Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[DaveS]

I made a .pet for this little database, including the missing libs and menu entry. Download it from here http://puppylinuxstuff.meownplanet.net/DaveS/
username puppy
password linux

You need the portabase.pet. The other .pet, portabaselibs.pet is only required if you have installed another version and it is not working.

[jakfish]

Well done, many thanks. I use portabase in both Puppy and Windows, and also in my Sharp Zaurus (qtopia linux).

If it had ever been ported to Symbian, I would've kept my E90 phone. I never found anything closer to the old Psion Date program.

Jake

[DaveS]

Continuing on from this, Jabu2 has made the following valid point in a PM:

More than almost any other piece of software, it may become critical - and any functional failure of a database may represent a large loss (time and effort) to the user.

Databases tend to enlarge in every direction, with time. Rarely does a database end up the way it started out. Design of a database is normally more important than choice of software to run it.

I don't know if Portabase (which seems to have reported no news for a year now) is able to handle what this, or any other user, needs.

Personally, on puppy, if you can load/use LibreOffice or Open Office, then that suite's ability to provide a database function should be mentioned. Both have SFS, and one or both will stay the course, at source and originally and in Puppy SFS format.

IMHO both are pretty solid even with quite sizeable data sets. I haven't tried Portabase - why would you, unless you couldn't use LibreOffice?


There are of course many others, including the new Calligra but it's a bit new for me at this stage. OK to try, but not to use for a real database which one may need to be be ongoing and robust for many years.

This is valid advice... Horses for courses.

[tatamata]

Maybe you could try MightyQuery as well.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=68596

It is truelly portable database with absolutelly no dependencies...

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for the new packages.

As for the question of Portabase's adequacy, which has been raised in this thread, I can see how it might come up wanting if you want to use a database for a lot of complex relational stuff, but for what I want to do with a database (keep a database of local dialect words and meanings, and also several files of names and contact details), it fits the bill perfectly and it's also compact and easy to set up and use.

I suspect many other Puppy users would find it suitable for their needs too. I've tried and failed to get the database in Open Office to work, and from what I gather from forums elsewhere it's not an easy thing to learn even if you need to.

Someone also mentioned the possibility of failure in Portabase, and the answer's simple; back up both your Portabase data files (extension .pob), and also and more regularly, the file you get when you export the data in your updated ones to a comma-delimited text file (ending in .csv). Then, if the database fails at any time, you can reconstruct it by loading an old copy of the data file, deleting the data in it (but still keeping the database structure) and then importing the newest .csv file you've got into it.

I should honestly buy Warren a beer (at least) for all the time and effort Portabase has saved me since I started using it, and for what it's enabled me to do. I hope he still looks in here.

[Colonel Panic]

A quick update; the Portabase pet doesn't seem to work in Slack-based Pups such as PuppEX (the one I'm using now). What does work is to install portabaselibs. pet and then portabase.deb (the Debian version of Portabase).

[Colonel Panic]

I've just seen that the Portabase devs have released a new version of their excellent database program (2.1), so I've downloaded it and am using it now. 2.1 works well in Debian and should work in Puppy too with the portabaselibs pet.

It looks good and works well except that at the moment it's opening my files in read-only mode. This isn't a problem at the moment but may be in future when I want to do some editing.

[Dingo]

try my QT4-STATIC build (no dependencies needed)
- http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/19/1824460/portabase
- http://ubuntuone.com/5NZlVXx8bEdJFU4xlUVSLV (mirror)

built in Puppy 5.2.5 with QT 4.7.3 STATIC

[Colonel Panic]

[charlie6]

Hi,
thanks having kept updating this post !
Portabase was what i missed till now.
Here running Pemasu's dPup-Exprimos since a few months ...so got a try running Portabase on it.
The latest version Portabase 2.1 git 20120910 might well need (...imho..!) libs from Qt4.8.0 to run on it: libQtCore, libQtXml and libQtGUI. These are present in qt4-4.8.0.sfs at Exprimo repository here:
http://smokey01.com/pemasu/Sfs/qt4-4.8.0.sfs

Here is a pet with full locale and html tutorial , without the libs.

Have fun ;->
Charlie

last edited: to tell you all about this pet ...
- I tried to compile because the forums member Dingo's static compilation has only the english locale (thanks anyway, Dingo ! );
- compilation attempts failed here; so i gave up trying to compile as 2.1 binaries already exist which also seem running nicely with Qt-4-4.80.
- this is a pet arrangement using the debian's Portabase_2.1-git20120910-1-i386.deb from debian repo. The /usr/bin/portabase here is a (home-made) script launching the original 'portabase' renamed to 'portabase_2.1git20120910';
- I believe it could be the same /usr/bin/portabase (1902K) file that is available on te sourceforge portabase repo (i.e. http://ignum.dl.sourceforge.net/project/portabase/portabase/2.1/portabase_2.1-1_i386.deb whose binary is also 1902K size)
- this pet might work on other Puppies
- tested on uPup Precise 54X4 ... just that the preview is a bit "jerky" if the window size is to small when selecting File/Print Preview / icon Adjust on width.
- OK on dPup Exprimo 3.6.2

[musher0]

Hi, Charlie6.

Thanks for making this handy database utility available to Puppyists.

However, I believe you have the full libQtCore twice in the -2.0 package and in the libs package... If you put a link instead, your pet archives would be about 1,2 Mg smaller?

I also found this symbol error running the 2.1 version :
/usr/bin/portabase_2.1git20120910: symbol lookup error: /usr/bin/portabase_2.1git20120910: undefined symbol: _ZNK7QLocale11uiLanguagesEv
I suppose I don't have the proper locale installed on my computer? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Best regards.

musher0

[charlie6]

Bonjour Musher0 !

[musher0]

My appologies, Charlie6.

My bad... I should've addressed the comment to DaveS, the person who packaged version 2.0.
Your version 2.1 has indeed a different packaging. (However, I cannot get it to work on my set-ups, which is why I went back to version 2.0 and found the oversight.)

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Charlie6 wrote:
> ps: i now have choosen to dig into Sqlitestudio as portabase seems no longer being supported (i did not yet have got any answer on a PM to its developper ...)

Well, about that... My motivation would have fallen flat too, if my international call for funding a web version of my "popular" program had reined in only 150 $ or so... Humans are free-riders, aren't they?

BFN.

m0

[charlie6]

Bonjour Misher0,
i went to get a try installing the above portabase -2.1
pet on pemasu's wheezy-3.5.2.5 + qt-4.8.0-basic-with-qtwebkit-dpup.pet (see pemasu's repo), pristine boot:
portabase runs OK ootb even if there is still a missing libicui18n.so.42 dep reported .
Charlie
[ps: to get libicui18n.so.42 , install the libicui18n from debian wheezy repo + make a symlink to the libicui18n.so.48.1.1]