OpenOffice.org BASIC Guide - OpenOffice.org wiki

Types of Database Access
database table and a database import performed.
Finally, OpenOffice.org provides a mechanism for forms based on databases. To do this, you first create a
standard OpenOffice.org Writer or OpenOffice.org Calc form and then link the fields to a database.
All the options specified here are based on the user interface from OpenOffice.org. No programming knowledge
is needed to use the corresponding functions.
This section, however, provides little information about the functions specified, but instead concentrates on the
programming interface from SDBC, which allows for automated database querying and therefore permits a much
greater range of applications to be used.
Basic knowledge of the way in which databases function and the SQL query language is however needed to fully
understand the following sections.
Data Sources
A database is incorporated into OpenOffice.org by creating what is commonly referred to as a data source. The
user interface provides a corresponding option for creating data sources in the Extras menu. You can also create
data sources and work with them using OpenOffice.org Basic.
A database context object that is created using the createUnoService function serves as the starting point for
accessing a data source. This based on the com.sun.star.sdb.DatabaseContext service and is the root object for all
database operations.
The following example shows how a database context can be created and then used to determine the names of all
data sources available. It displays the names in a message box.
Dim DatabaseContext As Object
Dim Names
Dim I As Integer
DatabaseContext = createUnoService("com.sun.star.sdb.DatabaseContext")
Names = DatabaseContext.getElementNames()
For I = 0 To UBound(Names())
MsgBox Names(I)
Next I
The individual data sources are based on the com.sun.star.sdb.DataSource service and can be determined from
the database context using the getByName method:
Dim DatabaseContext As Object
Dim DataSource As Object
DatabaseContext = createUnoService("com.sun.star.sdb.DatabaseContext")
DataSource = DatabaseContext.getByName("Customers")
The example creates a DataSource object for a data source called Customers.
Data sources provide a range of properties, which in turn provide general information about the origin of the data
and information about access methods. The properties are:
Name (String)
name of data source
URL (String)
URL of data source in the form of jdbc: subprotocol : subname or sdbc: subprotocol : subname
Settings (Array)
array containing PropertyValue-pairs with connection parameters (usually at least user name and
password)
144 OpenOffice.org 3.2 BASIC Guide · March 2010