Re: [gnome-db] Reports/Mergeant

[Dru <andru treshna com>]

Rodrigo Moya wrote:

> >  And this could be a part of mergeant and some of my own 
> > apps. I was thinking of an application where you can either choose a 
> > list of re-defined reports or open a file which is a report. The 
> > application will correctly prompt for the arguments for the report and 
> > generate it in a method that is desierable for the user.  Bonobo could 
> > also be useful so it can be tied into any of our apps.
> > Is anyone interested in developing this or colaberating on developing 
> > this?  (Trying to suggest i dont want to develop this by myself as i got 
> > a number of other things to work on currently.)
> >
> >    
> I think the best for this is to provide a widget or viewer (maybe in
> libgnomedb?) that is easily usable in other apps. Then, mergeant can use
> it, as well as any other app specific for reporting.
>
> As a first step, as talked in another thread, I'd really like to see the
> current libgda's report API and papyrus be merged in a nice API. This is
> the first starting point, I think. How difficult do you think that is?
>
>  


Widget would be nice, I see the benfits. Though its harder to impliment.
I see it as a two step processes.  I did a mock up on paper but its hard
to show it without a scanner. 

A report can be either: an sql statement or, a a predefined xml file.
If the report is a predefined xml file, the file will define a bunch of
arguments, a description and there data types. Ie a report may require
you to select a customer, or select a date range, or select a branch.

When you select a report you wish to run, it would have to redraw the window
and display the required input variables needed for that xml file, 
waiting to
be filled out. It could be accompilished by a couple of dialog boxes 
instead,
though its proberly cleaner to do it as one viewing plane.

Once you have filled in the arguments, there are a number of other options
that could be specified for outputing the report. What type of format is 
wanted,
if it is just been printed, or a preview is desired.

Maybe this could tie in with migreant wher eyou have a sql statement and you
tell it to output results to a report.

In regard to merging, is the current format of my xml adquate?  Is there 
anyone
willing to help impliment reports?

I'd like to start work on this week.