Re: [gnome-db] Screenshots: mystery buttons

["Vivien Malerba" <vmalerba gmail com>]

On 12/4/06, Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-12-04 at 10:06 +0100, Vivien Malerba wrote:
> > On 12/4/06, Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com> wrote:
> > > In the second picture here
> > > http://www.openismus.com/temp/libgnomedb_3_0_docs/html/ch05.html
> > >
> > > there are four right-arrow buttons at the right edge of the dialog. I
> > > can't imagine what they do. Is this screenshot out of date?
> > >
> >
> > Those buttons, hidden by default, allow the user a finer control of
> > what's in the data entry (it's a popup menu). It can allow to set a
> > value to NULL, or to reset a value, or to set the value to be the
> > default value (if one is defined).
>
> Ah. Thanks.
>
> Can this be removed? Is it there by default? It seems inappropriate for
> most users.

It's hidden by default, and you can only display those buttons aith an
API call, so no need to remove it.

> For instance,
>
> "unset":
> - If the field is a text field, then "unset" (NULL) will have no meaning
> for a user. The user can not be expected to distinguish between a NULL
> value and an empty string.
> - For other types, such as numbers and dates, clearing the entry should
> result in a NULL value going into the database. I should not have to
> explicitly choose "unset".
>
> "set to default value":
> - This is only useful if there is a default value specified for that
> field.
> - Usually it's OK to just use the default value for new fields.
> - If this is wanted sometimes, it should be optional for some fields.
>
> "reset to original value"
> - What does this mean actually? Is it something I can use before
> pressing Enter, to stop my changes being written to the database? If so,
> wouldn't Undo already do this?

All these are the reasons why it's hidden by default, and to be
enabled only under some well defined circumnstances.

Vivien