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Jeff Ash
Software Engineer |
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ouldn't it be great to be able to deploy a set of office applications across the entire company that worked on a variety of
operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD? And what if it could also access data stored in BASIS
DBMS files? Oh, and one more thing – what if the entire application set was absolutely free?
OpenOffice.org (OOo) is a "multi-platform and multi-lingual" office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all
other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Version 2.0, still in beta, provides several
powerful applications including Writer (word processor), Impress (presentation program), Draw (vector
Drawing tool), Calc (spreadsheet), Base (database), and Math (mathematical function creator). OOo
seamlessly integrates all of the applications while delivering the most consistent user experience. Each application saves
documents in a choice of OpenDocument format or proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Since OOo
builds in Java support, it easily interfaces with the BBj® JDBC Driver.
This new office suite provides unlimited possibilities for BBx® generation users who run many applications on a variety of
platforms, even within the same company. For example, a company using the BBj JDBC Driver can use the powerful formulas and
Calculations available in Calc to analyze the raw data contained in their BASIS database. They could use Writer
to produce form letters automatically customized for each customer on a mailing list. Base gives end users the ability
to view the raw data in their database, write their own simple data presentation applications that interact with a BASIS
database, or to generate professional-looking complex reports.
To illustrate this point, Figure 1 shows a spreadsheet generated with Calc using a pivot table connected to the
BASIS Chile Company demo database. Creating this spreadsheet took mere seconds using the Pivot Table wizard in OOo. This
example includes a list of customers with their current balance due and the total due of all customers.
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Figure 1. Calc spreadsheet generated from the Chile Company database. |
Writer can easily create, for example, a form letter that contains linked data from a BASIS database. As shown
in Figure 2, simply type the document and insert fields where necessary. The resulting letter with merged data from the
database appears in Figure 3.
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Figure 2. Writer form letter containing the field name. |
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Figure 3. A single letter with the merged data from the Chile Company database |
Similarly, Base provides access to the CATEGORY and ITEM tables and groups the information by category. Use wizards within
Base to create fully functional forms; create a form like the sample in Figure 4 in less than one minute of work.
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Figure 4. Sample form created in less than one minute with Base wizards. |
These are only a few examples of the tremendous power available to users using the BBj JDBC Driver. The actual possibilities
are endless.
Summary
A powerful suite of office applications is vital to almost every business. OOo provides a cost-effective platform independent
way of meeting this vast need. BASIS continues its dedication to providing BBx customers a broad range of solutions to meet
their spectrum of data access needs. The BBj JDBC Driver works very well with the OOo product and, therefore, opens up a world
of possibilities to BASIS developers and end users.
 Try
OpenOffice.org with BBj, the newest generation of BBx, by downloading
a copy today.
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