Documentation of the Xdobry application

Artur Trzewik

This documentation is computer translated from german language

Xdobry is a new approach database form generator for relational databases. The forms are generated not from relational-schema (by reading data dictionary) but from conceptional-schema made by using reverse engineering. The forms supports rich semantic abstraction: association (relationship) as Form-Link, aggregation as nested Forms and object inheritance as Tab-Widget and foreign-keys as multi-columns lists. Therefore form are not another representation of tables but object at higher abstractions level. There are three programs: SchemaEditor for making a conceptional schema, FormEditor GUI Drag and Drop Editor for DB-Form and FormServer. The System is programmed in Tcl-Language (with extension Tk Tix XOTcl tDOM), used XML as Format for describing Form-GUI and DB-Schema (Repository). At this time there are interfaces to mysql an experimental to postgresql databases.


Table of Contents
1. Xdobry Specification
Principal purpose of the program
Futures of the program, peculiarities
Target user-group
Technical data
2. User manual
System components
SchemaEditor
FormEditor
FormServer
Schema vs. Form appearances
Representation of the foreign keys
Association (form-link)
Specialization (inheritance)
Aggregation
Problems with Xdobry
3. Tutorial
Relational schema
Production of the Repositories
Production of the forms
Use of forms
Other examples
4. Developer information
Programming tools
XML
Advancement
Ideas for the future
5. Commercial using
Licence
Meaningful using of application
Advantages opposite existing systems
Extensions, overcoming the disadvantages
Use on Windows MS
Contact with author
6. Support
7. Relevant WWW-references (On the left)
Links for developer
Links for similar free or half-free products
8. Installation