Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 15221
linking an existing form to a data source does not work
Last modified: 2006-05-31 14:29:06 UTC
Creating a data source form using the autopilot results in a document that is linked to the data source; by double clicking on it, it opens with a number of buttons in the bottom of the window for navigating and managing the records in the data source. However, if you link an existing form to a data source, and double-click on it, it opens as a normal text document: there are no buttons for record navigation and management in the bottom on the window. This is a problem if you want to exchange a data base together with its forms with a colleague, between your office and home PC, or even if you install a newer version of OOo and want to use the forms that you created before. You don't want to recreate a complex form every time you do that! As an example, download the example database from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/garryknight/linux/oodbase.html (the link is almost at the bottom of the page), add it as a data source and try to link the form in it to the data source. The correct behaviour would be that the existing form is linked to the data source in the same way as a new form that is made using the autopilot.
simon, is it possible that you didn't name the data source "Contacts"? For me, the example on http://homepage.ntlworld.com/garryknight/linux/oodbase.html works perfectly. The only situation I can imagine which would produce the symptoms you described is when you do not give the data source the proper name. Pöoint is that in a document, the form layer remembers which data source it works with. This is completely independent on a data source from which you link the document. For example, you could, for data source "A", create a form document, and link it from data source "B". When then opened from within data source "B", the form still works with "A", as this is what is stored in the document. Now, when you link the form document to "B" in an installation where no data source with name "A" exists, then the form will not work - no matter if you open it from the data source browser, the data source administration dialog, or the file open dialog. So the "link" feature is really only this: A link, which can contain anything, but which is not affected by the fact that it is linked.
confirming and targeting - simon, thanks for reporting this
Created attachment 6614 [details] document to reproduce the bug
accepting
oops - this targeting/confirming/accepting should have happened for another bug - sorry (how can I set a bug back to UNCONFIRMED?)
Hi Frank, 1) Where can you find out the name of the data source (how did you know it should be "Contacts")? Is it possible to change (in the form) the name of the data source it applies to? 2) If there is no bug to fix, I suppose resolving it as WORKSFORME is appropriate.
> Where can you find out the name of the data source - open the linked document for editing (should be available in the context menu) - switch off the "form design mode", if necessary - you do this in the "form functions" toolbox which opens from within the left hand side vertical toolbox - open the "form navigator" (from within the form functions toolbox, too) - in the context menu of the "logical form" in the navigator, open "properties" - alternatively: (replacing the previous two steps): select a control, and in it's context menu, chose "Form...." - in the property browser which opens then, go to tab page "Data", and look into the very first line. > (how did you know it should be "Contacts")? Because the README file in the downloadable zip told so :)) > Is it possible to change (in the form) the name of the data source > it applies to? Yes, exactly at the place described above > 2) If there is no bug to fix, I suppose resolving it as WORKSFORME > is appropriate. Done :). Thanks
> - switch off the "form design mode" ^^^ should say "on" - changing aspects of a form such as the data source it is bound to is of course possible in the "form design mode" only
closing
change subcomponent to 'none'