MySQL or
Postgresql.
Tbh, I don’t know what exactly the commenter means by “such a database,” because I don’t really understand the person’s original question or their DB structure–partially, I think, because I don’t know if some of the terminology they’re using (e.g. “feature”) is data-related (I looked up what a plasmid is, but the answer kind of made my head hurt; I’m not a scientist) or database terminology.
What I hope to gain: Basically, if someone could point me towards…well, anything, really, but especially any or all of the below…that would be awesome.
- I’d love opinions on whether LO is
the right tool for use here at all,
and if so, whether I should use it in
conjunction with something else or
not - If you think LO Base isn’t the right
tool (or even if you’re not sure), if you’ve got any ideas about
other tools that do or might fit my criteria, that’d be
awesome - An explanation in plain English of
some of the terminology for this stuff would also be
helpful, since at least that would
hopefully help me make some headway
on understanding the info about the
different options I have
Again, feel free to ask for any details/info you need!
Oh, and my OS is Windows 10, though, as you might’ve gathered earlier, I’m hoping to find something that will work on most common systems. As for LO version, it’s 6.3.6.2 (x64). And currently I’m looking at using the default Base format (HSQLDB Embedded), but like I said, I’m not sure if that’s the best option or not.