LibreOffice Base
LibreOffice Base is free to use RDBMS (relational database management system) front-end tool to create and manage various databases.
Prepare ODBC connection
Before going further make sure to prepare an ODBC connector as explained on MariaDB ODBC connector article. That includes:
- Download MariaDB ODBC connector (latest version 3.1.7-ga)
- Copy shared library libmaodbc.so to /usr/lib/[multi-arch]
- Install unixodbc, unixodbc-dev, openssh-client, odbcinst packages
- Create template file for ODBC driver, example for template file “MariaDB_odbc_driver_template.ini” could be:
[MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver] |
Description = MariaDB Connector/ODBC v.3.1 |
Driver = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmaodbc.so |
- Install ODBC driver from template file running:
$ odbcinst -i -d -f MariaDB_odbc_driver_template.ini
Verify successful installation in /etc/odbcinst.ini file.
- Create template file for Data Source Name (DSN), example for template file “MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.ini” could be:
[MariaDB-server] |
Description=MariaDB server |
Driver=MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver |
SERVER=MariaDB |
USER=anel |
PASSWORD= |
DATABASE=test |
PORT=3306 |
- Install data source:
odbcinst -i -s -h -f MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.ini
Verify successful installation in /.odbc.ini file and also using isql utility, for example:
$ isql MariaDB-server +---------------------------------------+ | Connected! | | | | sql-statement | | help [tablename] | | quit | | | +---------------------------------------+ SQL> show tables; +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tables_in_test | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Authors | | tbl_names | | webposts | | webusers | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ SQLRowCount returns 4 4 rows fetched
Start with LibreOffice Base
Start Libreoffice Base from terminal by running lobase (make sure to install libreoffice-base package if needed). Default option is to create a new database, which is HSQLDB. In order to connect to running MariaDB server, choose “Connect to an existing database” and choose “ODBC” driver as shown in following picture:
After that choose DSN (the one that we created in previous step) and click “Next”:
Provide user name (and password if needed) and check again connection (with button “Test Connection”) and click “Next”:
After that we have options to register database. Registry in this sense means the database is viewable by other LibreOffice modules (like LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Writer). So this step is optional. In this example will be saved as “fosdem21_mariadb.odb”. See How to use registered database.
It opens the following window:
It consists of three windows/panels:
- “Database” window with options
- "Tables",
- "Queries",
- "Forms",
- "Reports".
- "Tasks window (it depends what is selected in “Database” window). In case when “Tables” are selected options are:
- "Create Table in Design View",
- "Use Wizard to Create Table" and
- "Create View".
- "Tables" window - shows list of tables that are created.
As we can see there are system tables in “mysql” database as well as “test” database.
How to use registered database