You want one with an installation code, for sure. I’ve never been burned buying out of date software on eBay, but if I were to be, I’d ask to have the purchase reversed as not being as advertised.
I have (nearly) every version up through 19, but I still use 10 for most everyday purposes to be honest.
Some great and interesting ideas here.
I thought about Access, but from what I remember about it (10 years ago) it wasn’t any easier than LibreOffice Base although it does have lots more documentation and samples and things like that around.
Filemaker is a little expensive, but if it’s the right choice I would go for it.
Fountain Pen Companion seems to focus more on tracking the use of ink (about which I don’t care) rather than inventorying fountain pens at the level of detail that I want. I will take a closer look when I have a bit of time.
Y’all are probably right about photos stored in fields, I just need a way to link to them that’s easy to set up and manage; that’s pretty much what I meant by “handling” photo files.
Notion and Coda – I will take a look.
So, ChatGPT, is that the new AI thing there’s a thread about somewhere? Might be fun to look at.
Thanks again, I have some researching to do.
I use OpenOffice as my office program because it’s free, and it includes a DB program with a reasonably intuitive front end that I use to track what I have in storage. It works fine.
I haven’t looked to deeply into it myself, as I rely on SQL Server and Dotnet front ends, but have you looked at Retool? My client asked if we could use this for a project once, and I told him no we’d just build the database. But it might fit what you need: https://retool.com/
Interesting, and thanks. I somehow thought OpenOffice was the older version of LibreOffice, not sure why. I’ll take a look at it.
Your request sounds very similar to the project that I had my students create in the database programming class that I used to teach. It focused on MySQL and PHP, but this was several years ago. I’d ditch that and start teaching one of the other web based platforms that were previously mentioned here. The problem is, I’d have to learn those first.
I’m intrigued about how ChatGPT might get used and abused in the classroom, but I could actually use it to learn new technologies myself before teaching.
My plan when I retired a year ago was to build a “collections” database platform that could be extended and modified for different kinds of collections. I even registered a web site to get started on it. I should get off my duff and work on that (but time flies when you don’t really have to do anything), but don’t wait for me to get it done.
LibreOffice was forked off from OpenOffice in 2010, but they’ve both continued to be updated somewhat since then. I think if you had trouble with the UX and documentation of LibreOffice, you probably won’t find OpenOffice any better. Most comparisons rate LibreOffice’s UX as better and more intuitive compared to OpenOffice (although a lot of that is based on what you’re familiar with).
If you’re looking for other things to try, I hear good things about Zoho Creator from people I trust, although I’ve never used it personally. It has simple tools to build the database, input screens, and reports without coding. There is a free version, although I don’t think it includes much reporting capabilities.
I looked at OpenOffice Base and it looks very similar to LibreOffice Base. I wonder if there’s a way to tell how much more intuitive it might be without actually starting to build a database?
Seconding this. Airtable is super easy to use, beautiful, flexible, and somewhat extensible (has an API of sorts, basic automation built in, etc.) It is the perfect tool for simple hobby DBs. For sharing, it should be simple to copy the schema and relationships for them and they can delete or change the records.
There is a FOSS clone of it too, Baserow, if you really want to self-host or extend it.
Otherwise, maybe consider a headless CMS that lets you make schemas and records, without having to maintain the DB layer yourself? Something like GraphCMS or DatoCMS.
If you’re just using it for your own personal stuff, Microsoft. SQL Server developer edition is free to download and use.
It’s incredibly robust, has a vibrant development and support community, and you can use Access as a front end for it.