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Connector OpenOffice

Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Advantages 1.2 Status 2 Installation 3 Getting Started: Connecting to MySQL 4 Getting Started: Usage Examples 5 References 6 Known Bugs 7 Contact 8 Who's who?

[edit] Introduction

MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org is a native MySQL database connector for OpenOffice.org. Currently, it's in preview status and supports OpenOffice.org 2.4 only. It can be used to connect OpenOffice.org applications to a MySQL server.

Before MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org became available you'd have to use MySQL Connector/J (JDBC) or MySQL Connector/ODBC to connect to a MySQL server.

[edit] Advantages

Using MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org has the following advantages:

• Easy installation through the OpenOffice.org Extension Manager.
• Seamless integration into OpenOffice.org.
• No need to go through an additional Connector installation routine (ODBC/JDBC)
• No need to configure or register an additional Connector (ODBC)
• No need to install or configure a driver manager (ODBC)

[edit] Status

MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org is available as a development preview version. We kindly ask users and developers to try it out and provide us with feedback. We do not encourage you to use it in production environments, though.

[edit] Installation

1. Install or upgrade to OpenOffice.org 2.4.

2. Download MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org from http://downloads.mysql.com/forge/openoffice_preview. Save the file (mysql-native-win32.oxt or mysql-native-linux.oxt, respectively) to a location of your choice, for example My Documents or ~/Documents.

3. Add the .oxt extension through the Extension Manager of OpenOffice.org. In OpenOffice.org, select Tools, Extension Manager... and specify the .oxt file as a new extension. When done, MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org should show up as a new extension under My Extensions.

4. Restart OpenOffice.org.

[edit] Getting Started: Connecting to MySQL

MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org allows you to access the MySQL Server and its schemata from the OpenOffice.org suite. Currently the connector is in preview status, and only OpenOffice.org 2.4 is supported.

The following example demonstrates the creation of a new OpenOffice.org Base database which uses a local MySQL Server for storage and the new connector for connecting.

1. Select the database

Create a new database (File, New, Database). This starts a wizard that allows you to create a new, open an existing, or connect to existing database. Select the latter option.

From the drop-down list, select MySQL native driver. Click Next >>.

2. Fill in the connection settings

Under MySQL native driver, fill in hostname, database name, and optionally port name, like this:

localhost/test

This will connect to a MySQL server running on the local host and select the test database.

On Linux, you currently might have to specify an IP number and a port number instead, due to a limitation in Connector/OpenOffice.org. (Precisely, you have to do so if your MySQL socket file isn't /tmp/mysql.sock.) Fill in something like this:

127.0.0.1:3006/test

This will connect to a MySQL server running on the local host, but do so via TCP/IP and using 3306 as the port number.

Click Next >>.

3. Fill in credentials

If you're using MySQL's anonymous account without a password (which you shouldn't do for security reasons), you don't have to fill in anything in this step. Otherwise, fill in your MySQL username and check the password checkbox.

Now you should try to connect to the MySQL database server by clicking the Connection test button. Check the checkbox if you don't want OpenOffice.org to ask you for your password again in the current session. Note that you can skip this test at this point.

Click Next >>.

4. Finish the wizard

Leave the defaults and click Finish.

You'll be forwarded to the OpenOffice.org Base main window.

Note that you can invoke the wizard again at any point by right-clicking in the Tables section of the Base main window and selecting Database, Connection type.

[edit] Getting Started: Usage Examples

• Open the database in OpenOffice.org Base

You can now open the newly created database, if you have not done so already by finishing the Database Wizard. Click on "Tables" to see a list of all tables from the connected MySQL Server. If you have specified a database (schemata) in your connection settings, you will see only the tables from the given database.

[edit] References

See the OpenOffice.org website for documentation of the office suite and its Extension Manager.

[edit] Known Bugs

If you discover a bug in Connector/OpenOffice.org please add it to this list and send an email to users@dba.openoffice.org. You need to be logged in with an OpenOffice.org account for both; see http://dba.openoffice.org/servlets/ProjectMailingListList for details.

[edit] Contact

To discuss the new MySQL Connector/OpenOffice.org, please subscribe to the mailing list users@dba.openoffice.org. It is a low-volume list with less than 10 mails per day.

[edit] Who's who?

• Frank Schönheit (Builds)
• Ulf Wendel (QA)
• Mark Matthews (Code review)
• Georg Richter (Coding)
• Stefan Hinz (Documentation)