So - now let's look at Base. OpenOffie.org Base is fundamentally and
architecturally different from MS Access in regards to the database
engine used. MS Access pre 2007 always has the MS Jet database engine
involved, even if you are 'linking through' to a SQL Server database.
That is the old *.mdb file architcture. In the latest versions of MS
Access using the *.accdb file type the engine is no longer MS Jet but
still it is a single engine that so long as a accdb file is used is
being utilized.
Base on the other hand is, the ODB file in other words, to directly
employ a connection to a database of your choice. As a convenience
almost one of these database engines is the HSQLdb RDBMS distributed
with OpenOffice.org and capable of storing its tables embedded in the
ODB file. But fundamentally Base is treating this as just another option
for a database engine - so you could just as easily be using the HSQLdb
database engine running in disk file mode, with the data stored in
separate files in a directory, or running as a network accessible shared
'server'. You can also use it to connect to any JDBC or ODBC or ADO
capable database engine.
When you use Base then to 'connect' to one of these network accessible
database engines ( which could be on your localhost actually ) the ODB
file is in reality filling the same role as the MDE file is in the MS
Access deployment model. In other words it allows you to store the
Forms, Queries, Reports and beginning with OpenOffice.or 3.0 script
libraries directly within the file. With the current OpenOffice.org
version ( and 3.0 still if you like ) you would store your scripts in
separate, sharable library files.
In this multi user deployment of Base then you would want to place a
copy of this ODB file on each PC that would be using the database
application. Again this is analogous to the recommended deployment
scheme for MS Access and again this also offers the ability then for
each user to create their own local copies of queries and reports along
with the supplied pre-built forms, queries and reports.
There is a one difference however - and it is that when that *.mdb or
*.accb file on the file share is used by the different *.mde files there
is an intermediary database engine being used ( MS Jet for instance )
but when you deploy ODB files on multiple machines connecting to a
networked database server the connection is direct - no middle step for
the data to take.