[Portabase-devel] Re: portabase

[Jeremy B. <ml...@ya...>]

Just released PortaBase 1.1 which addresses some of the points you
mentioned...I'll just make comments inline:

> >     * Multiple column sorting       SOMETIMES USEFUL

This was added in 1.1.

> >     * Filtering/Searching          EXTREMELY USEFUL

This seems to be the still-remaining TODO item which is in the highest
demand; I'll try to get it done for a 1.2 release in a week or two.

> >     * Date column type             INTEGERS WORK FINE (20021028)
> >     * Date and time column type    DECIMALS WORK FINE (20021028.0555)

Strings work for these too; in both cases, sorting and such work out fine,
and use of CSV export and import can transfer such data to a real
date or date/time column later.  The main point of having a specific date
column would be to use a calendar-picker widget for selecting dates; this
is often faster and prevents you from entering invalid dates.  But nobody
(including me) seems to have a strong need for this, so it's on the back
burner for now.

> >     * Enumeration column type      POSSIBLY USEFUL

Like date fields, on hold until somebody needs it.

> >     * Multiline text column type    !! CRITICAL NEED FOR ME !!

Added in 1.1 (including support in CSV import and export; fields containing
newlines should be enclosed in quotes and imported into a Note column).

> >     * File properties dialog       POSSIBLY USEFUL

This one should be easy to do...I might throw it into 1.2 for the heck of it.

> >     * Alternate-row shading        POSSIBLY USEFUL

This one looks to actually be pretty hard; the display widget I'm using
doesn't support this easily.  I'm probably going to leave it as is for the
foreseeable future...I think selecting a row serves well enough as a
horizontal guide.

> One item that you didn't list is resizing of the display window when the 
> pick screen is used to enter text.

Hmm...the main window resizes automatically, but dialogs don't.  I'll see
what I can do about this.

> Another 
> "VERY USEFUL" item is encrypted files/fields, but this is not critical 
> since there are several programs for the Z that already provide this 
> functionality.

I'll add it to the TODO list; hadn't really occurred to me.

> I found the directory where portabase stores the database, but I can't 
> find where it stores the exported data file.  If I specify a full path 
> for the exported data file, it doesn't show up where I specified.  Am I 
> doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

This was a bug in 1.0; it wasn't creating the output directory if it
didn't exist.  In 1.1 it gets created correctly and appears in the
Documents tab.  Should also be editable in the standard text editor app
(output file is mime-type text/x-csv, the text editor allows you to edit
files with any text mime-type).

> The ability to import/export CSV files is critical to me.  I've been 
> using a handheld PC since the HP95LX came out in 1991, and I'd be lost 
> if I couldn't move data files among different platforms easily.  I'm 
> still using the HP200LX as my primary handheld PC, but portabase, if it 
> had multiline text fields, would tip the balance in favor of the Zaurus.

Well, PortaBase has multiline text fields now. ^_^

> I wish I had the time/skills to help with the programming, but I don't. 
>   I'd be happy to help with beta testing, though.  I'd also be happy to 
> contribute Perl scripts for reformatting CSV files, if there is any need 
> for that sort of thing.

If you could test out 1.1 and let me know of any problems or quirks you
find, that would be great.  And if you need to pre-process CSV files, let
me know why and I might be able to enhance the import feature to handle it
for you (like allowing you to specify a non-comma delimiter or use
"true"/"false" instead of 0/1 for boolean fields).

Jeremy

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