First of all, I'm sorry for a long explanation.
I need to develop a desktop app that will enable users to enter patients lab results for tracking diabetes treatment.
I usually code in php/mysql, but I'm not allowed to use it (my first choice was to use LAMP / XAMPP, but was told not to do so). I was told to use MS Access, as the easiest tool, but since I've never used it before, it gave me a lot of headache. Its wizards are great, but I needed to use data from several tables in my forms, and was simply unable to efficiently do so.
So, here is my question: What sort of db can I use with Java to create such an Application? As I said, I'm most comfortable with PHP/MYSQL combination, but during my studies I also used Java quite a lot. If I could find some sort of 'template' for such an application, I could probably create this easily.
I found this http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/java/gui-db.html using google. How complicated is this?
I need to create this ASAP, since I need to get this App to a team of medical staff, since I need this data to use as datasets for my MSc thesis (related to case based reasoning). I'm really behind schedule here :). And someone will probably break my neck if I don't develop it in a few days and start working on a theoretical part of my thesis.
Thank you in advance.
Okay, this one is near and dear having just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic.
What's not completely clear from your description is if you are keeping a separate database for each instance of the app, or are you sharing the data in one big remote database?
And how much data are you expecting?
If it's just for each instance, then any old database will work; the lightest weight one is actually probably sqlite3, but since you're in a hurry and used to LAMP, mysql will certainly work.
For remote data, go with mysql.
Either way around, there are plenty of ways to connect to the database, most all of them based on JDBC. It seems like you basiucally need two tables: patient, and labs. Patient will be something like <name,dob,ssan,address>, and labs something like <ssan, labtype, value, units>. SSAN would be the key and a record would be something like
123-45-6789|A1C| 6.0|pct glucolated
In that case, I'd just make the tables, have two forms with the data, and don't try for anything too fancy.
Update
Okay, from your comments, yes, either use Derby or just use text files. Do you need any particularly complicated queries? In the Old Days we would just have made something like a CSV file and read it into memory.
Oh, and look into Java Web Start for distributing the app.
You can use Java to connect to a database via JDBC. Check out this tutorial. http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jdbc/index.html. You can use mySQL as your database. You can also use embedded databases such as derby which don't require an external database application.
Here are 2 tutoriala how to build CRUD application on top of the NetBeans Platform (a Swing-based RCP):
http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-maven-crud.html
http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-crud.html
Related
I'm starting a team of 2 to develop a chat server (both of us are college students), we made some research and found that netty is the most suitable for this kind of concurrent based app.
we never had any experience in developing server side application in java, this is our first time to tackle this kind of project and I just need the right direction for us to build this server the right way.
Our goal is to build something like, whatsapp, kik messenger, Line or weChat.
The real question is, how to make our netty app scalable? do we need to use redis for data persistent? do we need to use mysql for saving relationship or nosql database like mongodb?
Hope someone could guide us.
You could have a look at the documentation if you don't have done yet:
SecureChat example
Netty User Guide
The scalability is a complex answear. One could think of making your application multi-servers able (horizontal scalability), but then it really depend on how your information/context/session are available/updated...
You could think of course to use some Redis for data persistency.
On database usage, it mainly depends on how your data are and if you need relationship using SQL language or if your application can do it for you (to be clear, do you want the database making for you the join parts in your SQL command, or do you want to use the application doing that?). Also it depends on the amount of data (1 millions, 1 billions, ?) and the amount of connections too.
So all is your choice...
Then you can come back with some issues you've got.
I want to make a form or applet that will serve as GUI to a "database". The basic outline of it will be just a menu where people can put in a date and then all of the items related to that date will show up. I also want to have an insert option where people can add information for a date.
However, I was thinking if this could be possible with creating a database. I want to have this be pretty portable and give it to anyone so don't want to have to deal with connecting to database and installing DB server and all that.
Is it possible to keep all the data within the program and the filesize of the program just grows dynamically as more information is put in?
There are several "stand alone" or "single user" database engines around.
H2
HSQLDB
As I understand it, Apache Derby and even Java DB can be configured for "single user" operation, but you would need to verify this.
If you don't care about having a Java based database, you could also look at SQLLite
Applets have very restrictive security constraints, generally meaning that they can't read or write files to a local disk. You can run a in memory database, but once the applet/database is closed, the data is lost
There is a very lightweight file DBMS called Derby, created by Apache. Take a look at it here: http://db.apache.org/derby/
It's free and simple to use. It is not a very powerful solution, but it does sound like something you need.
Sorry for this trivial question, but I am new to programming and I wanted to create a Java app that can be distributed to other computers without having to install database on that computer.
The app is similar to an address book app where you store details about a person. Is there a way to create something like that using netbeans which does not require a database or is there any other way to go about it..
I have searched for answers, but I guess I am not searching for the right keywords which I'd appreciate if someone could enlighten me with.
PS: I know how to create an app like that in netbeans which is connected to a database (Mysql or Postgresql) but they cannot be moved from one computer to other? Or can it be? I don't know.
Thanks you in advance..
When I want to make a Java program relying on a database and which is lightweight and which doesn't appear to have any other dependencies than a JVM, I use Apache Derby (JavaDB).
It is a pure Java database engine which you can embed in your Java application. Very small footprint. I usually package the program with a SQL file for creating the database structure and another one for populating it. Worth taking a look IMO.
EDIT: Just saving you the search... If you try DerbyDB, there is a little something you want to know (in case you also have that syndrome of not reading manuals)... When you close Derby, it throws exceptions if it went wrong AND if it went well. You'll receive exceptions with exception.getSQLState().equals("08006") and "XJ015". These are for successful shutdown; don't mind them. On connection to Derby, you'll get exception.getErrorCode() == 40000 if the database was not yet created; just create it. (These exceptions are all SQLException instances.)
If your application has a database back-end, then you will require database software on either the computer where the application is running, or on a remote server.
If you want the application and database to be portable, you can use something like SQLite (an embedded SQL database engine) or even flat files.
You do not have to move the database to any computer, what you can do is write some SQL scripts to generate the tables(and populate, if necessary) needed for application, and it can work on any computer.
I've tried searching for similar questions here and I don't think I've found anything that matches what I'm looking for. I would like to know where to start in developing a (most likely) database-driven Java application that could keep track of customers, invoices, and quotes for my dad's auto shop. There will be a couple computers in the shop that will need access to it.
I was thinking of having a server in there to handle the database and let whatever machines need to access it use a client app.
Almost all of my experience is in a LAMP environment but I have been trying to learn as much as I can about Java and feel pretty comfortable playing with it in Netbeans or Eclipse.
I'm not asking anyone to tell me how to make it or anything. I would just like to know where to start learning. Is MySQL a good match with Java or should I use something else? I've been wanting to learn Java and I figured this would be a good project to learn on but everything I read seems to give only bits and pieces of what I want to know.
Java and MySQL work well together. Here are some things I would recommend to get started:
JDBC (Java Database Connector) - use it to connect to MySQL
Swing programming - used to create the GUI front end that users will interact with. While NetBeans has a drag and drop GUI builder interface, actually understanding what's going on under the hood is very important.
GlazedLists is a great project for showing dynamic content in table format, such that you can easily filter, sort, etc. Given you will probably have table views of customers, etc., I would look into this
If I were you I would definitely set the bar a little bit lower and try some easier projects to start with (ones that do not require database connectivity, for instance). Once you're a little more advanced with Java, then I'd start work integrating a MySQL table with your app.
I think that most of the answers to this question will prove useful as a starting point
You'll never find a complete subject list to learn java or any other tecnology, I suggest that you should start by writing down the requirements for the project and start "trying/failing" at what you want to do. Bits and Pieces are a very good way to learn.
You could try building different test applications, to get the feel of java, and slowly start using all parts needed to build your application. Common concepts used in small database-driven Java applications are:
JDBC, a java database connector
A client/server architecture (needed if multiple clients need to keep their data synchronized)
Synchronization
A swing GUI
A learning path that worked for me was:
Build a command-line driven java application
Build a test application with a graphical user interface (GUI).
Build a test application with a client/server architecture, but with only one client
Build a test application with a client/server architecture, connect multiple clients and keep them synchronized.
Build a java application with a JDBC database connector, set up a MySQL server and connect the server in your client/server architecture to it.
You can search for each of the concepts on the internet. It should be easy to find tutorials that will teach you how to use them.
MySQL should work well with Java.
In any case, if you use JDBC (a generic API to access SQL databases, part of the standard Java library), you should be quite independent of what underlying database you are using (apart from vendor-specific SQL extensions).
I'm working on a small (java) project where a website needs to maintain a (preferably comma-separated) list of registered e-mail addresses, nothing else, and be able to check if an address is in the list. I have no control over the hosting or the server's lack of database support.
Prevayler seemed a good solution, but the website is a ghost town, with example code missing from just about everywhere it's supposed to be, so I'm a little wary.
What other options are recommended for such a task?
Use an embedded database like HSQLDB, H2 or Derby/JavaDB. They need no installation and can use simple files as their storage mechanism.
Yeah, prevayler and its historical concurrent, space4j, are really good candidates for such a simple case. They're far simpler than DB, provides however some useful concepts and are way fast (since in fact FS is only a backup of the in-memory datastore.
You may want to consider Berkeley DB.