User:Jstaniek/Calligra Sprint 2011.2 presentation: Difference between revisions
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Latest revision as of 08:39, 13 October 2017
My Plans
- Why Kexi? - introduction for Calligra Developers
- Sharing Kexi's CSV import/export engine within Calligra
- Eating our dog food: use Kexi, Tables, Plan, etc. in our work
- Optional topic: Better separation between engine and UI
Other Plans
(from https://sprints.kde.org/sprint/43)
- Shreya: Improving UI and features of Kexi Web Element,fixing bugs, Multimedia in Kexi
- Dimitrios:
- Need for Interoperability between Calligra apps
- UI perspective from a non developer
- Promoting Calligra
- Plug-ins K.I.S.S. proposal
- Calligra and DTP (ideas)
- Kexi Documentation / Making documentation roadmaps
- Radek: bug hunting in kexi, futher maps plugin expand
Outline
Calligra Branding
- Since the day one Calligra is THE new quality!
- Contributors want recognition for THEIR work
- Contributors take responsibility for THEIR work
- Contributors don't block derivative works
- but not at cost of their REPUTATION
So we have
- Logo vs Icon
- Copyright vs Trademark
- Trademark registration: KDE e.V. as Calligra is informal group
- Copyright to be discussed (CC-BY-SA or LGPL)
- Idea: Dual logos (one free, one protected) as Debian
- Avoiding Logo misuse: Clear Guidelines
- Usage in context of Calligra Suite: without permission
- Usage as source for derivatives: MUST BE out of context of Calligra Suite
- It's up to Calligra contributors to react on logo misuses and suggest right solution
Why Kexi? - introduction for Calligra Developers
Why db apps:
- Databases vs Spreadsheets [1]
The Kexi Project
- Started in 2002
- with KOffice/Calligra from the day one
- Had full-time contributor in 2003-2007
- First nontrivial KDE app on Windows
- Driving force of the KDE on Windows project
- Maintained with one consistent vision since 2003
- Not a MS Access clone
- less tied to the file db specifics than MS Access
- GUI does not mimick MS Access
- but acknowledges advantages of desktop databases
- aimed at casual users and power users
- almost no database knowledge needed
- user discovers features while using Kexi
- not much aimed at developers
- default GUI not cluttered with developer-oriented features
- lower priorities for these features
Why Kexi instead of server db + php + apache?
- offline mode by default and for free
- utilizing lightweight industry-standard SQLite 3[2] file db engine
- empty database is 9KB!
- More popular/standard than LibreOffice base format (because there is no ODF for databases)
- point-and-click technology
- good for education
- good for prototyping
- good for preparing quick & dirty "office tools"
- really smooth transition from file db to server db
Kexi specifics
- Constant time startup! (no matter how big database is)
- Cannot edit databases that it did not create
- this may be removed in 3.x to some extent
- Best known for its ease of use, (partial) MS Access support and good CSV support
- Kexi is not document-driven
- The GUI has always been specific compared to document-driven apps
- Even when file db is used, data is saved automatically at record (row) level, not whole database level
- Kexi GUI is consisted of largely separated views (aspects) much like in current KDevelop or Qt Creator
- Large emphasis on concept of data model, data and views
- Customizable GUI
- also serves as building block for fully-featured user applications
- Document-driven apps' user content is the central frame
- Kexi's user content is the whole application main window, with menus, toolbars
- [picture]
- Modern GUI initiated in 2011 (not 1980s) pushes the differences further, addresses specific needs not met by KDE3 GUIs
- TODO: show app, search
- Still, Qt Style awarness is kept
Why Kexi and not Qt Designer + Qt/C++ development
- no need for tons of glue code
- no need for knowledge of database internals/specifics
- zero compilation: timesaver, architecture-independent
- still, extension APIs blends well with Qt/KDE/C++ development
- prepared for good built-in scripting features
- (still experimental due to unstable API, not technology problems)
Competition
- Kexi is really competitive compared to FOSS alternatives
- LibreOffice Base is plagued by bad tech decissions of SUN (dependency on Java, tried to be MS Access clone, GUI based on poor framework => usability problems), lack of contributors
- GNOME's Glom[3] is PostgreSQL-only
- Zero alternatives in FOSS Qt/KDE world
- KNoda no longer maintained[4]
- Rekall is abandoned
Kexi Mobile
- N900 loaned to Adam Pigg in October 2010 (Thanks Suresh!)[5]
- After two months of development: usable proof of concept - mobile database viewer with forms and reports (KEXI_MOBILE build option)[6]
- No development of Qt Quick-based UI for now
- Such UI would be lightweight and very similar to Harmattan Office
- There are plans to start with Kexi Mobile Forms in Qt Quick
- Experience in this technology: Kexi developer Adam Pigg
What's new in 2011
- Successfull two GSoC projects: web elements (QtWebKit-based)[7] and map elements (Marble-based)[8]
- Both are good example of code reuse
- Both students (Radek, Shreya) becoming regular contributors!
- This is second Sprint for Radek
- Finally: actual and maintained documentation![9]
- Done by Dimitrios, with huge attention to details and knowledge
- Dimitrios becoming Kexi developer too!
- Status: three new developers in 2011!
- willing to take part in Calligra Academy
Kexi-Calligra integration
- Plan: develop mail merge within Kexi as a service for use in other apps (especially Calligra apps)
- Plan: the same for data entry/import/export support
- Idea: the same for forms support
- Idea: experiment with reusing Kexi GUI in other Calligra app(s)
Eating our dog food
- Eat Why?
- Sends clear message: this software is useful
- Testing by fellow contributors is valuable
- Generates usage scenarios and then requirements
- Brings ideas for improvements in terms of integration with other apps
- Helps avoid feature duplication
- If right tool picked, development process improves
- Team building
- Easier to understand and acknowledge differences between apps
- Helps identify specific competences among contributors
- Use Where? 3 aspects
- Reusing our features of one app in other apps (instead of reinventing)
- Target: Calligra developers/designers
- Using our apps in the development process
- Target: Any Calligra contributors
- Using our apps elsewhere, in activities not related to Calligra
- Target: Any Calligra contributors and advocates
- Reusing our features of one app in other apps (instead of reinventing)
- Eat What?
- Use Tables for tabular data
- Status: used for some ods files
- Action point: identify problems like usability
- Use Plan for project management
- Status: some contributors use it
- Action point: get best practices from them
- Use Kexi for relational data
- Already good for storing and simple queries
- Not yet good for analyzing
- Only simple relational features
- Status: not used, let's start!
- Idea: Make Kexi useful as GUI for KDE Bugzilla.
- Use bugzilla's webservices for this. Probably separate plugin could be developed. Online/offline operations with synchronization. (discussed with Inge who likes the idea)[10]
- Use Kexi to maintain data for automatic changelogs (with server db)
- Action point: provide usage scenarios
- Example: CSV import/export
- Action point: provide server infrastructure for shared databases
- some of that public, some of that for contributors only
- Use Tables for tabular data
- Eat How?
- Provide "Best practices for own dog food consumers":
- "Keep separate setup of stable version of used Calligra apps: How and why?"
- Separation between development (broken) version and stable (used) version
- Minimal compilations for development (e.g. Krita-only) can be still used while having access to all needed Calligra apps
- Already practiced by contributors anyway: they tend to keep multiple build directories with stable/broken versions; now it can be extended
- "App user: Provide feedback to app developers in context of your use cases"
- "App developer: Provide updates to users in context of your new possible use cases"
- "Keep separate setup of stable version of used Calligra apps: How and why?"
- Provide "Best practices for own dog food consumers":
BoF Topics
- Blog: http://blogs.kde.org/node/4515
- Theme is a set of styles defining every visual aspect of document
- Goal: enabling users to work with styles via themes
- Default theme could be selectable globally in Calligra
- When working on multiple documents in various formats (ODF, Kexi...) having common theme could contribute to more professional effect
- In some aspects theme can define GUI elements that are not well defined by QStyle/KStyle
- spreadsheet grid and cell styles (Calligra Tables) and database tables grid (Kexi) can have common look defined by a theme; TODO: [mockup]
- Current state
- MSOOXML format has notion of themes (default and user defined)
- references them instead of embedding styles but
- ODF does not define themes, these can be built on top of ODF
- MSOOXML format has notion of themes (default and user defined)
- Global support for themes can be used:
- in documents (odt, ods, odp)
- in reports of any types, especially KoReports
- in Kexi views, currently forms and tables
- TODO: [mockup of Kexi report and Words document]
- Examples:
Integration idea: Sharing Kexi's CSV import/export engine within Calligra
- History of CSV import/export features in Calligra
- Originally developed for in Tables
- Re-used by Kexi 0.x, planned for re-integration into Tables, never happened
- So two copies do exists, Kexi's one is far more advanced
- Excuse: Kexi's fork still in development, many TODOs
- Specifics:
- Import of tabular data
- so main target applications are Tabes and Kexi
- secondary use cases: Words and Stage
- CSV export allows to use CSV as exchange format between apps when there is no better option
- In Kexi also used for clipboard handling of tabular data
- Import of tabular data
- Integration issues
- Size of codebase: relatively small but quite complicated
- Database-awarness vs Spreadsheet awarness
- needs smart abstraction some layers to keep maximal efficiency
- needs abstraction for different GUIs
- Common code can dramatically improve clipboard support for tabular data
- Type detection
- TODO: EXAMPLE
- (Semi-)autodetection detection of structure
- TODO: EXAMPLE
- Type detection
Integration idea: Kexi Forms for Calligra apps
- Scripted functionality in LibreOffice tend to be added via forms with buttons embedded in document exampe invoice form
- this is example of bad design, escaping from document paradigm to application paradigm
- instead creating flake tool-compatible side-panes could be enabled with a few mouse clicks
- GUI for them may be delivered with help of Kexi Form designer
- The effect: so the document is not cluttered, stays just document
- the scriped functinality is injected in application(s) instead of injecting into document
- Rationale: it is out of scope for Calligra to support VB/StarBasic and forms
- any partial support defined by ODF is not worth effort: compatibility with LibreOffice would have to be high
<piggz> would be very awesome to have a sidebar in words as a plugin that allows ad-hoc buttons to be placed that have access to qtscript + the document internals <piggz> qtscript/kross backends <piggz> would make words almost as good as reports :) <piggz> maybe implement in tables first, as spreadsheets have more structure :) <piggz> and probably more useful there <piggz> that is likely something i could get my teeth into :)
Integration idea: KoReports-based mail merge
- Two types of reports: the currently used by Kexi and ODF templates/generation
Reusing Kexi's Modern GUI in other Calligra apps
- On demand API can be provided and extended
- Only proof-of-concept for now
- The Design Maxim: "Start with a stripped-down visual design and slowly add elements back in."[11]
"La perfection est atteinte, non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer. Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed." —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Blogs
- [done] Branding
- [done] Introduction to Kexi
- [done] Eating our dog food
- [done] Integration idea: Shared Calligra Themes
- [done] Integration idea: Reusing Kexi's Forms in office apps
- Integration plan: Add flake based reports to KoReports for mail merge, reuse it in other apps [12]
- Integration idea: Reusing Kexi's Modern GUI in other Calligra apps
- Integration plan: Sharing Kexi's CSV import/export engine within Calligra apps
- Integration idea: OwnCloud/Google Cloud integration for Kexi storage
- Plan: User Feedback Module
- Initiating tasks for (QtScript-based) user scripting API in Kexi (mission, object model, guidelines)