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.