Kexi/Releases/1.1.0 Changes

KEXI is a visual database apps builder, developed since 2002.

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Changes in KEXI

(some changes are experimental)

Highlights

• Core/Backend
  • Further enhancements in the database connectivity library (KexiDB)
• User interface
  • Further improvements in Table Designer (schema altering without removing table contents, "Image" data type)
  • Data aware combo boxes (drop down lists)
  • Further improvements in Query Designer
  • Make "Image Box" widget Data-aware in Kexi Forms and Table View
• New modules
  • Simple scripting (Python, Ruby)

Table Designer

• Alpha 1:
• Undo/redo actions introduced; deleting and redoing actions improved in the table-altering machinery of KexiDB
• Clear primary key when selecting non-integer type
• Added title to the context menu
• Changing field's description is supported by undo/redo commands and by alter table actions
• Internal Debugger added with "Real alter table" button, for convenience, "save" action now uses the old alter table code (screenshot)
• Renaming table fields works, table schema is recreated when needed, and just altered in-place when it's enough to do so
• Beta 1:
• Fixed setting types and subtypes
• Fixed a crash when there are more than 50 actions performed in the Table Designer's undo/redo stack
• Fixed saving "indexed" and "type" field properties of a table design
• Support for default values
• Fields of type yes/no have default value set to false (by default)
• RC 1:
• Set "false" as default value for columns with Yes/No types
• When column type changes, default value is updated to match the new type (e.g. casted from integer to text; incompatible values are removed)
• Fixed inserting fields of type "Object"

Query Designer

• Alpha 1:
• Possible crash fixed when new design is saved in the data view: rebuild schema only when needed
• RC 1:
• Invalid input (e.g. criteria or sorting) now displays a message box with "Correct" and "Discard Changes" buttons
• Aadded support for setting order of columns in Design and SQL views (ORDER BY)
• Fields were sometimes added twice
• Fixed displaying visible flag (without ? mark)

Forms

• Alpha 1:
• Fixed saving data changes for db-aware check-boxes (by setting StrongFocus policy as default)
• Set the data source readonly if it comes from query
• "Read only" property is now supported by all data-aware widgets, and form itself
• Background color of the line edit in read-only mode is blended with white to get lighter gray
• Accessibility+usability: read only line edit widget now shows the caret
• Display field caption as title for editor's context menu
• Data source pane split vertically into two sections for clarity
• AutoField widget: added support for Image (Object) type, fixed handling color properties, internal editor's properties are automatically inherited by the AutoField widget as so-called sub-properties. Changing value of "Widget Type" property reloads the entire property set, so new properties can appear and unused properties can be hidden in the Property Editor.
• Image Box widget: now supports saving data in the database. Fixed filling duplicated data widgets; fixed editing; "Drop-Down Button Visible" property added. Drop-down button moved to bottom-right, usability improved (e.g. keyboard handling for pop-up), db-awareness added, frame-related properties added, tab/backtab handling fixed, fixed updating position of image when the frame changes
• Removed flickering of the Property Pane after dropping a new field onto the form
• Beta 1:
• Display default values in the new row; default text is displayed with a special style (italic blue) as in table view; cancelling changes in a widget reverts its contents to default value (if available); the special style is removed as soon as the editing starts
• "redo" action removed from the data-aware widgets' context menu (to avoid problems with data handling)
• RC 1:
• Hide unused radio button widget
• Fixed tab/backtab key handling
• Fixed displaying custom label text when "Auto Label" property is off
• Handling of global shortcuts like CTRL+PgDown is now shared with Table View (accesibility: it is now possible to move to next/previous record using keyboard)
• Moving to new row sets the focus in the first data-aware widget (in tab order)
• Fixed leaving from "editing" state on "accept row changes" or moving to other record
• Custom widget factories can be now loaded properly
• Yes/No field default value does not work properly (for required field: if you add a check-box that points to a Yes/No field that has a default value the default value is not accepted) (bug #134976 )
• Fixed updating property values of enum type
• Hide "Editor type" property for auto fields (bug #134773)
• The first widget of a given kind should be named "widget" by default, the second - "widget2" and so on.

Startup

• Beta 1:
• --skip-startup-dialog startup option added: skips displaying Kexi startup dialog window

Data and Project Migration Wizard

• Alpha 1:
• Improved usability for selecting type of destination database (no mention of SQLite for now)

CSV Data Import and Export

• Alpha 1:
• Fixed recursion when importing clipboard data
• Allow to change the delimiter when importing clipboard data
• Parsing data improved: values without leading zeros, like 1/2/2006 work; Since apps like MS Access in the USA creates csv files with date format month/day/year, (and without leading zeros), text with "/" inside is assumed to be in this format.
• Beta 1:
• Time and Object values: fixed exporting to file or copying to clipboard
• Fixed crash on exporting to clipboard
• Delimiter detection is now even more clever, allowing to import more complex data: characters outside quotes have higher priority; number of candidates for delimiters is counted too.

Data Table View

• Alpha 1:
• Spreadsheet mode: fixed inserting empty rows and deleting rows
• Cell editor: the contents are marked as changed only when the original value differs from the current
• Beta 1:
• Current row and column are marked as selection on the vertical and horizontal header sections
• Display tooltip with row number when the vertical scroll-bar is dragged
• RC 1:
• More shortcuts added, shortcuts are now usable and a bit MSAcces-like
  • CTRL+End now moves to the last field in the last record (previously: the last record)
  • CTRL+Home now moves to the first field in the first record (previously: the first record)
  • CTRL+PgDown now moves to the next record
  • CTRL+PgUp now moves to the previous record
  • CTRL+Plus or CTRL+= now moves to the new record
• Fixed repainting after "Edit->Clear Table Contents" action
• Fixed problem with editing floating-point values when there's default value set to 0.0
• Fixed displaying values for combobox fields
• It is now possible to have empty combobox item: selecting it clears the value of combobox

Database Support Library (KexiDB)

• Alpha 1:
• Improved operations related to table design altering
• Fixed setting database filename when relative path has been provided
• Optimization: "rename table" action now uses "ALTER TABLE RENAME TO" SQL statement, O(1).
• X-Kexi-DoNotAllowProjectImportingTo KexiDB driver property added, false by defaut
• Beta 1:
• Server version information is retrieved (usable for future extensions)
• Added unicode->latin1 mappings for Czech characters
• RC 1:
• Do not try to insert default values into a column with unique flag declared (or even primary key)
• Fixed constructing ORDER BY part of SQL statements (ambiguous fields)
• When creating "columns by name" cache, also remember "table.alias" identifiers
• Use COUNT(*), not COUNT()
• Added support for ORDER BY clause

Database Drivers

• Alpha 1:
• SQLite library upgraded from 3.0.7 to 3.2.8 (backward compatible), to get "table renaming" function.
• Table altering improved for SQLite: changing data types will be possible soon
• Beta 1:
• PostgreSQL: use TIMESTAMP, not DATETIME for date/time data type

Main window

• "Data actions do not appear on first open" workaround used before Kexi 2.0: the Data toolbar is always visible (bug #134975)
• enabling/disabling of actions in query editor (bug #134977)

Documentation

• Added chapter about forms translated to English.

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