ANNOUNCE: tksql rel 0.5.21

ANNOUNCE tksql/sdsq 0.5.22 - Tcl/Tk packages

Oct 1 2001

I'm happy to announce release 0.5.22 of tksql a program to edit tables of a
postgreSQL database and sdsql package (tcl/tk library) under the GNU General
Public License.

Release Notes
-------------

In this release I added some features like total/subtotals, This is
typically a feature of spreadsheets more than databases, but it adds a
lot of flexibility in browsing data. The ability to edit the data is
retained.

I have not increased the main number of the release, becouse I promised
myself I would do that only after receiving at least some feed back
(maybe complains it does not work!) but in spite of some 2000 downloads,
I heard nothing back. That does not encourage a lot at writing more
documentation. Please if you appreciate this, if you have problems, if
you think tksql lacks some important feature, let me know!

Introduction
------------

sdsql: provides editDb and popSqlQuery. The first is a proc to open a
TkTable to edit postgreSQL tables, the latter is a procedure to
interact dynamically w/ a database.

features (shared with tksql, the application)

* one line command to allow editing of postgreSQL table
* easy way to trigger tcl procs as row/cell validation
* easy way to filter the database interactively
* two views: table view w/ TkTable or "mask" (Record in a Page)
editDb -tbl abc -mask
* capability to edit a join statement (limited to *the first*
table in the 'from' part of the query. Read Docs)
* possibility to define conditions to add to every reload of
the database, so as to limit the view of a table or to allow to
add join conditions
* easy possibility to change column represented and ordering
* possibility to define regexp to force constrain on some
fields or foreign-key-sort of constrain in the application
throught a table of attribute definition
* hooks for logging-capabilities (I do simple replication of
database throught that)
* total and subtotal facility when in table view in a way
typically used by spreadsheet, possibilty to define a proc to
be used for grouping for subtotal
* search facility among already received tuples, both in a
column or in all columns

There is plenty of screenshot on my site
http://pcco2.mi.infn.it/sd/soft/tksql.html and more details on these
features. In the package you can find a rich demo.

tksql: This program allows you to edit tables of databases. You can use it
from the shell prompt in any of these ways:
(myhost) $ tksql
(myhost) $ tksql -host sql.diade.it
(myhost) $ tksql -host localhost -db mydb -tbl tel
(myhost) $ tksql -db mydb -sql "select attr1,attr2 from table_a \
where attr3 = null"
in all these cases you will be able to edit the table. If your
select statement is a join tksql will work in read-only mode or will
let you edit only the first table.

Comparison to Pgaccess: PgAccess is a more mature peace of software
and provides some capabilities (tools to create the database,
change the structure, create or change functions...) that tksql
does not have.

I consider tksql is more flexible as an editing tool (filters, motion in
the table, completion of attributes where applicable, totals,
subtotals). Uses TkTable (so you need to have it installed in you pc)

### Home page ############

There's a home page for this project:
http://pcco2.mi.infn.it/sd/soft/tksql.html

sandro
*:-)

--
Sandro Dentella *:-)
e-mail: sandro(at)ermit(dot)it sandro(dot)dentella(at)mi(dot)infn(dot)it