On 18 May 2001 05:29:17 -0300, Cleber Rodrigues Rosa Junior wrote: > (Beware! Lenghty and boring e-mail! You've been warned!) > > Hi guys, > > Noting the lack of an easy to use "New Database" interface, and > following Rodrigo's "New Datasource Druid", I was planning a similar > druid intended to the creation of databases by average users. > > But then I noticed that Rodrigo is also doing something similar > thing (frontend/gnomedb-fe-wizard.c) in a different fashion. > yes, in fact, I've just realized that I forgot to commit the latest changes I did. They're now on CVS, so please take a look. > I started implementing it as a Gtk widget (once more, following > the new datasource druid model), and confess that I questioned > its usefulness inside libgnomedb but still feel that the library is > the best place. So, I'd just like to hear from others what they think > about this. > > I'm also sending the GnomeDbDesignerDbDruid widget code so that > you guys can take a look and be very harsh on my poor code. > I hope it's going to useful. The skeleton of the things > I was trying to implement are already in place, but the real > functionality > is not. I'll just give a quick explanation of what I thought would be > cool: > > - Database creation through a druid (obviously!) > - Three starting points (sources to get the basic database structure): > 1. GDA Datasource > 2. Database Repository > 3. Existing XML Database File > The second item deserver some explanation, I guess. I was thinking > that it would be cool if we had some sort of collection of database > structures for the most varied purposes. A user would them simply > pick the structure closest model to his/her needs. > yes, that's the idea I had also when writing the new database wizard. But, for the moment, I've only added the creation of databases that use the default provider. But I intend, as soon as I give some time to the GdaXmlDatabase, to write some database templates that the user can choose from (agenda, stock, etc), and also add an option to create databases for other providers. Thus, the user will be able to do what you say. Well, in fact, I intend to next work a bit on the GnomeDbDesigner, so that users can design their databases, and thus, between some people, we can have a good set of database templates > One important point here, in my opnion would be some sort of i18n > support. > and some more meta-data. > I have though about this, looked around and came up with a sample > (possibly broken, certainly incomplete but understandable) file > (attached). > > This more "cheesy" xml structure could also be transformed (via > the mechanisms available in libxlst) in .glade files, using the > <shordescription> as label for data entry widgets, <longdescriptions> > for hints or statusbar, and have it all localized. Rapid Application > Development for Gnome!!! Way cooler than Kylix IMHO. > about the xslt stuff, this would be great. There's only one problem: I added a dependency on libxslt the other day to libgda due to the latest version of the libxmlquery Gerhard sent to me, and this made Bonobo crash, since libxslt needs libxml2, which is incompatible with current Bonobos (at least on my system). So, I had to remove libxslt from the list of libs and force the use of libxml1. This does not mean that we can't use libxslt, only that we must take care on where we add the dependency. > So, this is really intended to be discussed. I might be way off my head > in some points, but I believe the overall design makes sense, doesn't > it? > > I also want to apologize for coming up with ideas and then failing > to turn them into reality (or sometimes lacking the skills to do them). > But this is just to prove that I want to see this project kicking ass. > I assure you I'm trying to improve myself where I lack skills or > knowledge. Just bear with me for the moment, and I guarantee\ > I might be helpfull at the end. > this is great, that you want to help the project, so no need to apologize :-) So, I'd say go ahead with this widget. But, here are some suggestions: * don't use a wizard (GnomeDruid) for this widget, since I think a nice looking widget would be enough (see attached .glade file, of course, this is just a mockup of what I'd like it to look like, not the final design) * if you work on this widget (please, using what I've already done in gnomedb-fe-wizard.c), I'll work on finishing once for all the GdaXmlDatabase (I'll send the current format being used, and we'll discuss what to add/remove/change) * also, for the actual part of creating the template database in a real connection, this would be added as part of libgda, so that it can be reused in other parts, so, take this into account, and don't do it as part of this widget. Also, this would need some time, since we must have support for DDL statements in libxmlquery to make this work well. cheers -- Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org> <rodrigo ximian com> http://www.gnome-db.org/
Attachment:
project1.glade
Description: application/glade