[GRASS-user] Database for GRASS

[Nick Cahill]

There was a discussion some time ago about the possibility of using  
Filemaker databases with GRASS. The newest version of Filemaker (9)  
makes a big deal of how it can work with sql databases. See http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/sql.html 
. You use (i.e. buy separately) an ODBC driver to allow Filemaker to  
access existing SQL databases as external data sources. I did this  
with some of my GRASS and other databases, using (so far) only the  
free trial version of the ODBC driver. The connectivity is now limited  
to MySQL, not Postgres, but this could easily change, I imagine, and  
may be possible to get around already; I haven't tried. I then created  
a dummy Filemaker file, which has no real data but is just a front end  
into that SQL database. it worked fine, although I haven't paid the  
$29 for the full version of the ODBC driver so I can't tell whether  
it's fast enough with large databases. With this system, though, I  
don't think you can create or drop databases, or otherwise administer  
them, adding or modifying fields, etc. So you still need to install  
postgres or mysql, configure them, and create the databases. You can  
populate the database in Filemaker, edit data, create reports, and  
such, all of which is pretty easy and intuitive. Then GRASS can access  
the mysql database directly -- not the filemaker database, but the  
data that Filemaker is accessing as an external data source.

For me, the advantages of using Filemaker as a front end didn't seem  
that great -- you still have to create & administer the databases, and  
there are some excellent tools for doing that. I like Aqua Data  
Studio, whose last version was free for personal use (the current one  
isn't, and I haven't used it). I've also tried CocoaMySQL, which is  
also free. Both have reasonably good editing tools. There are a large  
number of other front ends to postgres or mysql that offer a more  
intuitive user interface. This is probably more important than whether  
you use postgres or mysql or sqlite as the back-end database (I guess  
-- others will know better...). I haven't used OpenOffice.

This isn't exactly what you want -- you're looking for a driver that  
would allow GRASS to access native Filemaker databases directly,  
instead of having Filemaker access a sql database. I don't know if  
this is possible, but am interested in it if it were.



Cheers,

Nick Cahill


----- Original Message -----
From: Kurt Springs <ferret_bard at mac.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 11:33 pm
Subject: [GRASS-user] Database for GRASS
To: grassuser at grass.itc.it

> Hi folks,
>
> I have some questions as to which databases people are using with
> grass.  I currently use Filemaker for as a database, but could never
>
> get it to link to GRASS.  I was wondering if this problem has been
> resolved.  Otherwise, I am considering which database software would
>
> provide easy of use and still get the data I need ported to my GRASS
>
> GISs.  I contemplating Postgresql but it isn't all that intuitive.
> How are MySQL and SQLite Browser?
>
> Kurt
> _______________________________________________
> grass-user mailing list
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