Base/Features/Pool

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Revision as of 13:42, 12 December 2008 by Frank Schoenheit (Talk | contribs)

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The following is a wild collection of ideas for new features (or mere simple improvements) in Base. The order does imply nothing, in particular no priority ...

The "client" column in the below table is a very rough categorization whether the designer or the user of a database/application benefits from the feature. This separation of course does not always exist in reality, since end users tend to design their own database/application, too.

Ideas Client
Tables
allow printing a table structure designer
have a SQL preview in the table designer, reflecting the DDL necessary to create the current design of the table. This would be a live preview, and should also allow last-minute changes to the statement (before actually sending it to the server) designer
link tables from different sources (aka DBs) into one database. user
user interface for HSQL's text table feature (aka reading/writing CSV files) user
more intelligent deletion of table data (don't delete every single record, but the set of records described by the current filter in the table data view) user
HSQLDB: allow to link in dBase files user
Queries
Query design improvements
  • better support for functions: all supported and known functions should be listed in the respective field, so that e.g. HOUR(
  • function auto pilot
  • sub selects: should be little table windows, like queries and tables already are
  • UNION support
  • query navigator, displaying the hierarchical structure of a query
  • live preview of the statement even in the graphical view
  • consolidate query design and the "Execute SQL" dialog:
    • (persistent!) history of executed statements
    • execute all kind of statements, not only SELECTs
    • load .sql files containing SQL scripts to execute
  • support UPDATE/INSERT/DELETE in graphical view
  • search and replace in SQL view
designer
updatable queries based on other queries user
Forms
templates for forms designer
styles for form controls designer
a "Button Wizard", which allows easy creation of button controls associated with certain common actions designer
more wizards for generatiung code snippets for common tasks designer
direct creation of new macros/scripts from within the "Assign action" dialog designer
fix some property names in property browser, for instance:
  • "Print" => "Printable"
  • fix the "Before Commencing" / "When Initiating" mess
designer
property browser
  • "browse button" should be right-aligned with input controls in other lines
  • separate some of the "General" properties into a "Appearance" tab
  • have an "All" tab which displays all available properties at once
designer
dialog-based forms user
filter list box (more general: filter controls), i.e. a list box which filters the form it belongs to, depending on the user selection user
charts in forms user
easy possibility to open forms from within forms (without extensive macro knowledge) user
click-able fixed text controls ("Hyperlink Controls") user
"Click Action Wizard", i.e. a wizard for inserting a button or hyperlink control, and associates a certain common action with this control user
allow for "form based workflow", i.e. buttons in forms which open another form, where the second form has a button to return to the first form ... user
Reports
wizard for creating a report containing a single chart only designer
sub reports user
support a "CanGrow" property for fields in a report - with the meaning that the respective control (and thus the respective section) will be as high as necessary to display the complete text of the current row user
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