iDatabase 2.3 review: A no-frills database for the Mac
Apimac’s iDatabase 2.3 is a basic flatfile database application that offers 22 templates and 14 different field data options for handling a variety of data types. While it doesn’t go deep in terms of features, iDatabase does offer enough in the way of basics that it may fill your low-end database needs.
iDatabase is an app that, like the discontinued Bento, uses a single window for creating, editing, and managing your databases. At the top of the window are three tabs titled Open, Use, and Define. The Open tab is used to create new databases, Use opens the database you’ve selected in the Open tab for editing, and Define is used to update, add, or remove database fields.
iDatabase offers a simple drag-and-drop interface for adding fields to forms, but has limited form customization options.
When creating a new database, iDatabase offers the option of starting from a pre-defined template or from scratch using a blank file. Among the included templates are forms for book and CD collections, class lists, computer inventories, and exercise logs. All of the the templates provide a good foundation for creating databases that suit your specific needs, but as they are they lack necessary fields and need further configuration to be truly useful. For example, if you use the built-in movie database you’ll notice that, among other things, it is missing pick lists for movie genre and lacks a release date field. These are easy enough to add to the template and once you’ve made these changes you can use your updated database as the basis for a new template. But, out of the box, the templates that ship with the app are not complete enough to be useful.
iDatabase offers 14 field types for handling the different types of data you may want to enter. Small Text fields offer a single line of text you can use to enter something like a name, address, city, or state. Large Text fields handle an unlimited amount of text, which you can use for notes or other multi-line text. Calculation Fields take the data entered into two Number fields and perform a basic calculation using the data in those fields. Password Fields offer a way to hide and secure the data you enter and, if you secure all your databases with a password, can require the entry of that password before someone is allowed to view or copy the information stored in the field. While all the fields handled the data they were designed to, I found the calculation field to be limited, only offering options for basic math. Also, iDatabase’s media field only allows for image files, not video or audio files—a limitation that makes the field less useful than it should be.
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