Quickie Forms-Based Application Builder for PostgreSQL?

[Rasputin Paskudniak]

Greetings.

Although a newbie at PostgreSQL, I have jumped right in to write the SQL
scripts to create the tables in my database, including foreign key
constraints and many-to-many relations. The problem now is that in
order to use these tables, I will need a forms-based application
builder. I have yet to learn Java and Python and the like.

Informix has (or had?) isql to help folks compose a simple forms-based
app to access and update the database. We used 4GL for more complex
forms-based apps. Is there a similar (in spirit) application builder
built-in to PostgreSQL to accomplish the same? The most sophisticated
feature I need for now (I think) would be the ability to open a
drop-down menu whose data is selected from another table.

Any suggestions? OK, any friendly, useful suggestions? ;-)

Thanks much.
-- Rasputin

[Thomas Kellerer]

Rasputin Paskudniak, 25.08.2009 13:51:

> Informix has (or had?) isql to help folks compose a simple forms-based
> app to access and update the database. We used 4GL for more complex
> forms-based apps. Is there a similar (in spirit) application builder
> built-in to PostgreSQL to accomplish the same? The most sophisticated
> feature I need for now (I think) would be the ability to open a
> drop-down menu whose data is selected from another table.
>
> Any suggestions? OK, any friendly, useful suggestions? ;-)

I have no experience with it, but there is a development environment called once:radix which seems to promise to do exactly what you need. It's Postgres based and OpenSource:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/onceradix/
http://www.oncetechnologies.com/newonceradix/software_onceradix.html

Thomas

[Rasputin Paskudniak]

SIGHHhhh....
Tom, that was one promising idea. I downloaded onceradix and unzipped
(actually, unpacked) it. Looking at the installation web page, it
requires java and something called tomcat. Well, tomcat was installable
from Synaptec Package Manager. I chose tomcat6 over tomcat5.5. But the
installation has some rules about where things should be installed,
locations that Ubuntu does not comply with. The alternative is to edit
a sm�rg�sbord of configuration files.

I believe this is what is known is a "can of worms". I may revisit this
product in the future; it seems like the perfect developer environment,
once past the installation hurdles. And since I am just a single user,
not a business, I probably can't afford the installation help they are
obviously trying to sell.

I think I'll hold out for another solution here. Who knows, maybe I
ought to put aside Perl and pick up the PHP books I have stashed away...

Thanks much for a very worthwhile try.

-- Rasputin

[Thomas Kellerer]

Rasputin Paskudniak wrote on 25.08.2009 21:20:
>> I have no experience with it, but there is a development environment
>> called once:radix which seems to promise to do exactly what you need.
>> It's Postgres based and OpenSource:
>>
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/onceradix/
>> http://www.oncetechnologies.com/newonceradix/software_onceradix.html
>>
>> Thomas
>
> SIGHHhhh....
> Tom, that was one promising idea. I downloaded onceradix and unzipped
> (actually, unpacked) it. Looking at the installation web page, it
> requires java and something called tomcat. Well, tomcat was installable
> from Synaptec Package Manager. I chose tomcat6 over tomcat5.5. But the
> installation has some rules about where things should be installed,
> locations that Ubuntu does not comply with. The alternative is to edit
> a sm�rg�sbord of configuration files.
>
> I believe this is what is known is a "can of worms".

Well it's a regular Java based web application (JavaEE). As I'm working in that environment it seems perfectly easy to install for me even with non-default paths (which I usually do as well).

Tomcat can simply be "installed" by unzipping the archive that is available from the Apache website, but if you have never used it before I can understand that it's probably quite confusing...

Regards
Thomas

[Thomas Kellerer]

Rasputin Paskudniak wrote on 25.08.2009 21:20:

> I think I'll hold out for another solution here. Who knows, maybe I
> ought to put aside Perl and pick up the PHP books I have stashed away...

There is another one which seems to be very similar to once:radix

http://www.wavemaker.com

It has installer packages for Windows and Linux, so it might be easier to install than once:radix.

I found it here:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Community_Guide_to_PostgreSQL_GUI_Tools

Regards
Thomas

[Jochen Lutz]

Rasputin Paskudniak <rpask...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Informix has (or had?) isql to help folks compose a simple forms-based
> app to access and update the database. We used 4GL for more complex
> forms-based apps. Is there a similar (in spirit) application builder
> built-in to PostgreSQL to accomplish the same? The most sophisticated
> feature I need for now (I think) would be the ability to open a
> drop-down menu whose data is selected from another table.
>
> Any suggestions? OK, any friendly, useful suggestions? ;-)

Depending on the complexity of your database, Gedafe [1] might be an
option. It has rather strict requirements in database design (unique
field names), but with that fullfilled (and, optionally, some metada-
ta in the database, it builds the frontend automatically.

[1] http://isg.ee.ethz.ch/tools/gedafe/

Jochen