So I'm creating a program that auto generates forms for data entry. The form is created by a user (its a simple table setup with the ability to merge cells). Some of the cells contain text views, others contain text inputs (all based on how the user draws it).
This form is then sent to another application that draws it back out. I was wondering what the best method is to represent the form. I though either use XML to represent the form or use a database that would basically function as a grid and row 1 column 1 in the database would match the form cell row 1 column 1 and so on (kind of an odd way to use a database).
The form creation program is made in C++ and the form regeneration program is created in Java.
Is there an even better way to do this?
Thanks,
I am also thinking the same thing because I am in to creating dynamic forms for my framework to. So I will share some thoughts with you. Using database to add new forms like adding a record in one table that specifies the form and its fields in another having the ability to select it's field types to, or creating one table for each form and each time create a new table or altering its fields (sound messy).. or create a folder with a bunch of xmls that are used for the structure of your forms?
When it comes to database:
Your application is stricted with a specific database application
like sql server 2008 or mysql or mysqli or oracle etc.
Your application is causing network traffic, not that bad but it is
doing it eveytime you need to create or use a form.
You need a panel that creates those forms using the database, and
can be accessed if its web even from your mobile.
When it comes to XML:
Your application is free from database version restrictions.
you need the impersonator to have the right to create files in a
spesific directory in your frameowork.
You don't need a panel even though you can create one, because XML are human readable files. So you can make one while eating your dinner and serve it to your system,
and wala, you have your form generated.
These are my thoughts for now.
How about the methods that will be used in the form? will those also be dynamic? How can you specify what calls what? this is also what you need to take in account.
I think that XML is a much better choice here. Using database as a grid could be more of a headache than needed. You will have to deal with all the problems related to having the database and not really get any benefits of the database. The industry decides to go with xml more often than not as well (xbrl being one example).
Related
I am a tester in a Scrumteam trying to automate our test regressionset.
Our front-end is developed in Java Angular and we use Tosca testsuite to automate our testset. The problem I am encountering is as follows:
With Tosca you can scan the application and all the fields, atributes, divs, and so on are shown to the user. The moment I scan one of our datatables I see them as what they are: a table. However, every field/button/icon/etc is being scanned as a seperate object.The table has 1 body, but the individual rows are not found. Meaning that the rows within the tables are not identified.
This makes it impossible for me to perform an automated search on a table, because the rows and therefor the colums are not identified, only the header is.
Anyone ever encountered this issue with a testtool or found a sollution how to fix this in the coding of the front-end in Java Angular?
This is a common scenario when the application under test is developed using UI Libraries, where the complex controls (e.g. Table, Combobox etc.) are rendered not as a single HTML tag (<TABLE> for Table or <SELECT> for combobox). Instead you will find bunch of other HTML tags (<DIV>, <SPAN>, <TABLE>, <UL> and what not!)
If I understood correctly, there are two ways to automate this scenario -
You mentioned that you are able to find a <TABLE> tag (The header). There good
chances that each row in the table is itself a <TABLE> and that's
why you are not able to see all the contents in a single one (you
can cross check this in the Content View section of XScan
window). If you just need a single row for verification (I am just
assuming!), you can select any one of them and use ConstraintIndex to get to the right row data. You can also look for a parent control (basically another <TABLE>) which clubs all the child table. This parent table might show all the data in one place. Table Verification will work with this control. Please remember that it is
just a workaround and might not fit into your scenario.
You can write a custom control to handle this. Custom control is a way where user can define how a control looks like. Once you implement this, Tosca will be able to recognize the table as a single control containing all the data. For more information on this, check the Tosca API reference here
This is my first time programming and I'm struggling to understand what should be done with mysql commands and what should be done with Java (I'm programming the database with Java because it doesn't need to be used over the web).
Say I have the following pipeline:
get excel file from user. This excel file is identifiable under an ID number.
extract info from the excel file.
save the extracted info into the database. This info needs to remain identifiable by the aforementioned ID number.
find the relevant ID number and get the saved extracted info
create a text document with the info.
What I need help with is part 2.
Should I save the info under an instance of a java class?
Or should I immediately save all the info in the database in a table?
Right now I'm having a hard time even seeing the point of using a database since I'm so accustomed to seeing everything in classes. Please help!
Right now I'm having a hard time even seeing the point of using a database since I'm so accustomed to seeing everything in classes.
Databases help with persistence. If you need to store information between 2 runs of your program, or you need to deal with more data than you can fit in memory at once (including virtual memory) then you need to persist data. If you don't, then you don't need a database.
MySQL in particular is a relational database, so you can often easily retrieve and manipulate portions of data based on relations -- all the widgets that have more than 5 teeth for example.
If you're used to classes, you're used to classes having 1 to 1, 1 to many, and many to many relations with other classes. Databases can have the same. In a 1:1 relation, the columns are in the same table. In 1:many and many:many relations, you have relations between tables that can be joined.
See http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1469521/Introduction-to-Relational-Databases.htm for an intro to relations in the context of databases.
I am building a product in which customers can create dynamic form depending upon their requirements. For example one customer can create a form having fields like first name, last name, others can have one extra field like middle name.
I want to store each and every customers settings and finally i want to merge these two settings into one form at the time of display to our end users. I am finding right way to implement it.
Finding a way to store individual customers settings either in Database or XML or anything.
Finding a way to merge customers settings into one form, once our end user select both customers to apply (i want to give only one form which contains both customer form fields).
Please remember that i am providing a tool where customer can create new label like Gender, which is not defined in the system. We are giving generin data type to create such fields using text box, text-area, table, check-box, radio and many more.
Please assist me to design the architecture of above problem set.
You can do this by modelling your database as Entity–attribute–value model. See this :
Using Database Metadata and its Semantics to Generate Automatic and Dynamic Web Entry Forms
Planning and Implementing a Metadata-Driven Digital Repository
You can also find useful threads here in SO in the tag: eav
I have a database with a lot of web pages stored.
I will need to process all the data I have so I have two options: recover the data to the program or process directly in database with some functions I will create.
What I want to know is:
do some processing in the database, and not in the application is a good
idea?
when this is recommended and when not?
are there pros and cons?
is possible to extend the language to new features (external APIs/libraries)?
I tried retrieving the content to application (worked), but was to slow and dirty. My
preoccupation was that can't do in the database what can I do in Java, but I don't know if this is true.
ONLY a example: I have a table called Token. At the moment, it has 180,000 rows, but this will increase to over 10 million rows. I need to do some processing to know if a word between two token classified as `Proper Name´ is part of name or not.
I will need to process all the data. In this case, doing directly on database is better than retrieving to application?
My preoccupation was that can't do in the database what can I do in
Java, but I don't know if this is true.
No, that is not a correct assumption. There are valid circumstances for using database to process data. For example, if it involves calling a lot of disparate SQLs that can be combined in a store procedure then you should do the processing the in the stored procedure and call the stored proc from your java application. This way you avoid making several network trips to get to the database server.
I do not know what are you processing though. Are you parsing XML data stored in your database? Then perhaps you should use XQuery and a lot of the modern databases support it.
ONLY an example: I have a table called Token. At the moment, it has
180,000 rows, but this will increase to over 10 million rows. I need
to do some processing to know if a word between two token classified
as `Proper Name´ is part of name or not.
Is there some indicator in the data that tells it's a proper name? Fetching 10 million rows (highly susceptible to OutOfMemoryException) and then going through them is not a good idea. If there are certain parameters about the data that can be put in a where clause in a SQL to limit the number of data being fetched is the way to go in my opinion. Surely you will need to do explains on your SQL, check the correct indices are in place, check index cluster ratio, type of index, all that will make a difference. Now if you can't fully eliminate all "improper names" then you should try to get rid of as many as you can with SQL and then process the rest in your application. I am assuming this is a batch application, right? If it is a web application then you definitely want to create a batch application to do the staging of the data for you before web applications query it.
I hope my explanation makes sense. Please let me know if you have questions.
Directly interacting with the DB for every single thing is a tedious job and affects the performance...there are several ways to get around this...you can use indexing, caching or tools such as Hibernate which keeps all the data in the memory so that you don't need to query the DB for every operation...there are tools such as luceneIndexer which are very popular and could solve your problem of hitting the DB everytime...
As we know Data Blocks style layout in oracle can view in 2 way:
1. FORM
2. TABULAR
I want to know in Java is there any component have same behavior? I mean I want to have table(in form style) same as a data blocks that customer enter his data than after he press save all data go to database, is it possible or not?
Unlike .NET, Java doesn't have a UI component which can be connected directly to a database table for editing.
I'm also not aware of a framework which adds this. There are DB tools like SQuirreL SQL which have inline table editing.
There are lots of frameworks to map DB tables to Java POJOs (Hibernate, for example) but that means you need to define Java mappings for your database tables. With that, you can use UI frameworks like Metawidget to create an editor.