Hello everyone,
I am currently teaching a class to future physicians to build apps that manage data using Filemaker. But next year I would like to use Xojo. However I would like to avoid teaching SQL language to interact with data, I am wondering if exists some ORM o ODM to let me simplify the CRUD operations.
I have heard about ARgen (now open source) based on active records but I cannot find any documentation and not sure if it’s still current.
Any advice would be appreciated
thanks
basically you have a data class with properties and a CRUD interface.
a table is more or less a array/list with objects of your data class.
for teaching you could prepare this sql functionality for SQLite and the participant just use the class interface methods.
Personally, I find the lack of SQL in Filemaker a big disadvantage but a plus with XOJO.
A few years ago I was creating an app for a client in Filemaker but ran into a problem having multiple portals on a layout that needed to filter data based on date criteria that the client selected. I switched to Realbasic using list boxes and SQL to populate them. It worked out great.
SQL is not that difficult to learn, There are many books on learning the basics as well as some tutorials on YouTube which might help to develop training.
I’m currently trying to write a Filemaker to XOJO migration guide ebook for xDev mag. Sometimes I get bogged down with a Filemaker client so progress is slow.
Good Luck.
The native “Easy Database Connectivity” has being in the roadmap for years, and could be some more years to see the light.
The integration and usage of any ORM or ODM code into proyects could be more difficult to learn than SQL
many sql servers are not in a full compatibly language.
it is not just learn sql.
there are also so much varying management tools.
each database system have it own features or pros and cons.
i mean if you would teach ms sql server you can not use your knowledge with postgres system etc.
better start with a object database 
try object serialization into json or xml.
thank you for all the opinions and point of you.
I agree with you regarding the fact the using SQL syntax probably It will be better, as that knowledge can be transferred to other DBMS systems in the future.
However my target students and the course length doesn’t allow me to introduce a lot of material. Currently I am teaching how to create a simple management system for their future patients in a hypothetical clinic, where several physicians works. And with FileMaker even if’s easy to create, at then end of the course all works is lost as students couldn’t buy the very expensive licenses (we use the 45 days trial during the course).
That’s why I would like to switch to Xojo (students have a free license and later the cost of desktop license is much cheaper) introducing just the basics to build a similar system.
An object database could be a great idea, even if I would like to use a proper document oriented (NoSQL database) over storing files on filesystem. So I will start research for a NoSQL db supported by Xojo.
Yes, https://github.com/undtec/ActiveRecord is the ORM, and GitHub - undtec/argen: Xojo ActiveRecord Generator will generate the code/classes for it.
Unfortunately I can’t find any documentation in the github repo. Is the documentation published somewhere else? or any getting started blog article?
The documentation for how to use ARGen is available within the repository argen/Documentation at main · undtec/argen · GitHub
I don’t know if there’s documentation for how to use ActiveRecord anywhere. The example code that ARGen pushes out should be very illuminating though.