Stand alone database software

[mr-miley]

Hi all. Just a quick question to all on the forums. I need to create a database to collect geotechnical data from our Site Guys. It doesn't need to be anything superduper powerful , just capable of simple relational database creation and data collecting. There are loads of database softwares out there, but none of them (that I can find, anyway) let you create the database structure you need and then have a "runtime" of the software that you can distribute, so that the end users DONT have to have the full database software on their PCs. I'm talking about the database equivalent of the Powerpoint Pack and go function combined with the freely distributable Powerpoint Viewer. I DONT want to do this as a web interface etc, I need it to be stand alone, as it's most likely to be used standing in the middle of a muddy field, miles from anywhere.

Anyone know of anything???

Miles

[Henry Blewer]

Open Office from Sun Microsystems. It does not really have a 'runtime' module, but it is free. It's very good also.
Visual Basic will allow you to build an application with its own runtime module. It has very powerful database functions.

[otakar]

No personal experience with this, but looks promising : http://www.sqlite.org/

[latego]

SQLLite is free (as beer and speach), quite powerful (implements most of SQL92 standard), blazing fast and has bindings for many languages. The only problem is that, if you use it in a concurrent environment, remember that transactions imposte table-wide locks, so, even it is fast, is does not scale well.

Should you outgrow SQLlite, look no further than PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.org/, a beast which rivals SQL Server/Oracle/DB2 in functionalities, performance and scalability (free as beer, BSD license w.r.t. the speach part).

Bye!!!

[neuspadrin]

as stated already, sql lite is exactly what you want pretty much.

Many programs use sqllite to store setting and data (i believe firefox for example), and i know a lot of phones use it so settings and data (i know android does from using its sdk)

[TheBlackHole]

Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread or posting something completely irrelevant (which I probably am doing right now)...
I use Visual Basic mainly to create simple graphics displays like diagrams (no complex programs because I don't bother writing or even learning code to write them) . I've figured out a way to make 3D-ish spheres:
First, figure out where you want your light to come from.
Then, fill a circle with a gradient with the sphere's diffuse color facing the light and its ambient color facing away. Done!

[rcallicotte]

Maybe you should think about that, before doing that.  Or maybe it's related to databases.  I don't see it, though.

Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread or posting something completely irrelevant (which I probably am doing right now)...

As for the database software, MS even has a free version of SQL you can use, mr-miley.

[mr-miley]

Dear all

Many thanks for all your replies. I had already thought of using SQL, MYSQL etc etc The thing is I want a database application that will allow you to create the data structure, build a front end for it (like you can in Access) and then process this all into a redistributable package that includes the runtime for the database engine. There used to be a database application a few years ago that would do this (I think it was a case of, if you had the "professional" version it included the redistributable runtime so you could package your input forms and data structure and anyone could run the database WITHOUT having to have the originating database package installed) The problem is, I can't remember what it was called.... DOH

Miles

[Oshyan]

Miles, you might have luck asking your question over on www.donationcoder.com a great software discussion (and review) site.

- Oshyan