Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 68738
Cannot open dBaseIV (.dbf) files
Last modified: 2013-08-07 15:45:17 UTC
See thread on BASE problem with database downloaded from website in users@openoffic.org mailing list. Affected file is a dBase IV file (confirmed with Office 4 Mac) and will not open with the dBase wizard when tried on the Mac OS X PPC or Intel platforms. I do not have access to other platforms to test if this affects all. James M.
Created attachment 38614 [details] Data file from Maricopa County Prosecutors' Office.
Confirmed. OOo 2.0.3 Linux: Can see large document: 9248 rows x column AD OOo m178 Linux: "General Error: General input/output error."
According to Fedora's "file" command, it's DBase 3 (not 4): $ file /tmp/DATA8000.DBF /tmp/DATA8000.DBF: DBase 3 data file (9247 records)
clu->jjmckenzie: may you add a step by step description to explain the bug (what you mean with 'dBase wizard'?) p.s. discussions in any threads are invalid in bug descriptions because of many reasons (one of them is, that not everybody can follow you or read all threads - everybody has to search for, what you mean -> cost time - in several weeks/months nobody can remember/find this thread anymore etc.) thx
@clu Will comply with your request later today. James M.
@clu: I decided to dust off my old Windows machine and try to duplicate this. It worked as it is supposed to. I am reassigning this to the Mac OS X lead as a Mac only bug. Steps to reproduce if you want to try: Put the attached file in a known directory (Mine is on the Desktop) Open OpenOffice.org m180 (or 2.0.3 it is also affected). Select File -> New -> Database When the dialog opens, select connect to existing database type and select dBASE from the list. In the next screen which will ask where the files are located, click on Browse and then select the directory where the file is at. Click on save (I want to use the file as input to the Mail Merge functionality) When the database screen opens, click in Tables. There are no entries in this area and there should be at least the DATA8000 table from the conversion from dBASE to HBSQL data format. James M.
@ericb: This appears to be a Mac OS X only issue as I can load the file into Base under WindowsXP. Can you please reassign to the Mac OS X porting team? James M.
*** Issue 68989 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Resetting to Mac OS X. Can open file in WindowsXP SP2. James M.
hi all, Just tested this on FreeBSD (PC-BSD 1.2), OOom180. It doesn't work. No tables are visible once the new ODB document linking to the dbf file has been created. More info : you can't even open the file in Calc, OOo gives a "General I/O Error" message. Re-setting to All platforms, since we can't select two different OSes or more from the list individually, and the problem is not present simply on the Mac. Alex Alex
@all : since the file can not even be opened in Calc, is this still a Base module problem, or is it more of a filter problem ? Alex
@all This does work with WindowsXP SP2. Anyone have Linux available to test? James M.
@james : I have (it is what I use for my daily work), but I won't have access to it until tomorrow. Alex
@wurzel Thanks. We can wait for your results. My thought is that dBaseIV files can be opened only on Windows systems unless this file is actually a MS Access file with a .dbf extension. Anyone still have a copy of dBase IV available somewhere to crate a file or verify this one? James M.
Opened fine on Sun Ultra-30, Solaris 8, OOo 2.0.3. I chose the default character set that OOo presented (Western Europe (DOS/OS2-850/International) and let it grind for 1min50sec (did I say the U-30 is a bit old?) and up popped the spreadsheet-form of the database. HTH (BTW: 9248 records.)
Since the attached file has an upper-case extension, is it possible that you ran into issue 68249 (case sensivity of file extensions) here?
@fs : first thing I did Frank ;-) Still, didn't work, even as all lowercase, including file extension. Tried various combinations - nada, still no import. The file opens fine with the dbf command line interface program. Alex
Well, I wondered, because I was first fooled by this :) I tried opening the file on some SuSe box, and it didn't work. After correcting the extension, it did ... So, that's not a general Linux problem with this particular file ...
@all Frank, you got it. I changed the case of the file from upper to lower and I found the file. I had one other file that is all upper case and the file was not recognized. Looks like we have fix for now and the issue is now a duplicate. Closing. James M. *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 68249 ***
=> close duplicate
Created attachment 73632