Hello dear FreePascal community,

i am currently in research on possibilitys to implement a non comercial database with some 10 - 30 MB in size.

The current trend in decision looks like it will be done with some Win32 or Linux based MySQL server to provide some common interface for general search in the database.

But there should be furhter a user based access rights system that allows manipulation of this database.

For some nice reasons it is of high interest to have an offline reader and an offline editor for the two mentioned purposes. This means this program should run at least on Linux and on Win32 platforms in Text and in Graphics mode.

Can anyone tell me if such doing is feasible?
Are there any libs around that will let me do such clients? (I would prefer single code for any purpose) Or does someone know about a system where this is
already possible but doesnt raise any huge fees?

I know FreePascal is portable to the desired targets. But i am not that sure if i know about the right
collection of toolsets that let these clients
perform synchronisation with the servers over an
internet conncetion without coding any platform
differently. Maybe an E-Mail interface would serve here or any other protocoll, maybe several of them.

The gui or textmode toolkit should be of a rather
universal type as well, so that there will be
possibilities to integrate i.e. country maps or
other visualisation modules into the project on
respective demand (of course less likely for the
textmode version, will apply conditional defines).

The thing is i dont want to spent too much time but want to rely on a good amount of tested and prooven to be good code that finally just does what i want.

Anyone any good idea on this issue?

Best Regards
Alex.

(Yes i know what FreePascal is. I was rather active with it in the pre 1.0.0 phase, just in contrast to the time untill now.)

You will have to implement that manually, i.e. set up a system of users and access rights by yourself.

For some nice reasons it is of high interest to have an offline reader and an offline editor for the two mentioned purposes.

Does 'offline' mean that you will not be directly connected to the MySQL server ?

This means this program should run at least on Linux and on Win32 platforms in Text and in Graphics mode.

This should not present any problems, I think. You can use GTK for easy graphics, this is very portable, and there exists meanwhile a lot of documentation for the pascal port of GTK (see website)

I don't know of any such system, except midas (from Borland) which must be paid for. You'll have to implement this manually.

To answer your question, more information is needed; In principle what you ask can be done using Free Pascal, but the implementation of the synchronization is _not_ easy. This is difficult anyhow, and this difficulty is not tied to FPC, but more of a principal nature.

In your case I would recommend always use a local mysql engine, (the memory footprint is low anyhow) and run a synchronization of the databases when going online. (but this may be a problem)

This should be no problem using GTK for the graphics mode.

The thing is i dont want to spent too much time but want to rely on a good amount of tested and prooven to be good code that finally just does what i want.

Don't we all want that ? ;)

Michael.

Yes, i.e. some file that contains all data for download or as a base of automatic updates via the network.

Okay, i went a bit too far into the application level. Anyways i mentioned it for the case if someone does have a clue on it here.

In your case I would recommend always use a local mysql engine, (the memory footprint is low anyhow) and run a synchronization of the databases when going online. (but this may be a problem)

It depends. If all data fits onto a floppy its pretty okay. If it means there is CD burning requires its possilby not so good.

This should be no problem using GTK for the graphics mode.

Hmm, i must rethink how i can use GTK for grafics and something else for textmode. Okay, still sounds most interesting.

*ggg* Yes of course. The main point for me is the time. The others were just meintioned.

Thanks for your reply, Michael.
Regards Alex.

But this problem is not tied to the data access mechanism, but more to the amount of data.

You could also consider using MySQL server as the central server, and .dbf (dBase) files for local storage. The FCL contains TDataset descendents for both, which would enable a uniform interface no matter whether you're working offline or online.

If diskspace is also an issue, then this might be a better approach.

Michael.