Database for work?
 

Are there any programs that would let me build an information database on the N800?

I am a locksmith and much of my work is to change old part for new. Then I need to know what part is interchangeable with the old part or what type of new part I could use instead. Or what I need to do so the new part would fit in that door instead of the new part.

Many of these parts got names and numbers that I don`t remember. We got two older guys that work inside with projects and got this stuff in the head. So I want to take they're "heads" and put them in a database.
This would make my work easier and possible make others in my line of work use the N800 for this.

This have to be GUI thingy off course. It should be easy to work with for normal users.

Re: Database for work?
 

No.

Well... You could use Gnumeric, but I wouldn't recommend it. I've been asking for a simple, Psion-like flatfile database for two years now.

Re: Database for work?
 

Don`t look good then. I was thinking to first build an information database with possibility to have picture of the product with some extra information. If that is possible I guess the next step would be to have an order program so you could have an order sent to your N800 and pick what parts you have used on that order.. Also have it signed (with the pen) and then sent back to the office when finished.
This transfer could be used with BT connection at work when you get in at the end of your day or at the beginning of your next day.

This would make lot less paperwork because your hours would also be put in this order and adjust your paycheck.

Re: Database for work?
 

See?

Now that's why I asked for the ObjectVision sources...

In fact, an ObjectVision-like framework for rapid, visual and code-free forms-based user development might very well be the killer application everyone keeps jabbering about.

Re: Database for work?
 

A developer has made a database app in python. The bad thing is that isn't properly packaged.

The application is called 'Info on Tap': http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/nokia/index.html

And you can see some screenshots: http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/noki...ocs/index.html

Re: Database for work?
 

Also make the N800 more likable for business users and companies.. Make the N800 more widespread :)

Where else could you get something for about 200$ that reduce workload/paperwork for normal workers that do small services/repairs.
Almost like that pad that Fedex or UPS use when they got a package for you. Only in pocketsize ;)

And when you get off work you could use it for surfing the web, checking your mails, gaming and other thousands of things you could use the N8x0 for

Re: Database for work?
 

uhm.. MySql database for N800.. Is it not possible to use this to make something like I was talking about?

http://downloads.maemo.org/database/

Re: Database for work?
 

Hmm... that actually looks nice and simple. I'll have to give that a try.

I had been trying to get sqlite/http server with fast-cgi to work, but so far, it's not been positive.

It's too bad the app can only export to HTML though. IT would be nice if it could also export to csv files for importing into any other desktop app.

R.
==

Re: Database for work?
 

I tried to use "info on tap" but it failed to start..I am struggeling to know how to do this step:

# Scripts go in /usr/bin, and then must be given execute permissions with "chmod a+x"

I have installed Python 2.5

Re: Database for work?
 

Is this the sort of thing?
http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/glom/
http://www.glom.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

I am having problems installing it on OS2008 but then there is a caveat by the developer "The Maemo port of Glom is currently a rough proof of concept. It's unlikely to be usable for you now, but it should show what could be achieved."

So it looks like being early days yet.

Re: Database for work?
 

I don't think you have to do this manually anymore.. it looks like the info-on-tap application has been updated today on the author's site. You can just click (from the N800) the 'click to install' and it'll add the repo and install a debian package. You don't have to do the chmod a+x and all that.

I just did the above to check that it worked.
There's a problem though, when I start the application it says
"Can't create logfile" with an 'ok' button and exits. Unfortunately I'm no good with Python and can't figure out what causes this.

EDIT: Ok I did figure it out, by reading the technical readme.txt on the website. It turns out the application expects /var/log to be globally writable, this is not good. A better way is as follows (must be done manually unless the .deb post-installation script is updated to do the same): (NB: The steps must be done _exactly_ as typed, no spelling errors..)
(note that terminating dot ('.') at the end of the last one there)

(If you already manuall did that chmod a+w /var/log as was suggested in that readme I refered to, now is the time to do 'chmod og-w /var/log' to undo the damage.)

Now the application starts. However, it looks like it actually needs some data files to exist in order to do anything at all, it looks a bit non-obvious to me.. maybe the poster that first mentioned this application knows a bit more of what's needed?

I've been looking at these pages:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/noki...tap/readme.txt
(What it says about the installation is obsolete, it's clearly from before it was made a debian package).
and
http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/noki...ocs/index.html

Re: Database for work?
 

Nope. Typed what you wrote -- still get the logfile complaints.

This either still needs work by the author, or he should refrain from making his private stuff public alltogether...

Re: Database for work?
 

Karel,
Could you do
ls -l /var/log
and post? (but I may have to run away for today, got a bus to catch soon)

Re: Database for work?
 

Get logfile error on Nokia sync, Info on tap and Spend it..So not just one program..It seems that all his program got the same fault.

It might be writing ability for the program.. I tried to chmod but got permission denied.

http://static.nettby.no/users/i/b/i/...reenshot02.png
http://static.nettby.no/users/i/b/i/...reenshot03.png

Re: Database for work?
 

Assuming you'd be only interested in the permissions for info_on_tap.log:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Nov 16 22:52 info_on_tap.log ->user/info_on_tap.log

drwxr-xr-x 2 user root 0 Nov 16 22:51 user

I'd have to dig out my Linux hadbook to find out what those permissions mean...

Re: Database for work?
 

That looks correct to me, that's how it's set up here. And the error message disappeared. Very strange.
drwxr-xr-x 2 user root
means d for directory, read-write-execute for owner, read-execute for the rest, owner is userr, group is root. (when 'execute' is used on directories it really means 'access to directory').

The access bits for the symbolic link doesn't matter.

Re: Database for work?
 

IBICO,
You can't do those chmod as user (those not in /home/user/, anyway), you have to do
sudo gainroot
first.
However, if you installed that debian (instead of manual install) then you shouldn't need to do any of that.
Except that you migh try the
chmod a+w /var/log
although I think that's not good in general. Might be worth temporarily though.

Re: Database for work?
 

I tried rebooting (something I usually only reserve for Windows machines), thinking there was something funky in my environment, but the errors are still there. Only Calendar doesn't display the message. But then, it doesn't start either.

This is a bummer. I was really looking forward to Info On Tap, as it is the kind of simple database I'm looking for, but...

Re: Database for work?
 

None of the menu items work for me. However, after going through the directory creation and permissions rigmarole, I was able to launch info_on_tap and spendit from an xterm prompt. There are a bunch of warnings about the theme not finding some background image, but you get to see the apps.

That's about it, though : in both of them, a "New" button (to create a new table in one, a new expense in the other... I think :-) don't do anything, so I didn't get any further...

I was in touch with the author earlier because his hand-made .debs didn't work (pointed him to PyPackager :-), I've also reported these problems.

Re: Database for work?
 

Interesting.

I reportedc my earlier problems with the manual installation also, but never received a reply.

It might be possible that the combination of an earlier (botched) manual install clashes with the debs. I wouldn't know where to start looking for errors, though. I don't even have an idea what an error in this mess would look like.

Re: Database for work?
 

I got the link without testing it before. Same problem here.

If tomorrow I have a free time try to look the code and make it works.

Re: Database for work?
 

Here is a fix. All these applications use a common library called nokia-utilities. I have patched the library to write log files to /home/user/.log/ instead of /var/log/ (and it will create the .log directory as necessary, no manual intervention necessary).

I will email the author with my suggested patch later. An updated version of the library is attached to this posting, download and install and all those apps should start working, at least as far as the logfiles are concerned (and if you did give global write access to /var/log/, now is the time to reverse that.. not needed and not wanted).

FYI, the patch is as follows:

Re: Database for work?
 

[quote=TA-t3;96287]Here is a fix. All these applications use a common library called nokia-utilities. I have patched the library to write log files to /home/user/.log/ instead of /var/log/ (and it will create the .log directory as necessary, no manual intervention necessary).

I will email the author with my suggested patch later. An updated version of the library is attached to this posting, download and install and all those apps should start working, at least as far as the logfiles are concerned (and if you did give global write access to /var/log/, now is the time to reverse that.. not needed and not wanted).

To Do and Spend It seem to work; Calendar still doesn't start and I agree that Info On Tap is pretty useless as it stands now.

Still: Thanx muchies.

Re: Database for work?
 

There are two problems with the calendar (in addition the the common log problem, which, if it's using logging, should be solved by the fixed library):

- It depends on icalendar but icalendar is missing in calendar's dependency list, so you have to install icalendar yourself
- The icalendar package is empty.. just directories, no files. Packaging problem.

I suspect that the way to use info on tap is to prepare a flat-file database yourself (I think that's what the readme.txt file tried to explain), I had a go at it but got some error messsages so I clearly didn't understand it correctly. But this (preparing, installing and using a database for looking up stuff) is maybe the exact use-case our locksmith (the OP) had in mind?

Re: Database for work?
 

This is all rapidly becoming waayyy too complicated for stoopid me. Enter uninstall and move on mode...

Re: Database for work?
 

There's been an update at the author's repository. Upgrade calend, icalendar and one more python-app and calend now starts up fine. It looks really interesting too. Apparently it can do bi-weekly and similar things, which is exactly what I'm after.

info on tap still doesn't seem usable though.

Re: Database for work?
 

There is yet another update of "info on tap". On my n800, it still needs the patched nokia-utilities file by TA-t3, but now it works and seems quite interesting. Congratulations to the Author! I'll test it thoroughly.

Re: Database for work?
 

The click-to-install-arrow doesn't work (it just goes to a page with some text), and if I use Application Mangler to install, I get an error (as usual).

So, in summary: It doesn't work and it doesn't seem interesting, quite or otherwise. I also have no idea how to contact the author to tell him this...

Re: Database for work?
 

The text the link goes to is for the application manager to do updates. I had previously installed info_to_go and uninstalled. When I went to app manager and refreshed the applications, I was able to install the latest version. It looks like he's made a lot of progress on this application. The only problem I'm finding now is after I make a new table, set up the fields- but I'm still not able to add a new record to my field. Let's give this guy some credit though- he's doing something that we've all been wanting for quite a while.

Re: Database for work?
 

I'm giving him a lot of credit; believe it or not, the fact that I'm still trying to install his software is testimony of that.

Re: Database for work?
 

I could add records to a table by clicking the "add new" button in the main window, though it seems there is no way, by now, to modify a record. For contacting the Author, you can see his home page in http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/index.html .
At present, however, I feel more comfortable with a spreadsheet table in Gnumeric, which can be imported and exported with ease.

Re: Database for work?
 

Karel,

To get easy repository access to those packages you may want to manually insert the following repository to your application manager:

http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/nokia/debs
bora
free

It's not perfect, in the sense that the dependencies between applications and libraries are missing, so you'll have to install each of the (it won't do it automatically). But at this stage that's actually good, because upgrading the applications won't automatically drag in the current nokia-utils, which have a higher version number but doesn't include the patch I did in the version posted here! :D

Re: Database for work?
 

I must be doing something wrong :-)

With the latest update I can now actually create a new table, describe the fields in it and access the "new record" entry form. But then the form never closes when the "OK" button is pressed and the record never gets added... There are a bunch of Python errors in the log file. Is this only me ?...

Re: Database for work?
 

I had already been present in another thread but this one is better fitted... I am using these programs and find them really useful and with a well designed interface. Still some bugs and some code to tweak, but I really like the concept a lot!

Re: Database for work?
 

By memory it is due to the fact that the author defined an empty database as a list instead of a dictionary, so first time you use the prog it won't work with a new file. If you post the log, perhaps I can help something. I had to dig the code to find the error and change a [] with a {} and everytyhing is working now.

Re: Database for work?
 

I really like these programs, but am having an issue with Calend. When opening and periodically thoughout use, I receive a "can't save data" error in the upper right corner. Trying to add a record and then coming back to see if it is there, it isn't.

I am using the 12/01/07 build from the author's repositories. Python 2.5 and the Nokia Utils from the repository are installed as well.

Anyone have this issue and is there a fix?

Re: Database for work?
 

With today's update, calend works. This is going to turn in a nice suite.

Re: Database for work?
 

Hi,

Looking at the screenshots it looks like an excellent piece of work.

But, has anyone managed to have this running in 2008OS?

I didn't have any problems installing all those apps + the author has many details that makes it very easy to check. Nevertheless, I didn't manage to have any of the apps running in 2008OS.

All of them fail silently after the "loading" notification. Running them from the xterm doesn't give information about what failed, too.

Is there anything to try? or it is just a problem with the new OS?

thanks,
Chris

Re: Database for work?
 

Did you install Python 2.5 for ITOS2008?

Re: Database for work?
 

Yes without any problem or is this the problem?

I read in the application manager: