Recent changes to bugs

#66 Windows Compatibility

.mau. — Wed, 07 May 2025 15:10:19 -0000

I would also like to have a version of PortaBase which can be writable again on Windows. Some years ago I bought the Android version, so I can still add and modify the database, but it is cumbersome. (I did not check whether WSL works, however)

#66 Windows Compatibility

Jeremy Bowman — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:06:13 -0000

Hello! I have been slowly chipping away at getting a new PortaBase release out, and made pretty good progress a few months ago when I got GitHub Actions to build unsigned installers for all the currently supported platforms (although I still need to fix a minor bug that prevented me from downloading the Windows one). You can see the changes since 2.1 at https://github.com/jmbowman/portabase/blob/master/CHANGES ; I'm cautiously optimistic that the upgrade to Qt 5 and other minor bugfixes may address the problem you've hit.

Between a new job and family obligations spare time is in rather short supply at the moment. but I'll see if I can get you at least an updated unsigned Windows installer in the next few days. A signed one that doesn't require admin privileges will take a little longer, since I still need to renew my code signing certificates.

I'm still using PortaBase myself on a daily basis for all kinds of things (primarily on Android, Linux, and sometimes macOS). You'd think that in 22 years someone would have come up with a clear improvement on this little app maintained intermittently in one person's spare time, but I haven't found anything else with the same combination of features plus usability. I really wish I'd been able to spare more time over the years to keep it in better shape (at least tracking Qt upgrades and code signing requirements more promptly) so more people could benefit from it. It just hit a point where there was so much work involved in making a new release that I could almost never get it all done; I'm trying to fix that now through better automation, but that also takes time.

Windows Compatibility

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Dec 2024 18:18:20 -0000

Greetings from the southern shores of Lake Superior. My name is Doug Hollowell.
By my reckoning I have been using PortaBase since 2011. Previously I was using an MS DOS database distributed by Ashton Tate known as Rapidfile. It was very powerful and I was pleased with the programs capabilities but after migrating to the Windows operating system it became a Herculean effort to continue using Rapidfile.

That's when I discovered PortaBase 2.0 and it was a perfect match for my many small database files. I can't thankyou enough for developing PortaBase. During 2012 I upgraded to version 2.1 and have created many useful apps since them.

Sorry for the venting and windy preamble.
For reasons of security in 2023 I purchase a Windows 11 laptop computer. In January of 2024 I initiated the operating system and installed PortaBase 2.1. It worked just as well as it always has on my windows 7 computer. Until mid November of 2024!

At that time I could still open and view a PortaBase database file, but when adding a row or editing an existing record and then clicking the dialog OK button, PortaBase just closes without displaying the main screen and the record / edit is not saved. None of the files attributes have been changed to read only. I've tinkered around for quite awhile and even uninstalled and reinstalled PortaBase and the problem still exists. BTW windows 11 demanded elevated administrative authority to reinstall PortaBase 2.1.

I'm well into my 80's and my cogitating abilities have declined in the last 20 years, So I've decided to reach out to the only PortaBase help source that seems to be available and hoping you might have time to offer a few suggestions for resolving the issue.
If time or any other constraints prevent your assistance or the issue is without remedy that's OK. I'm suspicious that the problem has been caused by Windows Update and I have windows 7 to fall back to. Thanks for reading, Sorry I'm so windy and a big thankyou for PortaBase!
Doug Hollowell

#65 Crashes on macos

Jeremy Bowman — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 13:21:39 -0000

Quick note, that was me posting...I forgot to log in first.

#65 Crashes on macos

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 13:20:41 -0000

A couple of years ago I did most of the work to make a new PortaBase release (including building with a newer version of Qt that fixes some macOS issues), but got overwhelmed by other life demands before I could finish it. This issue finally prompted me to make an automated build process for release packages, which is still in progress at https://github.com/jmbowman/portabase/pull/59 . At the bottom of https://github.com/jmbowman/portabase/actions/runs/9912999300?pr=59 there's a "macos-12-installer" link which should get you a working macOS build of PortaBase, although I haven't had time to test it yet. Also, it isn't digitally signed for release yet, so you'll need to unzip it and then Control-click to open via the "Open" context menu option to have the option of bypassing Gatekeeper.

Once I get all the builds succeeding, I'll try to do a quick sanity check to make sure they're working and then create a new release. And the next order of business after that should really be to finally start creating an automated test suite...

Crashes on macos

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 08:26:37 -0000

Hi Jeremy,
first off, I'd like to say thank you for this great application. I've used it for many years with a personal project that I ran up to 2019. I'm trying to access that file, but the application keeps crashing. Initially I thought development had ceased here, but I was super stoked to read you were planning a new release on ticket #64.

I can open Portabase and even open my .pob file in to the last used view. Any further click however crashes the application on macos Big Sur.

This is the terminal output I get:
PortaBase[2193:76155] *** WARNING: Method userSpaceScaleFactor in class NSView is deprecated on 10.7 and later. It should not be used in new applications. Use convertRectToBacking: instead.
2024-07-06 08:50:43.416 PortaBase[2193:76155] It's not legal to call -layoutSubtreeIfNeeded on a view which is already being laid out. If you are implementing the view's -layout method, you can call -[super layout] instead. Break on void _NSDetectedLayoutRecursion(void) to debug. This will be logged only once. This may break in the future.
PortaBase(2193,0x10fedce00) malloc: *** error for object 0x107170200: pointer being freed was not allocated
PortaBase(2193,0x10fedce00) malloc: *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
zsh: abort /Applications/PortaBase.app/Contents/MacOS/PortaBase

Please let me know if you need any additional info.

#64 Crashs when clicking on the right empty column

Jeremy Bowman — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 04:30:09 -0000

Good catch, it looks like I missed checking that a click on the header row actually maps to a valid column; clicking in the empty space after the last column still triggers the pressed and clicked events, but with an invalid column index. That should be a fairly straightforward fix, I'll try to use it as an excuse to finally make a new release sometime by the end of the year. (It's unfortunately a nontrivial process as I need to renew expired code signing certificates, etc.)

Crashs when clicking on the right empty column

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 00:11:57 -0000

Hello from France,
been using this very helpful software for a year, but just discovered this weird bug.
Some of my files has an extra blank column on the right, when I click on it the software instantly crash (shows a window saying "Portabase has stopped working").
System used Windows 7 x64.
Hope this could be fixed.
Best regards

#63 Font Size on MacOS

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 02:57:47 -0000

This feature is available everywhere except macOS and Android, because those platforms didn't respond well to attempting to change the font via the standard Qt framework mechanism. I haven't tried it again recently, though; probably worth trying again with the Qt 5 upgrade in place (and I still need to do the Qt 6 upgrade). Due to family obligations I have very little time to work on PortaBase these days (despise using it daily for all kinds of things), but I'll see when I can try this and get a release out.

Font Size on MacOS

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 14:55:24 -0000

Any way to create a MacOS version with a bigger font. Not necessarily variable - just bigger? Thanks