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Movie Collector 6.4.1 Customization

I installed Movie Collector™ on my wife's new laptop today. Since we want all systems in the household to use a common movie database, I configured it to use a database stored on a shared network folder.

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Installing and Configuring MySQL on a Linux System

MySQL is free Database Management System (DBMS) software that runs on a variety of platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Unix. To install and configure the software on a Linux system, so that it starts when the system boots follow these instructions. It is important to set a root password after you've started the MySQL daemon, so be sure to do so.

Once you have the software installed and configured, you can set up a new database using the instructions in Creating a MySQL Database.

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Adding a Column to a MySQL Database

To add a column to a MySQL database, you can use the following steps:

1. Start the text-based MySQL client
   
   $ mysql -u testacct -p
   
   The -u testacct parameter specifies that the client should be started using the account named testacct, while the -p parameter indicates that the system should prompt you for the password.



2. At the mysql> prompt, enter the command use dbname;, where dbname is the database name. If you don't know the name of the database, you can see a list of available databases with the show databases; command.



3. Use the alter table command to modify the appropriate table. If you need to see a list of tables in the database, you can use the show tables; command. E.g. to add a column, delivered, which will hold a delivery date for a shipment, to the table requests, you could use the command below:
   
   ALTER TABLE requests ADD delivered DATE;
   
   That would put the new column at the end of the existing columns. If you want to add the column after a specific column, you can specify that column with AFTER colname. E.g., suppose I wish to add the column delivered after the column orderdate. I could use the command below:
   
   ALTER TABLE requests ADD delivered DATE AFTER orderdate;
   
   If you don't know the names of the existing columns, you can use the command SHOW COLUMNS FROM dbname;. E.g., if the table is named requests, I could use the command below:
   
   mysql> show columns from requests;

References:

1. Add a column to an existing MySQL table
   Created: February 8, 2004
   Updated: July 17, 2004
   tech-recipes

[/software/database/mysql] permanent link

Opening One Form in Access from a Field in Another Form

I had two tables in a database, one called "HDD", which holds information on hard disk drives, such as serial number, model number, capapcity, etc. I had another table I called "External", which I use to keep track of information regarding external disk drive enclosures I use for backing up systems. That External database also has a "Drive SN" field that has the serial number for the hard disk drive within the enclosure. I created forms with matching names for each table, i.e. an "HDD" and "External" form.

I wanted to be able to double-click on the drive serial number in the "External" form and have the "HDD" form open with the record displayed with the corresponding serial number, so that I could view all of the information on the particular hard disk drive within the drive enclosure that I had selected in the "External" form. I used the following procedure to be able to do so.

1. In the drive serial number field of the "external" form, I right-clicked and chose Properties.
2. Scrolled down to the "On Dbl Click" field.
3. I clicked on the button with "..." on it.
4. I chose Macro Builder and clicked on OK.
5. I gave it a name of OpenHDD and clicked on OK.
6. For Action, I chose OpenForm.
7. In the Form Name field, I put in HDD, the name of the form that displays information on the hard disk drives.
8. For View, I selected Form.
9. For Where Condition, I clicked on the "..." button and chose Tables then the HDD table beneath it.
10. I then selected Serial Number in the next column and double-clicked on <Value> in the last column, which gave me [HDD]![Serial Number] in the Expression Builder field.
11. I then clicked on the equal button to add = at the end of the expression and then added Forms![External]![Serial Number] giving me [HDD]![Serial Number] = Forms![External]![Drive SN] .
12. I then clicked on OK
13. For the Comment field, which is to the right of the Action field, I put "Open HDD form to drive corresponding to External drive SN"
14. I then closed the Expression Builder window, saving the macro.
15. I then closed the Properties window that was open for the Drive SN field.

I was then able to click on the drive serial number field in the External form and have the HDD form open displaying the information on the hard disk drive within the enclosure.

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Oracle Acquires Sleepycat

Oracle has acquired database developer Sleeycat Software, Inc., which produces open-source database software and will add Sleepycat's Berkeley DB to its line of embedded databases.

Sleepycat's Berkeley DB may be the most sidely used open-source database software with an estimated 200 million deployments. Bekeley DB is a programmatic toolkit that provides fast, reliable, scalable, and mission-critical database support to software developers. I use it for makemap hash support for Sendmail.

References:

1. Oracle Pounces on Sleepycat
   By John G. Spooner
   eweek.com
   February 14, 2006
2. Installing Sendmail on Solaris

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