Suggestions for next step in next LiveCode project?

[BarrySumpter]

Hi all,

I've got a grocery shopping app I wrote myself that we've been using for years.
It's really just an inventory kind of methodology - i.e. tick here if the item is not in its bin there.

Originally it started with me not being able to read my good lady wife's hand writting.
Still can't read her hand writting but I've created the grocery shopping app so all we have to do is tick a box.

At the moment its a MSAccess db on a shared folder.
The interface is written in Visual Basic 6 - which I absolutely love but have no further use for.
Other than manintenace and enhancements etc.

We had an old notebook from my daughters school requirements, worth less than $100 now, but did the job fine.
The notebook was in the kitchen (the most logical place) and easy to access and use.
But has now been re-assigned to our exchange student for the next 4 weeks.

So I though I'd try my hand at using my Android HD2 for the inventory interface.

I've just decided on this project this morning and don't know where to start.

i.e. whats the most efficient way to access a MSAccess db on my inTRAnet wireless network.

The project can be considered a commercial product as I want my lady, my daughter, our exchange student, and myself to be able to download Android updates from MY inTRAnet and tick items to puchase.

Would love some - where to go from here next - suggestions.

tia

[BarrySumpter]

Currently watching LiveCode Summer Accademy - week 5
Looks like I should be able to connect to an inTRAnet db easlity enough.

Though it looks like I'll need to use LC ODBC to do it.

I wonder if ODBC is available on LC for Android?

Found:ODBC and Mobile Devices
http://forums.runrev.com/phpBB2/viewtop ... =12&t=7109

Nope. Doesn't look like it does.

http://forums.runrev.com/viewtopic.php? ... dbc#p37819
"ODBC database access is not (yet) supported on LiveCode Android!"

[BarrySumpter]

So no easy way to connect to MSAccess DB on my inTRAnet.

Bummer.

Any other suggestions on the most efficient way to use an existing MSAccess DB from Android?

Perhaps livecode is NOT the correct choice in this situation (yet).

[SparkOut]

Or it's time to make a new database

Ok, taking the flippant hat off, you could use the remote device to post to the intranet server running a server side processor (revCGI, php, etc) and have that do the actual db updates and put data back out to the device for display.

[BarrySumpter]

Currently watching LiveCode Summer Accademy - week 5
...
http://forums.runrev.com/viewtopic.php? ... dbc#p37819
"ODBC database access is not (yet) supported on LiveCode Android!"

What about via LiveCode for Web?

Where Android access web content on my inTRAnet and the web content accesses the MSAccess DB?
via ODBC perhaps?

[admin12]

Problem with livecode for web on android is that you cannot install the revlet plugin app for android - there is none. Not for IOS either. Live Code web apps are PC and Mac (Linux coming soon - maybe).

Convert the access database to sqlite or mysql. Then you can run it on almost anything, including android.

Mike

[BarrySumpter]

Well what happens in real life when we don't have propriatary use of a database?

i.e. when someone else tells us they can't affort to change the database format just so we can use LiveCode?

[SparkOut]

As you said earlier (and I) and as is good practice to abstract the database connection - make the app post and get data to and from a server side process that does the database talking. This could be a number of favours.

[BarrySumpter]

Had another Summer Academy attendie offer some PHP code to update a database but he's dissapeared since the summer academy forum was closed to updates.

Wasn't looking forward to having to learn yet another language/methodology just for a work around.

I've been stumbling onto more things that LiveCode CAN'T do than learning what LiveCode CAN do.

----

Could I use remote control from the Android to control a PC that can run LiveCode web .....
grrrrr.

[dglass]

Well what happens in real life when we don't have propriatary use of a database?

i.e. when someone else tells us they can't affort to change the database format just so we can use LiveCode?

I'm not sure I understand your first question, but the second is straightforward enough....

The requirements of the project dictate the tool used to implement it. The more constraints there are on the requirements, the smaller the pool of suitable tools. If the constraints eliminate the tools you know, you're going to have to learn something new, or rethink your constraints.

Keeping the data in Access is a pretty significant constraint, and cuts the suitable tools down by a lot. Given that you want network access on devices that don't natively support Access, I'd say your best solution would be to fire up Personal Web Server (if you have a version of Windows that has it), or whatever the follow-on to that was (I didn't keep track), and create a couple of ASPs (Active Server Page) to display the data and let you perform the updates you want from within a web browser.

ASP is basically VBScript/VB in HTML, so if you know VB6 you'll have a decent start.

Or, convert the DB to something else, and use the tool you want to use.

[BarrySumpter]

Will SQLite - Link to MSAccess tables?

[dglass]

Not sure what you mean by 'link to'?

[BarrySumpter]

OK. Do it the other way around.
Have MSAccess link to SQLite tables instead.
Leaving MSAccess (with linked SQLite tables) as the DB to my VB front end.
And hopefully be able to access my inTRAnet SQLite DB as my previous tests on Android(? or was it WinXP?) confirms.

Now I think my next step is to see how easy it is to convert my MSAccess DB to SQLite.
There is the SQLiteMan and there is also a database conversion wizard with my OmegaBundle.

I think I can talk meself into that.

Off for a bit more research.

[admin12]

There are many tools out there that can export your tables (schema) and data to a number of formats. I would choose one that exports to sql (forget binary data like images or pdf files though). Then go to your website host (cpanel) and first create a new database with at least one new user and then use PHPMyAdmin to IMPORT that sql file into the new database.

DONE.

Mike

[BarrySumpter]

Got distract on trying to see if I can connect my Android to my inTRAnet .SQLite DB.

Using Paul Townsend's CRUD SQLite Example to start with.