OpenOffice.org 1.0, ODBC, and MySQL 'How-to'

Trademarks are owned by their owners. There is no
warranty about the information in this document. Use anddistribute at your own risk. E&OE. For licence information
please read the appendix.
John McCreesh
jpmcc@users.sf.net Version 09 October 2002

Table of Contents'Access' your data - OpenOffice.org 1.0's best kept secret............................................................................3'Access' for Linux?..............................................................................................................................................3
Software options..................................................................................................................................................3
Notes for users of MS-Windows platforms........................................................................................................3
Joining OpenOffice.org 1.0 to MySQL using ODBC........................................................................................4
Installing MySQL.................................................................................................................................................4
Testing MySQL....................................................................................................................................................4
Installing unixODBC and the MySQL libraries..................................................................................................5
Creating the ODBC .ini files...............................................................................................................................5
Testing ODBC.....................................................................................................................................................6
Setting up ODBC within OpenOffice.org 1.0.....................................................................................................6
If you use another installation method...............................................................................................................8
Using the Data Source Tools in OpenOffice.org 1.0........................................................................................9
Finding the Data Source Tools...........................................................................................................................9Working with Table Definitions...........................................................................................................................9
Creating a table..............................................................................................................................................9
Designing Indexes ........................................................................................................................................9
Changing the definition of a table ..............................................................................................................11
Editing data........................................................................................................................................................11
Using the Database Toolbar to work with your data......................................................................................12
Displaying/Hiding the Data Source Explorer.............................................................................................12
Find Record..................................................................................................................................................12
Sort Ascending / Sort Descending.............................................................................................................12
AutoFilter......................................................................................................................................................12
Default Filter.................................................................................................................................................13
Sort................................................................................................................................................................14
Remove Filter / Sort.....................................................................................................................................15
Apply Filter...................................................................................................................................................15
Refresh.........................................................................................................................................................15
Edit Data.......................................................................................................................................................15
Save Current Record...................................................................................................................................15
Creating new Views of your data.....................................................................................................................16
Rows in the Query Design table.................................................................................................................16
The Query Toolbar.......................................................................................................................................17
More Complex Queries.....................................................................................................................................19
Example 1 - Orders on Hand......................................................................................................................19
Example 2 - Summary Orders on Hand.....................................................................................................21
Using Data Sources in other OpenOffice.org 1.0 programs.........................................................................22
Calc....................................................................................................................................................................23
Creating a link with Drag and Drop............................................................................................................23
Menu Options...............................................................................................................................................23
Data Pilot......................................................................................................................................................24
Writer..................................................................................................................................................................25
Creating a link with Drag and Drop............................................................................................................25
Using the Database Toolbar.......................................................................................................................25
Using the Form AutoPilot...................................................................................................................................27
The Form AutoPilot in action.......................................................................................................................27
Appendix - Public Documentation Licence Notice........................................................................................28
Original Documentation....................................................................................................................................28
Revisions / Contributions / Translations..........................................................................................................28-2-

'Access' your data - OpenOffice.org 1.0's best kept secret'Access' for Linux?
The launch of OpenOffice.org 1.0 in 2002 removed at a stroke one major obstacle to the universal use ofLinux on the desktop. At last, Linux users have office software - word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, andpresentation - which not only works at least as well as the Microsoft Office equivalent, but can also use
Microsoft Office file formats, and is genuinely open source.
However, this hasn't prevented objections from Microsoft diehards that they still can't migrate to Linux,
because "Linux hasn't anything like Microsoft Access". Well, have I got news for you. It has, and it's called
OpenOffice.org 1.0. One of the hidden secrets of OpenOffice.org 1.0 is that it also has a great user-friendly
database front end. All you need to do is wire it up to one of the many open-source databases on Linux, andyou have a Microsoft Access (and more) equivalent.
This document explains how to make this connection, and then provides a quick tour of the database tools
within OpenOffice.org 1.0. Many hardened OpenOffice.org 1.0 users are completely unaware of what is
hiding under the covers, and are amazed once they start playing with the 'hidden' tools.

Software options
OpenOffice.org 1.0 uses ODBC1 to connect to databases. ODBC is common on MS-Windows platforms, but
is much rarer on Linux. This article will explain step-by-step how to connect OpenOffice.org 1.0 to the
MySQL database using unixODBC, an implementation of ODBC for *nix. There's no reason why you
shouldn't use another database - as long as it's got an ODBC component, it should work. I just happen touse MySQL. The starting point for the examples illustrating this document was a clean laptop install of
RedHat Linux 7.3, so the examples show software installation from RPMs. If you prefer another installation
method, or another distribution, the principle is the same2.
Like many procedures on Linux, it's not difficult to do. Just watch out for the 'gotchas' - little tricks which aretrivial to solve, but which can cause hours of head scratching if you don't know how.

Notes for users of MS-Windows platforms
The next section of this document applies only to OpenOffice.org 1.0 on Linux. It's perfectly possible toinstall OpenOffice.org 1.0, MySQL and MyODBC on MS-Windows - anyone familiar with software
installation on MS-Windows should find the process quite straightforward.
Please ignore the initial sections and start reading from Using the Data Source Tools in OpenOffice.org 1.0
on page 9.

1 or JDBC, for Sun worshippers
2 In this case, you may find the section If you use another installation method on page 8 useful-3-

Joining OpenOffice.org 1.0 to MySQL using ODBC
Installing MySQLCheck first to see if MySQL is already installed on your system (warning - the check is case sensitive)[root@t22 RPMS]# rpm -qa | grep MySQL[root@t22 RPMS]#MySQL is not installed, so you need to download it from http://www.mysql.com and then install it.
Gotcha: there is a bug in the .49a and .50 versions of the MySQL client libraries, which prevents the
ODBC connection working - you will see error messages like relocation error: /usr/lib/libmyodbc.so:
undefined symbol: init_dynamic_array. So you need to get a .49 version - if necessary, search for it
using http://www.rpmfind.net.
First of all, you need to install the MySQL server, which runs in the background on the computer andhandles requests from users for access to MySQL databases.
MySQL Server installation[root@t22 RPMS]# rpm -ivh MySQL-3.23.49-1.i386.rpm
Preparing...
########################################### [100%]
1:MySQL########################################### [100%]
Installing all prepared tables[...snip...]Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql[root@t22 RPMS]#
You now have a running MySQL database server. By default, the installation creates an empty databasecalled test, accessible by a user test without a password (note: the MySQL username is an identifier you
pass to MySQL when you make a connection - it's a different entity from the username you use to log on toLinux).
You now need to install the MySQL client so you can issue SQL commands to the server.
Installing the MySQL client[root@t22 RPMS]# rpm -ivh MySQL-client-3.23.49-1.i386.rpm
Preparing...
########################################### [100%]
1:MySQL-client########################################### [100%][root@t22 RPMS]#

Testing MySQLNow that the server is running, and you have the client software installed, you should test that you canaccess the server from a user account. Here I'm logged on to Linux as john but I connect using the predefined MySQL username test. I give the select version(); command just to check everything's ok.
Testing the MySQL installation-4-

[john@t22 john]$ mysql -utest
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 3.23.49
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
mysql> select version();+-----------+| version() |+-----------+| 3.23.49|+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> exit
Bye[john@t22 john]$

Installing unixODBC and the MySQL libraries
So far so good. You now need to install the ODBC driver, which provides a standard interface which
programs like OpenOffice.org 1.0 can use to access databases. I use unixODBC fromhttp://www.unixodbc.org3.
Installing the ODBC software[root@t22 RPMS]#[root@t22 RPMS]# rpm -ivh unixODBC-2.2.1-2.i386.rpm
Preparing...
########################################### [100%]
1:unixODBC########################################### [100%][root@t22 RPMS]#
You also need two further pieces of software from http://www.mysql.com - the MyODBC connection
software, and a set of shared libraries it uses to talk to the MySQL server:
Installing the MySQL libraries[root@t22 RPMS]# rpm -ivh MySQL-shared-3.23.49-1.i386.rpm
Preparing...
########################################### [100%]
1:MySQL-shared########################################### [100%][root@t22 RPMS]# rpm -ivh MyODBC-2.50.39-4.i386.rpm
Preparing...
########################################### [100%]
1:MyODBC########################################### [100%][root@t22 RPMS]#

Creating the ODBC .ini files
Now you need to set up the .ini files used by ODBC. These are just text files which you can edit using yourfavourite text editor. You will probably find your RPMs have installed empty templates in /etc
odbcinst.ini lists the ODBC drivers installed on the system. You only need to define the MySQL driver:/etc/odbcinst.ini[MySQL]3 You may need to search for RPMs using http://www.rpmfind.net-5-Description
Driver
Setup
FileUsage
CPTimeout
CPReuse= ODBC Driver for MySQL= /usr/lib/libmyodbc.so= /usr/lib/libodbcmyS.so= 1==

odbc.ini defines the links that users will use to link to the actual database via the driver. Links in odbc.ini areavailable to all users of your Linux system.
/etc/odbc.ini[MySQL-test]
Description
DriverServer
Database
Port
SocketOptionStmt= MySQL database test
= MySQL= localhost= test= 3306===

Testing ODBC
You're now in a position to repeat the test connection from the user account, this time using the ODBC
connection. isql is a little utility program provided by unixODBC:
Testing the ODBC software[john@t22 john]$ isql MySQL-test+---------------------------------------+| Connected!
|||| sql-statement|| help [tablename]|| quit|||+---------------------------------------+
SQL> select version();+----------+| version()|+----------+| 3.23.49 |+----------+
1 rows affected
SQL> quit[john@t22 john]$
Hint: if this doesn't work, try isql MySQL-test -v to get fuller error messages.
What's happening here is that the parameter you pass to isql - MySQL-test - is passed to the ODBC
software. It looks up this parameter in odbc.ini, and finds the Driver MySQL and the connection information.
It then looks up MySQL in odbcinst.ini, and finds where the libraries are.
If all this is working, you now have a working database, accessible from ODBC.

Setting up ODBC within OpenOffice.org 1.0
Nearly there. You now need to tell OpenOffice.org 1.0 about your ODBC connection. First of all, a couple oflittle gotchas.
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Gotcha: OpenOffice.org 1.0 looks for a library libodbc.so. The RPM I loaded didn't create this:[john@t22 john]$ whereis libodbc.so
libodbc:[john@t22 john]$so it was back to user root to create a link:[root@t22 RPMS]# ln -s /usr/lib/libodbc.so.1 /usr/lib/libodbc.sowhich solved the problem:[john@t22 john]$ whereis libodbc.so
libodbc: /usr/lib/libodbc.so[john@t22 john]$
Now we are ready to go. Within OpenOffice.org 1.0, choose Tools / Data Sources... from the main menu,
then press the New Data Source button to open the Data Source Administration window. Type in NameMySQL-test; select Database type ODBC and press the [...] button. Next, select the data source you havejust created in the Data Source dialogue (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Selecting the new Data Source
Press OK. Back in the Data Source Administration window, choose the ODBC tab and enter User nametest; press OK; and that's all the preparatory work finished.

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If you use another installation method
If you do a new RedHat 7.3 installation on a laptop and use exactly the same versions as shown here, thenthe step by step instructions given above will work.
Following the publication of the first version of this HOWTO, I received emails from people who had useddifferent approaches and had discovered different gotchas. Here is a summary of the main gotchas asreported to me, in the hope they may be useful to others:
Gotcha: if you install MySQL from sources, you may need to create the test database and test user
manually.

Gotcha: some installers use /usr/local/etc for the .ini files, and /usr/local/lib for the libraries.

Gotcha: some users have reported that they have been unable to get ODBC to work until they created~.odbc.ini for users.
Gotcha: If you have installed the libraries into /usr/local/lib you must:[john@t22 john]$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib[john@t22 john]$
before you run OpenOffice.org 1.0-8-

Using the Data Source Tools in OpenOffice.org 1.0
Finding the Data Source Tools
To use database functions at any time, select View / Data Sources from the main menu (or press F4). The
Data Source Explorer on the left hand side of the Data Sources screen shows all the data sources currently
known to OpenOffice.org 1.04. The usual conventions apply - click on the + sign to show more information,right click on an item to see the tools available. The right hand side of the screen is the Data Source
Browser, which shows the contents of any currently selected data source.

Working with Table Definitions
Creating a table
Expand the MySQL-test link in the Data Source Explorer by clicking on the plus sign; then right click on the
Tables item to pop up a menu. Choose New Table Design to display the Table Design Screen (see Figure
2).

Figure 2 Using the Data Source Explorer
We're creating a table to hold a bookseller's stock list. OpenOffice.org 1.0 acts as a 'window' into MySQL,
so the rules about what you can call fields, what types of data are available, etc are as per MySQL. The
panel at the bottom right contains context sensitive help, but for definitive help you should look to the
MySQL documentation5.
The completed table definition in the Table Design window is shown in Figure 3. Note that if you want to beable to update the data in this table within OpenOffice.org 1.0, you need to define one field as a primary key- you do this by right-clicking on the indicator bar at the left hand edge of the screen and setting the Primary
Key flag. This is shown by a key symbol - this example shows ISBN is the primary key. When you havefinished, click the Save button, name the table stocklist, and close the window. Your new table will now be
visible in the Data Source Explorer.

Designing Indexes
There is also an index designer available from the Table Design window, either from Tools / Index Design...
on the menu or the Index Design button on the toolbar (see Figure 4).
4 The Bibliography data source is a default installed by OpenOffice.org 1.0.
5 for example, see http://mysql.com/documentation/mysql/bychapter/manual_Reference.html#Legal_names-9-Figure 3 Table Design for stocklist

Figure 4 Index Designer-10-Changing the definition of a table
If you need to make changes to the fields in your table, right click on the table name in the Data Source
Explorer and select Edit Table. This will put you back in the Table Design window.

Editing data
Tables can be edited directly from Data Sources screen - simply click on the tablename in the Data Source
Explorer, and the contents of the table will be displayed in the Data Source Browser on the right. The
example below shows the fully populated stocklist table.

Figure 5 The stocklist table
Note the Navigation Bar at the bottom of the Data Source Browser to help you move rapidly through yourtable.
The usual 'spreadsheet' conventions also apply:•••

double-click on a column heading to resize the column width;
right click on a column heading to set the column width manually, set a new column format, or hide acolumn;right click on any of the row markers to set the row height or reformat the whole table.

Note: any comments you entered in the 'Description' field when you set up the table will appear as hints
when you move the mouse cursor over the column heading in the Data Source Browser.

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Using the Database Toolbar to work with your data
Much of the power of OpenOffice.org 1.0 is provided by the Database Toolbar that appears at the top of theData Source Browser. This contains the following buttons from left to right – hover the mouse over each one
to see a hint (make sure you have Tips enabled on the Help menu).

Displaying/Hiding the Data Source Explorer
Useful if you want to maximise the amount of data you can see on the screen – this button toggles thedisplay of the Data Source Explorer on and off

Find Record
This button displays the Record Search dialogue. For example, see Figure 6 for an example of to find abook with the word 'biggles' in its title. Note that this will search the table record by record – which can be aslow process on big tables!

Figure 6 Record Search Dialogue

Sort Ascending / Sort Descending
Clicking on a column heading to select a field, and then pressing either of these buttons will cause thedisplay in the Data Source Browser to be sorted on the selected column in either ascending or descendingorder.
Note: the Sort buttons only change the way the data is displayed - the underlying database is not affected.

AutoFilter
Auto Filtering is a very powerful tool for displaying only the records that meet certain criteria. For example,
one of the publishers in the stocklist table is 'Dorling'. Clicking on the cell containing the word 'Dorling' (seeFigure 7) and then pressing the AutoFilter button will display only the records where the publisher is'Dorling'. Note that if you now do another autofilter, it will add to the one already in force – e.g. repeating the-12-

process for Cover equals 'H' will show only the Publisher 'Dorling' Hardbacks. The Remove Filter / Sort
button (see below) will reset the table view.
Note: filters only affect the way the table is displayed - they do not change the data in the database.

Figure 7 Selecting a value for Auto-filtering

Default Filter
Using this button, you can see or change any filter currently in place. For example, if you have used the
Autofilter as described above, and then pressed the Default Filter button, you would see the filter in Figure
8.

Figure 8 Filtering
You could now refine your filter to display Dorling Hardbacks costing more than £30 by setting the anadditional filter - see Figure 9-13-

Figure 9 Filtering - adding another condition
with the results shown in Figure 10

Figure 10 Filtered data

Sort
The Sort Ascending / Sort Descending buttons described on page 12 enable you to specify a simple sort ona single field with one click. The Sort button enables you to set up more complicated sorts, for example inalphabetical order of title by each author by each publisher (Figure 11).

Figure 11 Sort Order Dialogue-14-

Remove Filter / Sort
This button returns the view of the table to the default.

Apply Filter
If you have defined a filter using the AutoFilter or Filter buttons, this button will toggle the filter on and off.

RefreshIt is possible to open multiple editing windows onto the same table, either from one user or from many users
if you are in a multi-user system. Pressing the Refresh button forces OpenOffice.org 1.0 to reload its view ofthe data from the database to reflect any changes made elsewhere to the underlying data.

Edit Data
If your table has a primary key defined, pressing this key will allow you to edit the data directly in the Data
Source Browser. Any changes you make on the screen are posted to the database as you move on to adifferent record, or you can force an immediate update using the Save Current Record button.

Save Current Record
If you are editing a record, pressing this button forces any changes to be written immediately to the
database.

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Creating new Views of your data
The Database Toolbar is a very powerful tool for analysing and working on your data. However, it issometimes useful to be able to set up a pre-set view of a table, for example for other people to use. For
example, we might want to set up a view showing just the books published by Penguin which are currently
in stock in alphabetic order of title.
In the Data Source Explorer of the Data Sources window, right click on Queries and select New Query
Design. An Add Tables Dialogue will prompt for the tables to be used in the query – add the stocklist tablethen close the Add Tables Dialogue. You will then be in the Query Design screen, and can design yourquery (see Figure 12).

Figure 12 Penguins in Stock Query Design

Rows in the Query Design table
Field
The Fields to be included in the query can be double-clicked in the upper pane, or 'dragged and dropped'from the upper pane, or entered by clicking in the Field row of the bottom pane and using the drop-downboxes.

Alias
The 'Alias' row allows you to change a column heading.

VisibleThe 'Visible' row allows fields to be used in selection criteria, but not to be displayed.
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Functions
The 'Function' row allows you to specify summary or grouping functions (see the Advanced Examples later).

Criterion
The 'Criterion' row sets filter conditons – here we have specified Publisher equals 'Penguin' and Status is
not empty (null)6.

The Query Toolbar
The Query Toolbar provides more functionality:

Run Querywill immediately display the results of your query in a new Data Source Browser (see Figure 13).

Figure 13 Query Designer with Data Source Browser
Note how this Data Source Browser has its own Toolbar as well!

Clear Query
Gotcha: pressing this button instantly clears the query your are working on. Not a nice touch!

6 You can specify wildcards in the usual way: LIKE 'AB*' finds everything starting with AB etc.

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Switch Design View On/Off
Behind the scenes, the Query Designer translates your design into the SQL commands which MySQL
understands. For advanced users, this button will toggle the display of the raw SQL commands generated
by the Query Designer. You can edit these commands directly, and the changes will be reflected back into
the Data Designer.
Gotcha: it is possible to write a raw SQL query which is too complex for the Query Designer tounderstand, in which case you can lose your query. Always save queries before switching back to
Design View.

Add tables...
Allows you to put multiple tables into your query. See 'More Complex Queries' on page 19.

Functions / Table Name / Alias
These buttons are toggles to display / hide the corresponding rows in the Query Designer

Distinct Values
This toggle allows you to create a query to answer questions like: “Show me all the authors who are in thestocklist”. The example I am using has 25,000 records in it. If you try to answer the question by creating thefollowing query:

Figure 14 A 'distinct' Query-18-

without the Distinct button being pressed, OpenOffice.org 1.0 would show you the 25,000 records – one foreach record, with the same author listed as many times as they appear in the table. Selecting Distinct would
show each author once only – which is what you want.

Edit
The Edit button toggles the Query Design in and out of edit mode.

Save
Stores the Query Design7. Once a query has been saved, it is available within the Data Source Explorer andits contents can be viewed in the Data Source Browser - see Figure 15.

Figure 15 Displaying a Query

More Complex Queries
The Data Designer is a powerful tool for creating queries which means you can perform day to day
enquiries without needing to know any SQL8. This includes joining and summarising tables.

Example 1 - Orders on Hand
As an example of what can be achieved, suppose you have created Orders - a table of books which havebeen ordered by customers, where you record the ISBN of the book and the quantity to order. The example
in Figure 16 shows how you could link this table with the main stocklist table using the Query Designer.

Linking tables
Note how the two tables are linked through the common field ISBN – to create this in the Query Designer,
7 Queries are stored in a file DataAccess.xml deep within the your OpenOffice.org directory structure.
8 You can also run any SQL commands directly, e.g. MySQL specific commands that are not understood by the Data
Designer or by ODBC.

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simply 'drag and drop' the field from one list to the other9.

Calculated fields
The field 'Value' is defined as the product of Price and Order_Qty by entering the calculation in the 'Field'
record.

Formatting data
The 'No', 'Price', and 'Value' fields are formatted by right-clicking on the relevant columns and choosing theappropriate options (Right aligned, UK currency).

Figure 16 Advanced Query - Linked Tables

9 Advanced users can define the type of the link by double-clicking on the connection line

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Example 2 - Summary Orders on Hand
Following on from the example above, the next query in Figure 17 shows how to obtain the total orders on
hand by publisher.

Group and Sum functions
Often used together, the Group and Sum functions define at what level the data is required (Group), andhow it is to be calculated (Sum).

Figure 17 Advanced Query - summarising linked tables-21-

Using Data Sources in other OpenOffice.org 1.0 programs
So far, this document has concentrated on accessing data using the F4 View / Data Sources route.
However, sometimes it is more convenient to pull data directly into another OpenOffice 1.0 tool, such as
Calc or Writer. This section shows you how.

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Calc
Creating a link with Drag and Drop
Extracting data from a Data Source into a spreadsheet in OpenOffice.org is as simple as dragging anddropping. In Calc, press F4 or View / Data Sources... as usual, and open the Table or Query you want tocopy into Calc. It's easiest if you change from Stick to Floating view (use the pin icon at the bottom left of theData Source Explorer) – see Figure 18.

Figure 18 Dragging data into a spreadsheet
To link the data into the spreadsheet, simply click on the data, and drag the data into the spreadsheet.
When you drop, a link will be created between the spreadsheet and the data source – see Figure 19.

Menu Options-23-

Figure 19 A linked spreadsheet
Once you have created the link, there are a number of menu commands you may find useful, accessible
from the main menu once you select a cell containing linked data.
•

Any time you want to update the spreadsheet with the latest data in the database, select Data / Refresh
Range from the main menu•

Data / Define Range and press More allows you to choose whether column headings are imported;
whether any formatting you set is removed at every Data / Refresh Range; and whether the imported
data is saved with the spreadsheet or not (to save disk space)

Data Pilot
It is also worth noting that the DataPilot can access data directly from Data Sources, giving an amazingly
powerful tool for crosstabulation, etc. Well worth exploring!

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Writer
Creating a link with Drag and Drop
Gotcha: Although it should be possible to 'drag and drop' data into a text document in the same way as a
spreadsheet, this doesn't work correctly in OpenOffice.org 1.0.
However, there is a workround.

Using the Database Toolbar
Selecting the data in the Data Source Browser enables two toolbar buttons, Data to Text... and Data to
Fields... .

Data to Text...
There are three options available from this toolbar.

Figure 20 Inserting Data as a Table•

Insert Data as Table allows you to select fields from your data source, whose data is the copied intocolumns of a table in your document. The usual table formatting options are available. The data is copied
in as text and will not change if the data in the database changes – see Figure 12.

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•

Insert Data as Text works similarly, expect the data is simply copied in without being formatted as a table– see Figure 21. Note: this is one way to convert a data source into a comma delimited text file forexporting to other software.

Figure 21 Insert Data as Text•

Data to Fields... is used for mail merge type operations. The mail merge facilities in OpenOffice.org 1.0
are comprehensive, and out of scope of this document (sorry).

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Using the Form AutoPilot
OpenOffice.org 1.0 contains a complete programming environment using a variant of the popular BASIC
programming language. Using this environment, developers can write complete applications for end users,
such as sophisticated forms.
Fortunately, it is possible to create a fully-functioned form without any programming knowledge, by using theForm AutoPilot.

The Form AutoPilot in action
From the main menu, select File / AutoPilot / Form... Choose the MySQL-test database, and the Orders on
Hand Query. Copy all the fields from the Existing Fields box to the Fields in Form box, and press Next.
OpenOffice.org 1.0 will start to build your form in a new window. On the Choose Layout dialogue, any
selections you make will be reflected immediately in the new form. Figure 22 shows the result of accepting
the defaults and pressing Create.

Figure 22 A Form created by the AutoPilot
What the AutoPilot has done is build into one form all the functionality needed to maintain this table, withboth a Data Navigation Toolbar, and a Database Toolbar including commonly-used tools for filtering,sorting, etc. This is a very easy way to create a simple database application.
Note - if you want to explore the options available for developing this form further, pressing the Form buttonon the toolbar on the left hand side of the screen will toggle the window in and out of Design mode. In
Design mode, you can select items on the form and right click on them to display and edit their Properties,
Data, and Events.
Welcome to the world of OpenOffice.org 1.0 BASIC programming – you have now reached the end of what
this document can teach you!

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Appendix - Public Documentation Licence Notice
Original Documentation
The contents of this Documentation are subject to the Public Documentation License Version 1.0 (the"License"); you may only use this Documentation if you comply with the terms of this License. A copy of theLicense is available at http://www.openoffice.org/licenses/pdl.pdf
The Original Documentation is http://www.unixodbc.org/doc/OOoMySQL.pdf.
The Initial Writer of the Original Documentation is John McCreesh Copyright (C)2002. All Rights Reserved.
(Initial Writer contact: jpmcc@users.sf.net).

Revisions / Contributions / Translations
Contributor(s): ______________________________________.
Portions created by ______ are Copyright (C)_________[Insert year(s)]. All Rights Reserved.
(Contributor contact(s):________________[Insert hyperlink/alias]).

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