[Tutorial Proposal] Interested in a Tutorial on Using MS Access/OO Base to Maintain Your Mod?

[erasmus777]

If there's sufficient interest, I'd be willing to write a tutorial on using MS Access to keep a database of your mod stats. I could do an OpenOffice Base version as well. The big advantage to using a database over spreadsheets is evident when the patches roll out. Once you've got your database setup, you can update all your units to the new stats in a couple minutes. Dbs also integrate nicely with any spreadsheets you're using and you can copy/paste from DBEditor. If you have a large mod, all of these features makes life much, much easier. If you'd like me to write a tutorial, please post here or PM me.

Note: For those of you unfamiliar with OpenOffice, it's a high-quality, free alternative to Microsoft Office. OO Base equates to MS Access. So don't let the lack of DB software get in the way if this could be useful--just download OO.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[The Vicar]

I would be interested, yes.

[harshman_chris]

Actually, I do something like this, just not with Access. It does help with maintaining, the only downside is that if someone does not have access they cannot open the files. Only a downside if they are on the team and need to change something.

[LtChambers]

DBEditor is a combination of the relational concepts from Access and the tables-in-pack-files concept from ETW. What features of Access do you use that aren't in DBE? If they are simple enough, they'd make good features.

[harshman_chris]

DBEditor is a combination of the relational concepts from Access and the tables-in-pack-files concept from ETW. What features of Access do you use that aren't in DBE? If they are simple enough, they'd make good features.

Queries, and I don't really expect them to be added.

[husserlTW]

Good work erasmus for organizing mod tables. This is gonna make a very productive triangle: your tool, TSV, PFM and vice versa.

[erasmus777]

DBEditor is a combination of the relational concepts from Access and the tables-in-pack-files concept from ETW. What features of Access do you use that aren't in DBE? If they are simple enough, they'd make good features.

Chris more or less sums it up: queries. My approach is based on the fact that modded units are just tweaks of vanilla units. Once you've established an equivalent vanilla unit in the database, you can concatenate tables, so that when the vanilla values change, your units change.

[LtChambers]

You want to keep a modded unit's columns equal to the vanilla unit except where you have modded it? The Excel approach where you set a cell equal to another cell (by row/column) seems sufficient flexible in this context. Presumably once you've set up those special relationships you would never import data again, it would always be export?

[harshman_chris]

You want to keep a modded unit's columns equal to the vanilla unit except where you have modded it? The Excel approach where you set a cell equal to another cell (by row/column) seems sufficient flexible in this context. Presumably once you've set up those special relationships you would never import data again, it would always be export?

For him yes, but for me I have queries that when I add a new unit record in the unit table it will automatically add all the references about it based on certain properties in the table.

For simple query stuff, yes excel can work fine, but I still use DB Editor for small on demand changes and upgrading. 90% of changes are with the DBEditor, the rest are the big add new units, change a record in a table by a factor %,

[Hazbones]

I have completed my Access DB for NTW (see my sig link). Maybe later on when I have perfected it for NTW I will scale it back to an ETW version.

[Geronimo2006]

Yes if it avoids the kind of bugs DB Editor has.

[♔atthias♔]

tagged this as a resource