Re: [gnome-db]GUADEC decisions

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On 11 Apr 2001 12:23:19 +0200, Holger Thon wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, Apr 09, 2001 at 09:34:15PM +0200, Rodrigo Moya wrote:
> > X-Flags: 0000
> > From: Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>
> > To: GDA <gnome-db-list gnome org>
> > Subject: [gnome-db]GUADEC decisions
> > 
> > Hi all!
> > 
> > * user interface: currently, it is a crap, very confusing, and not very
> > user-friendly. Things to do are to use wizards for configuration stuff,
> > add keybindings, and rework some of the widgets. I would be very
> > grateful to people suggesting UI stuff, even what would be great is to
> > provide me with a .glade file, which is very easy to do. But well, just
> > suggestions would also be welcomed :-)
> 
> I think the following things would be great
> - Binding keys to user-definable default xml/sql queries

yes, great idea. As soon as I realize how to use keybindings with GTK,
I'll start adding this, and asking in the list about key sequences for
each binding.

> - gda-source im-/export (using xml config files or others, optinonally w/wo
>   password)

yes, this is what the GdaXmlDatabase object is for. It's unfinished but
the basic framework is there, so I think we can continue working on it.

> - Predefinable reports using the report engine
> 

yes, that are the templates. Or do you mean a set of templates
distributed as part of gnome-db?

> Perhaps, also extensions like a batching module would be great, but its
> beyond the basic which have to be implemented first, of course. ;-)

I've started a batch module for the database component, although I'm not
happy yet with the UI, so I don't want to write more code until the UI
is decided. That's why I'd like really much to have somebody sending a
.glade file for that (and for other things) :-)

> What i think of is a kind of scripting possibility for the frontend, which
> allows automated issuing queries to the servers, generating reports, calling
> external gnome/gnome-db modules through CORBA, etc. The "scripts" could be
> stored in xml-files and possibly even distributed through CORBA-components.
> This would make gnome-db a powerful tool. 
> 

yes, definitely a very good idea. I've thought myself some time ago
about this, and I had a look at both perl and python integration
possibilities. For both languages, integrating an interpreter in the FE
is quite easy. The same happens, if I'm not wrong, with guile.

So, what language(s) should we be using for scripting stuff?

> > * report engine: I've been talking with some XML guys (Joaquin, Ismael),
> > and I've finally understood what XSLT is, and I now know it is the way
> > to go. So, the report engine would only generate XSLT, and, as Joaquin
> > suggested, we could have a "converter" to be compatible with
> > gnome-print, so that the XSLT returned by the engine can be easily
> > accessed and used by clients.
> > Thus, the clients would be the responsible for generating output in
> > other formats (PDF, PS, etc).
> > 
> > so, how does it sound?
> 
> I think at least ps and xml output should be implemented, so
> the gnome-db frontend can print results of queries using the 
> report-engine. Or is this intented for a separate report-engine?
> 

I think the basic printing stuff (sending a report to the printer)
should be in libgda, since we want also non-UI clients to be able to
print. This is not a problem, since our printing architecture
(gnome-print) is been separated into non-UI and UI parts.

gnome-db itself should provide UI frontends for the printing stuff
(preview, setup, etc)

> I don't know XSLT, so i don't know how easy conversion would be, though. ;-)
> 

the same for me, I should start reading right now about it :-)

cheers
-- 
Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org> <rodrigo ximian com>
http://www.gnome-db.org/