I need to build a database front-end (non-web) application ... quickly
 

I need to build an application (not a web-site) that will be the front-end to a MySQL database and it should contain the usual suspects: forms and reports.

Do not ... :mad: ... talk to me about OpenOffice/LibreOffice Base or Access2Base!

I am envisioning a Java application which uses XML to describe the layout of pages and screens.

If you have a recommendation based on personal experience, I am anxious to hear from you. I am, of course, as thoroughly-experienced in programming as anyone could be, but I don't have (further) time to waste.

Since no one else replied and I'm not really a programmer I didn't before now.

Yesterday I searched for open source form builders for MySQL and found this one:
https://forums.mysql.com/read.php?52,631550,631550

That seems like it might be a good place to start.

since you describe quick-and-dirty, maybe calling the mysql queries via bash and presenting the results via zenity forms.

No, I don't mean that "dirty," nor "dirty" at all. Bash is quite out of the question. (I don't do any real-programming in Bash ... and wouldn't recommend that anyone else do so, either.)

What I need are ... switchboards, forms, and reports. In the form of a stand-alone application not a website. Yesterday. :)

OpenOffice and its brethren were an utter and complete failure / waste-of-time, even with "Access2Base." I don't have the option to use Microsoft Access,® although if Microsoft ever chose to sell the thing for the OS/X or Linux environments I would have plunked down my money instantly to buy a license.

I'm reluctant to pay $135 for forms, then another $135 for charts, and then yet another $135 for reports, when I could buy FileMaker Pro for the Macintosh for less money.

And now, looking closer at their product description on their main page, I see that they describe it as a tool for producing PHP AJAX forms ... which disqualifies it for my stated purposes. Strange as it may seem these days, I specifically do not want to build an internal web site, nor have one built for me.

I know you stated "no web"...but I'd suggest you look at Xataface. You can deploy it VERY quickly, customize it pretty easily, and even have different levels of security per user/group. And its free. You can deploy it in less than an hour, and be running. Granted, it IS a web front-end, but it's pretty robust.

Just throwing out a solution that is a quick implementation for a MySQL front-end. That's the best suggestion I have at the moment, and again, sorry for mentioning a web-based one when you stated otherwise.

not sure if this would help, but you COULD look into libreoffice (or openoffice) base, it can connect to a mysql database and create forms without programming.

Wild-guess: GNUe? Jasper? LQ;)

I was gonna reply with iReports, but it's anything but "fast" ;(

No ... Web ... Sites.

.NET if you're targeting Windows. WPF for the GUI, Linq to Entities for the DB access.

Qt with Python bindings if you're targeting Linux.

I find use of a browser based UI with PHP on an Apache local vhost a useful rapid development platform for my database projects, even when the final application may be written in another language. It allows separation of concerns - data model and query requirements from the UI requirements. But your "not a web-site" requirement would apparently rule out any browser based UI configuration. Is that a fair statement?

That leaves stand-alone applications with a database interface (Open/LibreOffice type, which you have also ruled out), or some unknown to me commercial reporting application (Crystal Reports rings a bell), or to write your own.

In the write-your-own category, I would look for a way to leverage PHP simply because it provides really good instant database APIs and a complete language with few external dependencies - you can get instantly down to writing your application. All that is missing are the GUI form elements, but you may be able to build the UI with something like wxPhp or PHP-Gtk. I have not actually used either, but if you already know PHP they might quickly solve the UI problem within an already familiar language and let you get down to business. If you are a Python fan, wxPython might also provide an option.

based on the op's constraints, i think all off-the-shelf remedies that i know of are ruled out. so the only thing i know thats left is boiling a pot of coffee, rolling up your sleeves and finger walking across the keyboard trying to learn another language (or another graphics api to that language) and also learn the methods/protocols/function calls to mysql select/delete/insert/update/grant/... various db entities to roll their own database program. since they needed this ...yesterday, that kinda' rules that out as an option as well.

I know Java – I know how to do this "by hand" – but I don't want to go to the effort for what I know to be a very routine requirement. Yes, the target environment is Unix/Linux, not Windows. (If it were Windows, I would have used Microsoft Access long before now. And, if Microsoft included it in the MS-Office package which they sell for OS/X – which I damn well know to be a cross-platform code base – I would have used it as well. But Microsoft Corporation continues to leave money on the table.

Well, you ruled out Libreoffice Base, which can do a lot of what Access can do, shot down doing it yourself, and using a pre-built web framework (xataface). Not sure where else to go. I can tell you from personal experience that xataface can be deployed in less than an hour, for your 'need-it-yesterday' needs.

I understand you don't want a web-based solution; but you haven't said why this is an issue. Would seem to me to be a better fit, since the client (Windows/Mac/Linux) wouldn't matter at all. A Linux-only solution is more limiting, but ok. You mentioned Java, so this may fit the bill:
http://squirrel-sql.sourceforge.net/index.php

And if you want Linux-centric, QT is a rapid development tool, with hooks into MySQL:
http://www.folding-hyperspace.com/re...-database.html

Seems like any suggestions we make get you a bit upset.