Re: [gnome-db] Re: Mergeant Data Dictionary

[Vivien Malerba STNA 7FD M204 <vivien malerba aviation-civile gouv fr>]

Le jeu 31/07/2003 à 10:40, Rodrigo Moya a écrit :
> On Wed, 2003-07-30 at 12:14, Vivien Malerba STNA 7FD M204 wrote:
> > Hi!
> > 
> > Sorry for taking so long to reply...
> > 
> > > For the uninitiated, a data dictionary is a means to model and/or
> > manage a 
> > > database at the data element (or data item, or data object, or field)
> > level.  
> > > Such a dictionary would list infomation such as name, business
> > definition, 
> > > data type, length, precision (where applicable), default values,
> > ranges of 
> > > values, lists of values and data sensitivity (e.g., Public,
> > Confidential, 
> > > etc).
> > > 
> > > My thoughts for the user interface is a tab in the main display,
> > modeled after 
> > > the Tables and Views tab, with a grid display, where each column
> > represents a 
> > > category of data element metadata, and each row represents a distinct
> > data 
> > > element.
> > > 
> > > Some of this information (name, scale, data type) is already available
> > within 
> > > the GdaFieldAttributes class.  Other data, such as default values,
> > ranges and 
> > > data sensitivity would need to be handled separately, perhaps within a
> > > subclass of GdaFieldAttributes.
> > > 
> > 
> > As Rodrigo said, I'm working on libmergeant, a library which is a
> > rewrite of Mergeant's core as a library and without some of the
> > limitations Mergeant had (and also much better code I hope).
> > Rewriting Mergeant using libmergeant will be really easy.
> > 
> > 
> > Basically this library has the following features (so far):
> > -> in memory representation of the DBMs objects (database, tables,
> > views, fields, constraints, etc) with an incremental update from the
> > DBMs itself.
> > -> XML storage and retreival
> > -> any kind of DML query (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, UNION, etc)
> > representation and SQL rendering (with the framework ready for XQL
> > rendering)
> > -> high level widgets:
> >    * default widget to handle different data types and plugins possible
> > for any data type
> >    * an objects browser (any DBMs object or query), 
> >    * automatic form generation
> >    * automatic query generation in some cases
> > 
> > 
> > Libmergeant has a (big and complex) data dictionnary which is stored in
> > files as XML. So, it is possible to write applications which use that
> > dictionnary (for example a Nautilus view, or an AbiWord plugin to fetch
> > data from some predefined query in the dictionnary).
> > 
> > Because it is very complex, the dictionnary uses several objects which
> > are not part of libgda (libmergeant itself uses libgda and libgnomedb
> > objects when possible).
> > 
> > I've wanted to create a module in the Gnome CVS for libmergeant but I've
> > not had the time to do so. So far you can download a pre-packaged
> > version of it at http://malerbavintner.free.fr/libmergeant
> > 
> from a first look, the code there looks really good! It would be really
> nice to put it on CVS as soon as you can, so that we can start working
> on the new mergeant.

Yep, I'll do it during the hollidays.

> 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > Vivien 
> > 
> > NOTE: I'm going on hollidays on Friday for one month, so please use the
> > malerbevintner <at> free.fr email adress.
> > 
> have a good holiday then :-)

Thanks!

> 
> cheers

Cheers,

Vivien