Hello,

Sorry to be off topic, though perhaps not too far afield. I am looking for an easy-to-use, inexpensive database application for structured data. If you're familiar with Bento for the Mac, this is what I'm looking for, but for Windows. Access is too labor intensive. AskSam is too buggy. I could use Zoot, but printing from Zoot 5.0 is too limited (6.0 might work when it is finally released, but I don't know how long that will take). All suggestions welcome.

Thank you.

Steve Z.

Ultra Recall? It seems pretty easy to set up structured data in UR, with the added benefit of allowing additional supporting freeform information (web pages, PDF files, etc.) as children of structured data items.

Chris

I was wondering if I'd get a reference for UR from this request. I've got a license for an earlier version, but will have to try the latest. BTW, I noticed that UR will be on sale on Bits du Jour next week for $19!

Any other options?

Thanks, Chris.

Steve Z.

Steve,

I usually use MySQL and its query browser when I need to analyze structured data.

Regards,
Wes

I bought a copy of Oasis for that very purpose when it was discounted a while back. I haven't had an opportunity to put it through its paces yet, so can't report on performance.

http://www.databaseoasis.com

Jack

I watched the demo videos; it looks impressive.

Now that I'm almost at the point of giving up on InfoSelect, which had a nice flat file db feature, I plan on using something like DB Oasis and attaching its files to notes in Evernote.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Sorry to be off topic, though perhaps not too far afield. I am looking for an
easy-to-use, inexpensive database application for structured data. If you're
familiar with Bento for the Mac, this is what I'm looking for, but for Windows. Access
is too labor intensive. AskSam is too buggy. I could use Zoot, but printing from Zoot
5.0 is too limited (6.0 might work when it is finally released, but I don't know how long
that will take). All suggestions welcome.

Hi Stephen,

InfoQube (http:www.infoqube.biz) can easily be used as a database. My main IQBase, contains many database-like lists of information. As in any database, you define fields to hold data and you can view/edit data in a grid-like view. Forms with default values are also available. It has import / export features.

IMHO, it is the most database-like of all PIMs (as an example of this, live-data can be read by any ODBC-enabled application, such as Word, Excel, OO, etc)

Pierre
Designer of InfoQube

Jack Crawford wrote:

I bought a copy of Oasis for that very purpose when it was discounted a while back. I
haven't had an opportunity to put it through its paces yet, so can't report on
performance.

http://www.databaseoasis.com

Jack

Hello Jack,

I tested DB Oasis maybe 6 months ago. At that time it was not possible to link two tables via key fields, but they promised it would be possible in the near future. Do you know if this is possible now?

Peter.

pereh wrote:

I
tested DB Oasis maybe 6 months ago. At that time it was not possible to link two tables
via key fields, but they promised it would be possible in the near future. Do you know if
this is possible now?

I am testing DB Oasis now. It does not appear to have this functionality yet, but maybe I'm missing it. I am, however, pleased with the application so far. It does much of what I am looking for and is very easy to use. One thing missing, that would be great is a rich text notes field type. Now it only allows for plain text.

Steve Z.

Short information from their Website:
"
If you register the product by Monday, Oct 5 2009, you can take advantage of a 20% discount on the purchase price of the software. Simply click the Buy Now link from our website before the offer has expired to purchase Basic Edition for just $55.99 or Professional Edition for just $95.99. Discount will be taken at the register when checking out.

"

I want to build a collection database with a lot of customised fields.

My logic was that I would build the database structure in DBOasis. Depending on useability and whether I needed additional functionality, I would then either keep it inside Oasis or export it to Access.

It's a to-do project so I can't answer any questions yet about the Oasis product. What attracted me at the time of purchase was that building a database structure seemed very straight forward and user-friendly.

Jack

Jack Crawford wrote:

I want to build a collection database with a lot of customised fields.

My logic was
that I would build the database structure in DBOasis. Depending on useability and
whether I needed additional functionality, I would then either keep it inside Oasis
or export it to Access.

It's a to-do project so I can't answer any questions yet about
the Oasis product. What attracted me at the time of purchase was that building a
database structure seemed very straight forward and user-friendly.

Jack

I tried to build a database for my library. However, the project came to an early end after I had set up one table for the Author and one for Books, then tried to link them with 'Author' being used as index. DB Oasis does not support table linking. Filemaker does. But Filemaker starts at $299, and can become very time consuming when used extensively. Moreover, Filemaker does not support double-clicks an a field, so one has to mark a field and click an associated button to start an action.

May I suggest databases Alpha Four and Open Office Base. My work computer uses Windows so I use Alpha Four and the home offiice computer operates under Ubuntu Linux so I use Open Office Base. Alpha Four may be found at http://www.alphasoftware.com/AlphaFour/ . gB

Hello alltogether and especially Steve Z.,

I'm here as a reader for some years but now there's the chance for a first post (maybe my english is a bit clunky - I'm german).
Few days ago I stumbled upon
http://www.brilliantdatabase.com/
and it seems that it is not yet mentioned here.
Had not much time to fiddle around with it but here's what I found out so far:

+ starts at 79,- (One can obtain a free license for translating the UI into a yet missing language.)
+ supports various types of links & relations
+ uses forms instead of tables
+ provides calendars & diagrams
+ supports scripts
+ database size up to 4 GB
+ supports rtf-fields (important for me as a writer)
+ exports to Access, Word, Excel, Webpage, Email and various text formats
+ imports from the same - plus Outlook and various database formats
+ displays forms and records in a tree
+ supports attachments (up to 64 MB each)
+ seems pretty stable so far
+ continuous development (current version is 8.3)

I hadn't yet the time to test it with big amounts of data, but performance with the sample databases seems OK

o it's even a bit more geeky than Ultra Recall but also much more flexible - and more convenient than Access or FileMaker

- interface is not on the stylish side
- drag & drop could be more developed
- can create standalone databases (exes) but only in the sdk version - for 1500, $ :-(
- no user forum (at least I didn't find one) but lots of tutorials, videos, samples and a good help-file.
- weak outlining features (only through the forms tree)
- no mind mapping features
- afaik no dedicated feature for web-capturing (maybe it's possible with some workarounds, scripts or whatever)
- no compression (besides compacting)
- no indexing (but convenient search-features)

All in all I would say it's a very interesting desktop database.(errors excepted :-))

best regards

Achim

I was also about to suggest the Alpha range of products. Alpha Four was originally a DOS product but version 8 is designed specifically to work with Windows XP, 2000 ME, 98 and 95. I used it extensively in the '90s and at the time it was the most user-friendly database I had found for the relational power it offered.

The contemporary product Windows is Alpha Five. It is a very powerful product which according to many provides the easiest way to build web applications with virtually no programming. It has a theoretical price of several hundred USD; I say theoretical because it is constantly being offered in 'unique' deals and offers which mean that you'll pay no more than $99. (Stephen, you may contact me for a link to such an offer). The current version is 9, with 10 about to be launched, which is offered as a reason for the discount, yet I've been getting such offers since early 2009 or even before.

In my view, with such power offered at such price, it does not make much sense to buy a 'flat file', i.e. non-relational, database for more than $30-40. Alpha Five even provides a user-friendly front-end to SQL databases --as may InfoQube as well, but my SQL comprehension is limited.

That said, there are out there some low-cost or even free solutions that may well suit your needs. Oasis may be one, as may the Open Office database. Another is File Amigo http://www.fileamigo.com which has a free version.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my inquiry. (What a great community this is!!!)

I actually own a copy of Alpha Five version 8. I tried this on my PC at work (a relatively new machine) and found it to be extremely slow. In fact, I found that the dialog boxes sometimes didn't change even as I clicked a new tab in them. This, of course, was very frustrating. Add to this the fact that, while easier than Access, A5 still takes a lot of set up and it just seems way more complex than my simple needs. (I need a database with about 12 fields, which can also print various reports.)

Database Oasis has been pretty good so far, but as I said, I would love it to have a note field with rich text. Also, while not expensive, it does seem relatively costly for an application that relies upon the Net framework.

I had forgotten about File Amigo... there free addition may do the trick. I'll give it a try next week.

Thanks, again, everyone!

Steve Z.

Achim wrote:

Hello alltogether and especially Steve Z.,

I'm here as a reader for some years but
now there's the chance for a first post (maybe my english is a bit clunky - I'm german).

Few days ago I stumbled upon
http://www.brilliantdatabase.com/
and it seems
that it is not yet mentioned here.
Had not much time to fiddle around with it but here's
what I found out so far:

+ starts at 79,- (One can obtain a free license for
translating the UI into a yet missing language.)
+ supports various types of links &
relations
+ uses forms instead of tables
+ provides calendars & diagrams
+
supports scripts
+ database size up to 4 GB
+ supports rtf-fields (important for me
as a writer)
+ exports to Access, Word, Excel, Webpage, Email and various text
formats
+ imports from the same - plus Outlook and various database formats
+
displays forms and records in a tree
+ supports attachments (up to 64 MB each)
+ seems
pretty stable so far
+ continuous development (current version is 8.3)

I hadn't
yet the time to test it with big amounts of data, but performance with the sample
databases seems OK

o it's even a bit more geeky than Ultra Recall but also much more
flexible - and more convenient than Access or FileMaker

- interface is not on the
stylish side
- drag & drop could be more developed
- can create standalone databases
(exes) but only in the sdk version - for 1500, $ :-(
- no user forum (at least I didn't
find one) but lots of tutorials, videos, samples and a good help-file.
- weak
outlining features (only through the forms tree)
- no mind mapping features
- afaik
no dedicated feature for web-capturing (maybe it's possible with some workarounds,
scripts or whatever)
- no compression (besides compacting)
- no indexing (but
convenient search-features)

All in all I would say it's a very interesting desktop
database.(errors excepted :-))

best regards

Achim

Hello Achim,

there is another very important possibility this software has: it allows 1:1 and 1:n relations between database tables. For me, this is essential, because I want to build up relational databases. Now my list of suitable candidates has two entries: Alpha 5 and Brilliant DB.
Thanks very much for mentioning it here!

Peter.

Hello Achim, and thanks for your first post; I hope that more will follow :-)

Thanks for the heads-up on Brilliant Database; I think it has been mentioned here in the past but I hadn't noted it at the time. Indeed it seems like a capable product at a very competitive price.

@Steve: As expensive as the SDK sounds, I find the price reasonable as one can use it to develop commercial applications and make money selling them. On the other hand, even for databases used in a corporate environment, one can simply use a copy of the commercial Pro version ($149) to develop the base and a copy of the server ($199) to run it on; from then on it's just one Workplace license per user ($39) which sounds like a good deal.

Regarding Alpha Five, I admit that I haven't used it much, so I can't vouch for its performance.

Sorry, I put @Steve in the wrong place; this is how it should have been:


(continued to Achim) As expensive as the SDK sounds, I find the price reasonable as one can use it to develop commercial applications and make money selling them. On the other hand, even for databases used in a corporate environment, one can simply use a copy of the commercial Pro version ($149) to develop the base and a copy of the server ($199) to run it on; from then on it’s just one Workplace license per user ($39) which sounds like a good deal.

@Steve: Regarding Alpha Five, I admit that I haven’t used it much, so I can’t vouch for its performance.

Doesn't then Microsoft Access come into play again where the runtime allows for free redistribution of your database & code?
Apparently street price has come down to $150 including free shipping ...
I personally like the reporting + email options (Outlook metadata and contacts integration, data collection) in 2007 a lot (+ works well with SharePoint for simple multi-user scenarios) ... another bonus is that it's so ubiquitous that there are probably a million ready to use templates available on the web (including on microsoft.com/office).
Disclaimer: I am not currently using it much as most of my current applications are either fully spreadsheet based or require more flexible conventions than what a standard database can offer ...

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Sorry, I put @Steve in the wrong place; this is how it should have been:


(continued
to Achim) As expensive as the SDK sounds, I find the price reasonable as one can use it to
develop commercial applications and make money selling them. On the other hand, even
for databases used in a corporate environment, one can simply use a copy of the
commercial Pro version ($149) to develop the base and a copy of the server ($199) to run
it on; from then on it?s just one Workplace license per user ($39) which sounds
like a good deal.

Database Oasis - Basic Edition will be on Bits du Jour on Wednesday 14 April.