I wish there were simple-as-Excel frontends for databases where a normal user could input his data like in preformated Excel table without having to deal with the database mechanics.
This is exactly what we are attempting to solve at nocodb : https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb
Which is, nocodb gives you a google-drive like collaborative spreadsheets on your existing databases (MySQL, Postgres etc)
And the original problem in article could be countered with nocodb as we keep audit of all changes done to the database.
There are several products that will let you populate databases in a table view and easily import CSV files into a database. The problem is with almost everything else.
Databases are designed to address a different set of problems. The design of database applications reflects the needs of people who need to maintain a database and make sense in that context. Unfortunately, those design decisions do not make sense in the context of people who use spreadsheets. Doubly unfortunate, a spreadsheet makes a better database than a database makes a better spreadsheet. If anything, the shortcomings of spreadsheets implementation dependent in most cases while the shortcomings of databases are due to the domain they are designed to address.
First example: creating a table is more involved than creating a new file and being presented with a blank table. First, a database is created. Then a table is created within that database. Then columns are created with each column, as a minimum, having a type. Only then can the database be populated.
Second example: doing a quick calculation is more involved than finding an empty cell and inserting a formula. The only way I can think of doing a calculation within a database involves performing a query. If the calculations are performed within a row, a new column can be created to contain the results. If it makes sense to store a result for each row, but it pulls or consolidates data from other rows, the complexity of the query is going to be interesting. If the calculation involves several rows, there is no obvious place to store the result within the table. There are several ways to deal with that, yet none of them are particularly convenient. If you need to perform a calculation on arbitrarily selected data, well, good luck with performing the query. Oh, and automatic recalculate ...
Third example: putting the data into a presentable form is less convenient with databases. It certainly isn't done in the table view since that is just a raw presentation of the data. A form is useful here, but it is a separate step and it isn't going to address all of the functionality found in spreadsheets.
What's the easiest way to generate a CRUD form?
HyperCard.
We need a ubiquitous HyperCard equivalent that talks to the Real Database(TM) of your choice on the backend -- sqlite, postgresql, mysql/mariadb, Oracle, MS-SQL, whatever -- with easy functions for "get a sequence number", "get a unique identifier cookie" and "do this block atomically".
I bet there's a few out there right now.
Author_A Book_1
Author_A Book_2
Author_A Book_3
Author_B Book_4
Author_B Book_5
Horrors surfaced when we analyzed the data: unintended duplications because ids and uniqueness checking was not a thing, shifted columns, undocumented column "formats"... In the end we parsed the whole mess into a DB.
I don't see how you could implement a frontend for a database simpler than Access. It was as easy as Excel, with relationships. But reasoning a schema is harder than stuffing all things in a 2D table, and querying a multitable is harder than filtering a few columns.
If we could provide a properly designed database which has already defined datatypes but that would be as easy to fill for a standard user as a preformated Excel table that would be great. You're right, Access has this simplicity, I just wish such tools would be available out-of-the-box for other DB engine.
For the cells with multiple values, I agree that is a terrible idea.
All this adds up to a bunch of errors when you're trying to input and manipulate data, because what you've entered is violating some rule someplace in the database.
It would be awesome if someone could build an interface that gives users the flexibility of Excel, and communicated the issues with the data they're trying to write in a really intuitive way. (e.g. syntax highlighting for data with issues, mouseovers / tooltips, dropdowns & autocompletes for foreign keys, etc)
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68034271/how-can-i-get-t...
A database that’s 7 years old.
And also free with whatever package you're already paying for :-)
We lost them.