Introduction to Databases: LibreOffice Base Tutorial
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- Database tutorial explaining how to create tables, forms, queries and reports in the free application LibreOffice Base. Includes information on primary keys, setting up table relationships, working with sub-forms, editing list boxes and combo boxes on forms, and more.
LibreOffice can be downloaded for Windows, macOS and Linux from:
www.libreoffice.org/
The Java Runtime Environment (that you may also need to install) can be freely downloaded from:
www.java.com
If you enjoy this video, you may find useful my spreadsheet tutorials:
Spreadsheets #1: Introduction:
• Spreadsheets #1: Intro...
Spreadsheets #2: Absolute & Relative Cell Addresses:
• Spreadsheets #2: Absol...
Spreadsheets #3: IF Statements:
• Spreadsheets #3: IF St...
Or my HTML & CSS tutorials:
Introduction to HTML:
• HTML Introduction: How...
Introduction to CSS:
• CSS Introduction: Form...
For additional ExplainingComputers videos and other content, you can become a channel member here:
/ @explainingcomputers
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at / explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / @explainingthefuture
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:41 Database objects
02:56 LibreOffice Base
04:40 Tables
05:30 Primary keys
10:25 Relationships
16:47 Forms
17:00 Sub-forms
20:31 Queries
25:00 Reports
28:59 Wrap
#Databases #LibreOfficeBase #Tutorial #ExplainingComputers - Věda a technologie
I really like that you showed the final result first, instead of starting from scratch directly. It gives an insight of what to expect from the tutorial. Excellent!
I decided that, given the setup required to create the tables and forms, that I needed to signpost where we were heading! :)
@@ExplainingComputers That was a very wise decision, indeed! 😀
Agreed...its good to see the mountain that we were about to climb before hand.
I love that method, I want to see what we are doing.
I agree, it's a sort of reverse-engineering, you can see the cogs going round, what they do and in relation to everything else.
Tremendous. Most people don't know why they need a database, until they do👍🏻
Most people think I can do that in excel/a spreadsheet.
Wrong but they do.
And many don’t know something else to Excel exi😂
Excel can do it but a database program still has advantages. Like, for example, not being Excel! 😆
um
The relational ability of a database is a huge benefit over a spreadsheet. However, in my experience, the perhaps most important factor is data integrity - you can enter anything into a spreadsheet cell (for example all sorts of wrongly-formatted dates) but a database won't let you do this.
I’m a database enthusiast, I find so many uses for them in my business. I didn’t realise that Libre office had this powerful a relational database so will look at it, there are so many options in the design and setup that I didn’t know existed. This is so powerful, and for free. Thanks Chris.
It seems to be a solid clone of MS Access.... Which has had pretty good power and options for nearly 25 years.
LibreOffice Base is just a front end to various DBMSes. There is even one for SQLite somewhere. All of them are more powerful than Microsoft Access.
I find LibreOffice Base to be amazingly complete and powerful (many other DBs which don't cost hundreds or thousands of US $) will do 1 or 2 things well, while LibreOffice Base does everything well.
Sadly, watching the release notes of LibreOffice for the past 8 years or so it is clear that Base gets no developer love. Its features seem stuck, along with the rather ancient database engine which it uses, and at one time my already fully built and working DB began to crash LibreOffice consistently and it didn't improve over multiple releases, so I moved on to learning to build my own database using Python and SQLite.
A long time ago I worked in an office obsessed with very complex and regularly broken spreadsheets. I suggested using the database instead but they gave me a blank look when I suggested they migrate it all to a database. They said no one would understand it, and the dumb ‘we don’t work like that’! I didn’t stay there for long, it just broke my heart after enduring watching them for hours trying to constantly fix broken field relationships in their excessively complex, critical spreadsheets. Loved this video ❤️.
It’s a thing, Chris, you always save me. You see, here in Argentina we are not going through a good economical time. And I upgraded my 12 years old computer following your videos to the letter. It works wondefully now - and I became a fan of Linux Mint. And now that I’m just starting with data bases, there came your video!
I cannot begin to tell you how thankfull and how much I enjoy your channel. I’m of the ones who never write, but this time I just had to do it. Greetings!!
Thanks for your kind feedback, most appreciated. :)
Yeah, I retired, and finally got fed up with MS and the performance of Win 10 on my machine(s).
Kicked it and put Linux Mint on 5 machines dating back as far as 10 years probably.
Love it, much peppier and stable. I was already a long time OO and then LO user, and found equivalents for everything else too.
@@ContantContact It leaves you thinking 'what have I been doing all this time with windows...?'
@@almatematica7554
Yeah. It does.
In my case as an IT pro for a large company, it was my gravy to know it well.
But I retired, and that led eventually (when I found time....) to kick it out. I really do not missed Windows, and it feels sort of odd and antique to use it on rare occasion.
@@jackwarner4625
I saw Ferren OS on Distrowatch. Did not try it yet. For now, I am focused mainly on getting things done and not too much experimentation. That will come as I finish up some projects.
DBA for 25 years. This reminds me of the old dBase IV days in college. So effective with so little work required to be productive. Fun video.
Amazing. 35 years ago I started database design and programming using character based RDMS (this after an aircraft maintenance stint in the RAF, then emigrating to Canada to programming aircraft simulators). Retired now to tinkering with my SBCs and all things LINUX. Now, after pondering it for a while, I can renew my interest and create databases again. Wow, something else to keep me busy. Keep up the good work Chris.
I can't believe database were that easy (I said that because I studied that in university and I just got super confused in the process).
Your explanation was spot on and I understand everything here...
Looking forward to what's next :DD
Thanks for this. :)
University also ruined it for me, that was 20 years ago. I’m a computer science teacher at a secondary school and - long story short - I had to learn it to be able to teach it. I had to refer to school books that were 20 years old and lots of CZcams videos to try to make sense of databases. I feel a lot more confident with relational databases now and this video hits a good learning spot. I wanted to experience LibreOffice and this video does it for me. Love databases now, it filled that gap of computing science knowledge I never knew I never had.
A database professional walks into a bar and joins two tables
Best comment ever! :)
Good joke in deed 🙂
😂😂😂
So he/she was in between of those tables, or did he/she drag one little table in between of those two table so folks of those tables can now talk for each other thru that database professional, cos they didnt have any connection before, and cos of different language, and database professional is now an interpreter between them 😵💫 damn im confused. But one thing is sure... bar should pay for database professional, so he/she dont cut connection 😰
😂😂😂
Amazing! Just how many times you read my mind on what I want to learn or enhance just what I need each week! Thank you!
Greetings Leslie. Look our for part of next week's video that may strike a (DOS) chord. :)
Such a simple, yet powerful, database seems like quite a Paradox. Borland would be proud.
I know NOTHING, like that, in all caps about databases (well, at least I didn't before this video), but nonetheless I see what you did there. Like "I know I've seen that name somewhere before".
Thanks, Chris. This is a very good introduction to Base. I've played with it in the past to inventory trading cards. Turns out I was doing a lot of it right but this video takes it a step further for me. This video is better than any tutorial I've come across on CZcams. Regards.
Another Sunday!
With it, a very practical and useful explanation of databases. I couldn't imagine a better or more effective way to explain such an extremely complicated subject while touching on so many aspects.
Designing, building, populating, querying, reporting, UI... And more all in one. Great video!
Thanks. :)
Hi Chris - this is where your channel excels. (!). A useful set of introductions to things I will probably want to do one day. Thumbs up.
Thanks. :)
A far cry from the 8-bit databases of my youth..... where, often written in BASIC and machine code,, you had about 5 fields.....no more 🙂
Thanks for this Chris, I never went beyond Presenter, Word Processor and Draw in LibreOffice, so I have no excuses anymore.
Until next time, take care!
I didn't even know that you can setup a database through LibreOffice with rich GUI, smashed the like button right after the intro!
I just started the video, but I can’t tell you how excited I am that you made this! I’ve been wanting to learn about databases and you are the perfect person to learn the basics from!
very good intro. one can do every step on one's own computer while watching the video.
minor comment to the first example: supplier names are best identified with an id as well, as strings are more error-prone, and names can change.
Thanks for this, and you are correct. But I did give the suppliers an ID in the example table. However, I also wanted to keep things as simple as possible in that first example. So I opted to show "Supplier" rather than "Supplier ID" in the first table to make the example as clear as possible. I could have spent a good 10 minutes talking about IDs and keys, but this was already a long video.
yes, perfectly understandable decision in this context.
Aloha, Chris. This was fantastic. It had never occurred to me to use a database in my work, but after watching your presentation I can say I will be changing that. I appreciate, yet again, the time and effort you put into these weekly videos. Mahalo.
I too like fiddling with base and really enjoy this kind of content. Your unique style really makes exploring this application fun and come to life.
This is video has so much value! Easy to understand and covers all basic operations in 30 minutes. Amazing job.
An excellent introductory video for those of us who have never used database programs before. Thank you for the overview and presenting so much information in a friendly and comprehensive way. Be safe.
Thank you for this enlightening presentation. I worked for a while as a database admin long before LibreOffice or OpenOffice. I was vaguely aware that LO had a database but never looked at it seriously. Well, never actually looked at it at all. I'm very impressed with how simple, yet complete it is.
Your video is absolutely comprehensive and straightforward. Please have a series of this topic as you sound an expert in databases. You did it right! I've studied relational database before but haven't have the chance to use it. But for me, you really showed it SUPER EASY (because we have now MS Access, Libre Base, etc...) Before we use dBaseIII+ and FoxPro, and it's hard to do it at that time as we need to open, index, select, etc... the databases first to do a query and do the applicable results that we need, and we need to write a program for it. Thanks and please make a series for this topic.
Hello, fellow Christopher! Back again.....
Thank you for doing this quick tutorial. Glad you took the time to do it for this software. I think it generally goes underappreciated, and most people would want to swing towards spreadsheets, but this makes searching for more specific information easier to manage and keep track of. Awesome!
Very good, takes me back 25 years, setting up relational databases to optimise the performance of surface mount placement machines...
Excellent! Concise with enough detail to show the how-to-do-it. I've learned something. Thank you.
Greetings!! A nearly entire database course in under 30 minutes. Very well done sir! Your longest video ever and one of the best. Now I should create a duplicate of this for my SBC collection. I do have ONE criticism at 3:51 there is an existing database file called Sausages. Made me hungry but you didn't show us that database. :) Stay well my friend!!
I know. It was great, wasn't it?
Very cool video that shows how to perform the most common operations in creating a database using LibreOffice Base. As a longtime Microsoft Access user, I find that both programs are largely similar and quite capable of delivering sophisticated end user applications. Thanks for providing this concise yet thorough tutorial on creating and using databases with LibreOffice!
Wow, nice intro to databases. Looking forward to your next video!
Thanks Perry. :)
Great video. I was a power user back in the dBase DOS days, then was out of the field for 20 years. When I next needed a database manager, Access stymied me. Every tutorial began with the equivalent of "When you hear the cat's bell, run." Like most I limped along using a spreadsheet for things like mail merge. Now I can resume using a proper database manager.
This will come in handy while cleaning my parent's garage :) You always explain things in a humanly understandable way.
Thank you for the awesome introduction, Mr. Barnatt!
As a visual learner, this was a wonderful video. Making everything and going through step by step. I'm going to need to re-watch it a few times to fully understand, but it's really helpful and well explained. Thanks for sharing this.
Nowadays, whenever we want something we look for an application to do it for us, while in most cases we can create what we need ourselves using already installed software and enjoy the learning/achievement process.
Software is made for one purpose or another and once we know what that is we'll appreciate it.
Very nice intro to DB indeed, it covers the DB design cycle from planning to reporting.
Thanks Chris and have a nice Day/Evening.
I have never 'got' databases (not least because all the examples/tutorials I've watched read deal with usecases that seem entirely different from my own) but your approach has really opened my eyes. Thanks so much!!! I'm off to explore your spreadsheet ones now. I can't believe I've missed them previously.
Thank you for showing us the wonders that we can accomplish using free & powerful software. I am retired and was trying to learn SQL for kicks. I spent half a day to create a table and get some entries in. Libre Base has the best of both worlds. The graphical interface, your great tutorial in simple terms and the mighty software behind helps us to understand the relationship between tables. Kudos for showing us how joining tables can be done in a jiffy. Thank you very much. You have helped me learn.
This was EXACTLY what I needed. Just the right level of detail for my purposes. Thank you so much for creating this. It's a great piece of work!
Thanks for watching, and good luck with Base.
Pretty cool from Chris to post this video, as Base is the only LibreOffice application I don't use.
If this is going to be a new series of tutorials of Libre Office Base that are up to date then this will be a dream come true for me. I have had an enormous amount of trouble finding help online with learning to use this
I was looking for an alternative to Access for the school I teach in too. Who else is better than you - no one! 😊
Incredibly helpful video, many thanks Chris. I have wanted to learn LibreOffice Base for several years (having used Claris Works in the nineties to create databases), but never got around to it. This video is such a fantastic introduction!
This is a great addition to your repertoire of presentations. I am sure it will attract more viewers in the long term if you make a regular addition. It gets my vote, great stuff!
Thanks for this. I decided to make this video as my series of spreadsheet tutorials from six years ago continues to get good traffic. So my hope is certainly that is video will have a stable view stream. :)
Thanks for creating this introduction to LIbreoffice Base. It's kind of overwhelming to get started with Base but your video really helps with showing the basics for getting started.
Oh please do more of these! I’ve been looking for something like this for years!
Thank you for that great intro/tutorial. Back in my career, the Remedy Database was used heavily in our trouble ticketing system. I never admin'd or set any of it up, but was pretty good at searching via the app or website forms using keywords, and could even dump some basic reports.
Great video. I have never seen why people use spreadsheets as databases when actual databases are so easy to use and do the job so much better.
well done EC, I learned more in your 30 minute vid, than in a bachelors level DB distance learning college course from 15 years ago..thanks for sharing the knowledge!
Thank you for this; database stuff is one area where my IT expertise is lacking. Very much appreciated!
Thank you, Chris, for another excellent video. I started my career as a relational database developer long before Windows existed. I wish you had been teaching back then, but of course you were also a kid…lol. At least your viewers today can learn a lot from you about a topic that’s still relevant today as it was decades ago. I hope you continue this series and introduce no-sql databases, and compare, contrast, and show when, how, and why both are used today in cloud computing. Thanks again for yet another excellent video!
Way more depth in relational databases to touch Such as indexes
Thanks for taking time to prepare a tutorial on this important subject.
Another amazing tutorial video Christopher B. Hope you had an amazing week ! Cheers !
Great Scott! You are quite a teacher!
I love your all your other generic and expert IT videos, but this one is quite a teach!
Thank you so very much and greetings from Portugal.
As usual, a concise but very clear explaination. Your presentation style, including your sense of humor and mannerisms, reminds me of one of my high school science teachers, who was my alll-time favorite.
Thanks. :)
All the key points covered nicely. Well done. Retired database and application developer at Intel.
Very good overview. I used MS Access to developed Desktop databases to help my office works. To me MS Access is an excellent desktop database to develop professional looking database applications. When I moved to Linux, there was no database similar to Access. Glad to see that LibreOffice Base has updated to some what like MS Access.
I work with databases at the job and the video was remedial, but very useful for those times when I need to explain(ing computers) to other professionals.
Sometimes, the data layout or size isn't suitable for a spreadsheet nor a document. Your tutorial is amazing to start with.
I don't usually post on computer related sites, but I actually have many years working in information technology and services, even going back to the days of 16bit windows, close to inception of the first Linux distro's as well hardware as old as 8088 and 8080 XT PCs and micro computers. The content that you Sir, have on every video that I have ever viewed on your channel has ALWAYS been top professional produced content towards Linux, applications and affordable computing options. The CZcams community as a whole is really lucky to have you. I like to wish you and yours all the best this holiday season and a great new year! - MrTom
Thanks Mr Tom. :)
You are Welcome. Happy holidays.. all the best!
This was an excellent crash course in database design and rapid application development. I've tried Base a million times but it never took. For me, the learning curve was too much and I already know how to do it in Access (or sever grade databases, Oracle, MariaDB and SQl server). I kind of feel that way about all Open Office and LibreOffice products. Unfortunately Microsoft indoctrinated me at an early age. I will overcome the spell of Microsoft soon enough and I will do it with your excellent tutorials. Thank you!!!!
Chris, I really liked this week's topic. I used to work as an Inventory Controller of a £6.6M warehouse and so generating reports from data interrogation was an often-daily occurrence. Thanks for all your hard work, Be happy and well. Brian
Thanks Brian. :)
What an excellent tutorial! I have never created a database to catalog stuff, instead using spreadsheets. I can see where a database would be way more useful in some instances, so will give this a try when I have the time.
Fantastic explanations of the set up and use of the DB, its given me a renewed interest to try database again.
Great video, well-explained. I don't work with databases very frequently, but I always enjoy it when I do.
Hi Chris. :)
This channel has taught me much needed skills in computing, thanks again
Thanks for your support, most appreciated. :)
Very well explained! This would improve all of my lessons learned about databases as a student... 😄
Thank you for this video. I knew that there was a database in LibreOffice, but I didn't realise it was so comprehensive.
FOSS software usually suffers from UX due to not having Designers contributing from the start. Quite unfortunate if you ask me.
Thank you for the nice explanation on how to setup LibreOffice database. Setup a few MS Office Access databases but never used LibreOffice Base, and steps look to be the same. Just one of those guys that do everything in Excel, Calc now. Never really see the need for Access or Base unless you need to do reports or setup data entry for others.
Thankyou for another video explaining data bases. It is amazing what can be done if given time. Not that long ago software like this would have cost an arm and a leg and only companies would have access to them.
So true. It is amazing the software power now available to almost anybody. The free LibreOffice Base could run on a Raspberry Pi, let alone any modern PC.
This is a excellent intro to LO Base. There are not many tutorials and the ones that are can be dry and give you too much. I would love to see more tutorials on Base. I have used Base in the past to talk to Postgres as a POC. Well done.
Much appreciated!
I've mostly worked with Oracle in my professional life but recently I needed a database for a home project so I downloaded and installed SQLite 3. I was very impressed at the functionality, the SQL is quite rich, supports analytical functions and it runs well on a Raspberry pi.
Very interesting I enjoy your channel when I have time to watch it. Would love to see how you would create custom invoices and work orders . That would be great to see how that is done. Keep up the great videos and let the data base be with you.
I was not aware that LibreDase had so much functionality. I need to delve into this a little more. Thanks for quick tutorial it's most helpful.
No exaggeration, this is probably the third or fourth time I was starting to explore a subject and up popped an EC video on the very topic!
Really useful to get these basics from you, thank you!
Great explanation. I hope you can talk more about this subject because it is a good, cheap and easy way for someone to create a database of all sorts of things. Database is one of the best use you can do with your computer. You explanation is superb, thank you.
Well done, I'll save this vidéo to see again when needed
Lovely! Thank you for educating lots of us. Cheers!
Wow fantastic! please continue these epidodes on databases!
Look forward to the weekly video and this one, as usual, is amazing. Love LibreOffice but rarely touch Base. Think that will change now.
👏🏻 another alternatives videos of Office from Mr. Barnatt
Indeed!
Very informative and well-done tutorial. Thanks Chris.
Thanks for clarifying this. At the time I tried _Base,_ the documentation wasn't very good, and I hadn't used any other real databases. Now I look forward to your next 4.3 billion SoC reviews! 😁👍
As a career database administrator (DBA) there are lots of areas I could nit pick, but...
Your video didn't say databases for experts🙂. So for the audience it was aimed at, I say excellent work! I did even learn something new. I didn't know Libre Office had a database application in it. Looks pretty full featured and intuitive as well.
Thanks Richard, on all counts here. :)
Nice overview of the tool set. That is enough to get me started.
The word “relation”comes from Edgar Frank Codd's theorem that bases on relational calculus.
In his relational model, the term “relation” corresponds to what was called “table” in the above video.
I wasn't even aware that LibreOffice had a database component since it's not included with my default installation. Thanks for the demo.
Nice one, particularly as you've given a nod to forms; a factor generally omitted in most tuts. Cheers Chris
Thanks Peter.
Really nice explanation and example, Christopher! I've been using LibreOffice Writer (also creating macros, specially to replace words and phrases in texts) since 10 years ago and, more recently, I've made many things using Calc. But I've never created a database, queries and reports so simply like you've done using Base! I'll try to create a database for me using your explanations (possibly about the videos from channels which I've subscribed, organizing them by theme)! Thanks a lot! Best regards, from São Paulo, Brazil!
WOW! My head is spinning. LOTS packed into half an hour. All good and very interesting. Now I need to make a list of time points in the vid so that I can refer to each concept to allow me to move forward with the learning process. Maybe I should create a database about each little segment of the vid - LOL.
Thanks for this. The video has labelled chapters if you hover over the progress bar at the bottom. Or you can see the chapters and timestamps listed at the end of the video description.
Thanks for an excellent demonstration of Libre office base.
just found your channel a few days ago and really enjoy your content
Welcome aboard!
Thank you very much for a very well explained learning. I've learned a lot in 30 minutes that I haven't learned about database in a long time. Thank you very much! :-)
You have condensed into 30 minutes what it took my graduate level DB concepts professor 6 weeks to cover 🤔 Throw in a discussion on "normalization" and I could have tested out 😃
Don't omit relational integrity, NULL, transactions and touch on "stored procedures".
There are also unwritten rules such as *never* making the keys user-visible let alone editable.
Thanks💝 for this tutorial. I'm tired of searching for this database tutorial using libreoffice base which may be easy to start to learn instead of Querying database tutorial. And your explanation starting with the applications of learning databases is awesome🤩 idea which stimulates the user to learn this lesson. I request you to do more videos regarding this.
Brilliant video in explaining so much in so little time. I've used LO Base a few times but picked up a lot from this video. The 2 things I missed after ditching MS Widows and moving to Linux, were MS Access and VB 6.0. Gambas solved the VB issue and for the most part LO Base solved the MS Access issue with one major exception.
All I need from LO Base is the ability to have 2 laptops, access a LO Base file on my NAS or a Raspberry Pi. Using virtually every combination of CHOWN and setting permissions to 777 etc, I can not get either Linux Mint laptop to write to a LO Base [or SQLite for that matter] on my NAS [RPi with OpenMediaVault] or a standalone RPi with a Thumbdrive. I can never get permissions for a write even though I can copy/paste/delete the entire file into either device. Maybe one of your subscribers has been there and done that.
how are you sharing the file, samba? libreoffice is a bit funny about network shares, iirc it will copy the file to temp to work with it, not directly touch it. i dont know if NFS solves this. i use a command to mount my samba as cifs. doesnt always work at startup for some reason, but its one click away to mount in dolphin and it helps a bit with weird apps that cant decide how to do network files.
Amazing explanation as always, thank you Chris!
You can do as many as you like of this kind of video! I love it, love the instructions, love the use of LibreOffice. And I would very happily watch more detailed videos and use of LibreOffice Base/Calc etc
Thanks for this, most appreciated. :)
I forgot to say that I did a 3-part series on spreadsheets (using OpenOffice, so works in LibreOffice) a few years back:
Starts here:
czcams.com/video/7Q2C9MB-YH4/video.html
then
czcams.com/video/Pm_raXxS8u8/video.html
then
czcams.com/video/iFz82q4vHnk/video.html
@@ExplainingComputers Bluddi fantastic links/guides! Thank you
I love LibreOffice. I've been using it for a few years now.
Great subject and content! It was very good the way you expanded the screen content to make it easy to see what was going on. I would like to see more videos regarding LibreOffice and other free applications like Gimp. Thank you.
Thanks for the tutorial! Your videos are very professional and very well made.
I appreciate that!