b-frame-devel — Developer discussions

[B-frame-devel] FASD project: Online survey launched

[<ben...@id...>]

Dear Open Source developer

I am doing a research project on "Fun and Software Development" in which I kindly invite you to participate.
You will find the online survey under http://fasd.ethz.ch/qsf/. The questionnaire consists of 53 questions and you will need about 15 minutes to complete it.

With the FASD project (Fun and Software Development) we want to define the motivational significance of fun when software developers decide to engage in Open Source projects. What is special about our research project is that a similar survey is planned with software developers in commercial firms. This procedure allows the immediate comparison between the involved individuals and the conditions of production of these two development models. Thus we hope to obtain substantial new insights to the phenomenon of Open Source Development.


With many thanks for your participation,
Benno Luthiger


PS:
The results of the survey will be published under http://www.isu.unizh.ch/fuehrung/blprojects/FASD/.
We have set up the mailing list fa...@we... for this study. Please see http://fasd.ethz.ch/qsf/mailinglist_en.html for registration to this mailing list.

_______________________________________________________________________

Benno Luthiger
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
8092 Zurich

Mail: benno.luthiger(at)id.ethz.ch
_______________________________________________________________________

[B-frame-devel] b-frame 0.1.3

[Peter B. <pbe...@sn...>]

Hi,

<b-frame/> 0.1.3 has been released, visit http://www.b-frame.org/ and
http://sourceforge.net/projects/b-frame. With this release it is
possible to join tables to groups of type list or display, and to
customize the user input for the select operation. Some bugs have been
fixed.

The release can be downloaded from

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=68958&release_id=151552



1. Join Tables to List and Display Groups

With this release it is possible to join tables to groups of type list
and display, respectively. Using a join makes it is possible to display
information not only from the table corresponding to a particular task
but also from related tables. As an example consider the following
Student Task.

     <bf-app:task table="student">
       <bf-app:task name="course_list" table="visit">
         <bf-app:group type="list">
           <bf-app:field name="institute_name" label="Institute"/>
           <bf-app:field table="professor" name="id" alias="professor_test_id" label=""/>
           <bf-app:field table="professor" name="name" label="Professor"/>
           <bf-app:field table="course" name="id" alias="course_test_id" label=""/>
           <bf-app:field table="course" name="title" label="Course" link="true"/>
           <bf-app:join table="course" on="visit_ref_course">
             <bf-app:join table="professor" on="course_ref_prof"/>
           </bf-app:join>
         </bf-app:group>
       </bf-app:task>
     </bf-app:task>

The tables course and professor are joined to the visit table for
displaying the course's title and the professor's name. Note that the
fields course.id and professor.id is given an alias because each field
of a group needs a unique identifier. When thinking about identifiers,
have in mind that each group is extended by <b-frame/> to include all
primary key attributes (but only the defined attributes occur on a
mask).

2. Customizing Queries

By default, the query of a top level task allows user input for the
primary key fields. With this release it is possible to define these
fields by using the <bf-app:query> and <bf-app:infix> tags.

     <bf-app:task table="student">
       <bf-app:query>
         <bf-app:infix name="and">
           <bf-app:field name="id" label="ID"/>
           <bf-app:field name="name" label="Name"/>
         </bf-app:infix>
       </bf-app:query>
     </bf-app:task>

The <bf-app:infix>'s name attribute defines the operator, e.g. and or
or. <bf-app:infix> tags may be nested.

Note that currently it is not possible to include fields from other,
joined tables into the condition of the query, this will become
available in the future.

3. Bug Fixes

  1. The Hsqldb data base doesn't seem to support the FOR UPDATE clause
     which is used by <b-frame/> to implement optimistic locking. In
     effect it was impossible to perform an update on Hsqldb. The new
     release configures the FOR UPDATE clause using the environment:
        o MySQL: FOR UPDATE,
        o Oracle: FOR UPDATE NOWAIT, and
        o Hsqldb: empty.
     Note that in case of using Hsqldb <b-frame/>'s optimistic lock is
     not completely multi user save because the record is not locked
     between reading and updating.
  2. Prior <b-frame/> versions where using the parameters task, action,
     and state for coding state information into HTML links. On the
     other hand, database attributes where also coded into links and
     forms, hence it was impossible to have database attributes task,
     action, or state. To avoid this collision the new release
     introduced prefixes for keys in links:
        o ctrl  for the control parameters task, action, and state,
        o data  for data, and
        o original  for the backup copy of the data used to implement
          optimistic locking.

4. Documentation

The tutorial at http://www.b-frame.org/applications.pdf has been
updated.

Bye,

Peter

[B-frame-devel] b-frame 0.1.2

[Peter B. <pbe...@sn...>]

Hi,

<b-frame/> 0.1.2 has been released, visit http://www.b-frame.org/ and
http://sourceforge.net/projects/b-frame. This release removes the
restriction that applications have to reside under the <b-frame/> tree
and allowes to some extend the customization of masks.

1. Unbundling the Applications

Previous releases required you to have your application located under
the <b-frame/> tree in a subfolder app. As already posted by Markus
(http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=1862597&forum_id=31823)
this restriction is now gone, you may locate your <b-frame/> application
wherever you want.

2. Customization of Masks

Previous <b-frame/> versions deduced the fields appearing on a mask from
the corresponding table, e.g. a tasks's select list consists of the
table's primary key attributes. This is a good default solution and may
be sufficient in some cases, but in general the fields appearing on a
mask should be customizable. This has been achieved by introducing the
<bf-app:group> and <bf-app:field> for the <b-frame/> application
descriptor. As an example consider the following task definition from
the university application.

     <bf-app:task table="institute">
       <bf-app:task table="professor">
         <bf-app:group type="list">
           <bf-app:field name="id" label="ID"/>
           <bf-app:field name="name" label="Name" link="true"/>
         </bf-app:group>
         <bf-app:task table="course">
           <bf-app:group type="list">
             <bf-app:field name="id" label="ID"/>
             <bf-app:field name="title" label="Title" link="true"/>
           </bf-app:group>
           <bf-app:task name="student_list" table="visit"/>
         </bf-app:task>
       </bf-app:task>
     </bf-app:task>

Note the following:

   * One or more <bf-app:group> tags may be nested to a <bf-app:task>
     tag for customizing a group of fields.
   * The group is identified by the type attribute of tag <bf-app:group>
     defining the mask which should be customized. For the type
     attribute the following values are allowed:
        o "list",
        o "display",
        o "insert", and
        o "update".
   * A group of a given type can occur only one time.
   * One or more <bf-app:field> tags may be nested to a <bf:-app:group>
     tag. The <bf-app:field> tag allows the following attributes:
        o The name attribute is mandatory, it has to match an attribute
          of the table corresponding to the task.
        o The label attribute is optional.
        o The link attribute is optional. It is only useful for a group
          of type "list". If set to "true", this field will have a link.

3. Documentation

A new introductory text is available at
http://www.b-frame.org/introduction/index.html

The tutorial at http://www.b-frame.org/applications.pdf has been
updated.

Bye,

Peter

[B-frame-devel] Separation between bframe and examples

[Markus D. <m....@gm...>]

Hi,

the examples package has been moved into a new project and repository
you can checkout the examples
with

     cvs -d :ext:<yournamehere>@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/b-frame co
b-frame-examples

You should do this in the same directory where b-frame resides.

The downloadable b-frame distribution still contains the examples. They
may be found now in
"b-frame/b-frame-examples" instead of "b-frame/app". The latter
directory will soon be removed
from the repository. The build.xml file is adapted to use the new directory.

The app.name property is not defined in the system properties file
"b-frame/build.properties", but
in the application properties file "b-frame-examples/build.properties".
There you can also
override any property of  the default "b-frame/build.properties" file.

When you update your b-frame directory with CVS, remember to copy the
b-frame-examples directory
into b-frame, since it resides in a different repository.

  From the b-frame-examples README:

INSTALLATION/RUNNING
--------------------

In fact, all commands you issue are just forwarded to <b-frame/>. All
you have to do is to tell where <b-frame/> and Ant are installed.  You
can do so by copying setpath_example.bat (if you are using Windows) to
setpath.bat and assign correct values to the variables BFRAME_HOME and
ANT_HOME. If you have chosen the complete distribution or if
everything is installed in the same directory you can leave the values
unchanged.

The procedure for compilation and deployment is the same as described
in the tutorial, except that you do not use ant directly, e.g.,

      ant deploy

but say

     .\build.bat deploy

(or ./build.sh, respectively) instead.

The application being compiled is the university example by default. You
can change this by editing the build.properties file.

FOR EXPERTS ONLY
----------------

You can bypass the scripts and use Ant directly if you specify the
necessary properties on the command line, i.e., if you have installed
the examples in, say, c:\temp\bframe-examples and <b-frame/> in
d:\tools\b-frame, you may execute

     ant -buildfile d:\tools\b-frame\build.xml -Dapp.name=university
-Dapp.pwd=C:\tools\b-frame deploy

This example also demonstrates how to override the application name
without editing build.properties.




Cheers
     Markus

[B-frame-devel] <b-frame/> 0.1.1

[Peter B. <pbe...@sn...>]

Hi,

<b-frame/> 0.1.1 improving how to deal with databases and data sources
has been released, visit http://www.b-frame.org/ and
http://sourceforge.net/projects/b-frame. Most notably, from now on you
have to maintain a property ds.name in your property file
"build.properties". On the other hand, the tag <bf-app:connect> is
deprecated for the <b-frame/> application descriptor.

One of the lessons learned from the 0.1 release is that having database
and data source information spread to at least four locations, i.e.

   * the properties file "build.properties",
   * the SQL scripts for creating or dropping the database,
   * the JBoss service descriptor for defining the data source, and
   * the <b-frame/> application descriptor,

is tedious and error prone. This has been improved, the database and
data source information is now bundled at one location, the properties
file "build.properties".

   * There is no need any longer to edit SQL scripts for creating or
     dropping a database or a database user, respectively. Now
     <b-frame/> has templates containing the necessary SQL statements,
     you may find them in the directories
     <b-frame-home>/xsl/sql/<database>. For automatically creating the
     SQL scripts, <b-frame/> merges information from the properties file
     "build.properties" with these templates.
   * There is no need any longer to create a JBoss service descriptor
     defining a data source corresponding to the database by hand.
     Instead now <b-frame/> has stylesheets for automatically merging
     information from the properties file "build.properties" with the
     appropriate template found in the directory
     <j-boss-home>/dos/examples/jca into the descriptor.
   * The data source information has been removed from the application
     descriptor, i.e. the <bf-app:connect> tag is not allowed there any
     longer.
     Note:  Unfortunately this breaks comptibility because the data
     source's name is now taken from the properties file
     "build.properties", so be sure to have the property ds.name defined
     there. On the other hand, changing the data source's name will no
     longer trigger a rebuild of the whole project.

The following ant targets are new or have a new implementation:

   * cre-user  creates a database (MySQL) or a database user (Oracle).
     Editing SQL scripts beforehand is not needed any longer. For
     Hypersonic the target is meaningless.
   * drop-user  drops a database (MySQL) or a database user (Oracle).
     Editing SQL scripts beforehand is not needed any longer. For
     Hypersonic the target is meaningless.
   * deploy-ds  creates a service descriptor definig a data source by
     using an appropriate template from the directory
     <j-boss-home>/dos/examples/jca and deploys it to JBoss.
   * undeploy-ds  removes a service descriptor from JBoss.
   * cre-ds  conveniently combines the cre-user and deploy-ds targets.
     For Hypersonic the target is meaningless.
   * drop-ds  conveniently combines the undeploy-ds and drop-user
     targets. For Hypersonic the target is meaningless.

The tutorial at http://www.b-frame.org/applications.pdf has been updated
accordingly.

Bye,

Peter

[B-frame-devel] b-frame-01-complete-install.zip

[Peter B. <pbe...@sn...>]

Hi,

the package "b-frame-01-complete-install.zip" containing the tools in a
pre-configured environment  is published.

Peter

[B-frame-devel] b-frame 0.1

[Peter B. <pbe...@sn...>]

Hi,

the initial release "b-frame-0.1.zip" is published. This package
requires you to install all needed tools yourself:

   * Ant (http://ant.apache.org/),
   * Xalan-J (http://xml.apache.org/xalan-j/),
   * BSF (http://jakarta.apache.org/bsf/),
   * Rhino (http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/),
   * JBoss (http://www.jboss.org/).

A package "b-frame-01-complete-install.zip" containing these tools in a
pre-configured environment will follow as soon as the upload (40 MB) is
complete.

For details refer to the installation guide at
http://www.b-frame.org/install.html.

Peter