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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T10:49:24+00:00

I’m doing a small relational database, to be used by one person on a

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I’m doing a small relational database, to be used by one person on a single computer. I chose OpenOffice.org’s Base (version 3.1.1) because it’s free and should be more than enough for this case. The simplified version of my problem is:

I have an Articles table, with columns: ID, Title, Content, etc….
I have a Keywords table with columns: ID, Keyword.
I have a Relations table with columns: ID, ArticleID, KeywordID

Just a basic, classic, example of a many-to-many relation.

Then I created a form (for the user using the database) using the ‘Design view’ in Base and linked to the Articles table, which works fine, and allows me to view, edit and created rows in the Articles table.

My problem is how to include the relation to Keywords in that same form. That is, I want the user to be able to view and choose which keyword(s) belongs to the article currently being viewed in the form.

The number of keywords is finite (probably 5-15) if that matters. A preferred setup would be a list of keywords (dynamically linked to the Keywords table of course) in the previously mentioned form I’ve already created with a check box in front of each keywords

I’ve tried Google’ing all possible keywords and I’ve come up with nothing applicable to my case. I belive the answer is somehow using SubForms, or maybe some SQL syntax I’m not familiar with. Any help appreciated.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I did some more searching and finally found a solution.

    A thread explaining this very issues (among other issues), creating form for a database containing many-to-many relation in Base using a middle table, can be found at:

    http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16159#p16159

    A sample database with a functional form by one of the above thread’s posters (DrewJensen) can be found and downloaded at page 2 of the above posted thread. (named movies_2.odb)

    A brief description of the solution using my example tables and columns from orginial post:
    The trick lies in creating a sub-form linked to the Relations table within the form I had created. That sub-form should contain a Table Control. Then a column should be created in that Table Control. The column should be asigned to the KeywordID column. The “List content” field for that column should then contain: SELECT “Keyword”, “ID” FROM “Relations”.
    (just check out the above link if my instructions are cryptic)

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