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XMLPropWorks

Happy New Year,

After a rather extended alpha trial of XMLPropWorks, a number of bugs have been identified and a bevy of new functionality has been requested.

Revision of XMLPropWorks is about to begin and the following features are on the development list:

1) Read/Write standard Windows property fields. 2) Get next serial number with prefix and suffix capability. 3) Combining data from several fields into one field. 4) Ability to select a part in an assembly to apply properties to. 5) Get SolidWorks units for system properties (mass, weight etc) 6) Omit empty start folder created on installation. A new installation tool will probably be used in the future. 7) Update bitmap on every save. 8) Allow storage of the bitmap to the database. 9) Fix revision field date issue. 10) Provide an options for deletion of existing custom properties. User will have the option of always deleting them, or having a tickbox for doing so, or never deleting custom properties. 11) Option to set the default value for a field. 12) SQL input and output. Unless I get really strong objections, I'm going to use MySQL for this. 13) Provide a where used functionality 14) XML data summary output. This option will require a tool to create an XML data base from the setup file. This might not get done for the beta release. Anyone interested in tackling this? The setup file format is not going to change significantly with the suggested revisions.

Please comment about these additions and suggest others. Development will begin in a week or so and once I've started, I'm going to be hesitant to make major additions to the wish list.

Thanks for everyone's help. I hope to have a beta release of XMLPropWorks ready by the end of January, and then hopefully we can have an official release in March.

Please let me know what you think about the proposed enhancements.

If you are interested in trying out the alpha version of XMLPropWorks, send me an email to snipped-for-privacy@dubea.org

Thanks in advance, =========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea
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Hi Chris,

Look forward to the trialing the Beta. How much are you going to charge for the finished product?

John Layne

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Reply to
John Layne

On 8 Jan 2007 20:53:03 -0600, "John Layne"

Reply to
Chris Dubea

Hi all!

Thanks to a bevy of interested beta (alpha?) testers of XMLPropWorks, I've developed an extensive list of improvements (and a couple of bug fixes) for the upcoming official release of XMLPropWorks v1.0.

I've posted a list of proposed upgrades and changes on my site at:

http:/

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Please e-mail me at snipped-for-privacy@dubea.org if you have any other comments or suggestions about features. I've been using it fairly heavily lately and I "think" I've come across all the issues, but I'm certain there other things which could be improved.

You can also download the latest version of XMLPropWorks on the site.

One thing I am looking for is some guidance (help) on a utility to set up an SQL database based upon the format of the XML input file. Without a semi-automated ability to create SQL tables from the setup data, the ability to write to SQL tables would probably not be particularly useful.

Thanks to all who have provided feedback and I am looking forward to Version 1!

=========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

Doh!

The e-mail address is snipped-for-privacy@dubea.org

Sorry,

=========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

Chris,

The download link seems to not work.

TOP

Reply to
TOP

Indeed the download link seems to fail. I'd love to give this ago. Can't wait for final :)

-DWH

Reply to
Anonymous

for final :)

Okay, GoDaddy is decidedly case sensitive!

Try again at

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cheers,

=========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

Great thanks.

Can't wait to try this out (when i get time). Those new features listed look great. Is there an ETA on them at all? :)

Cheers

-DWH

Reply to
Anonymous

As part of the upgrade of XMLPropWorks (XPW) from v0.5 to v1.0, the ability to read and write from a plethora of file formats in addition to the Access and XML files is being added (as well as a bevy of other enhancements see

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The plan is to add the ability to read/write to:

1) comma delimited text files, 2) Excel spreadsheets 3) SQL databases 4) XML databases (write)

Currently, the plan is to implement the SQL database feature utilizing SQLite instead of a full blown client/server SQL system ala MySQL, Postgresql or the MS free SQL server edition. My research indicates that SQLite is robust enough to handle the traffic of up to

50 users to a centrally located database. There are a number of tools out there for managing SQLite databases, but what I don't know is if SQLite databases can be read by MySQL or any of the other free server SQL systems.

What's the opinion of those out there in the know about SQL databases? Is SQLite appropriate in this application?

A beta version of XPW available for testing in a couple of weeks. If you would like to test the system out, please e-mail me at snipped-for-privacy@dubea.org. Please be forewarned that testing this system is not going to be trivial, but I REALLY need others to look at it and provide feedback. Your existing setup files "should" work with the new version, but obviously none of the new functionality will be gained without updating your setup file. I say "should" as I am planning for complete transparency, but the XPW code is getting complex and things change.

The current plan is for XPW to be free, but it is very likely that a registration gizmo will be implemented so that a record can be kept of who is using it. The plan is to use an ActiveLock

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registration function with a 30 day usage window. The registration will hopefully be web based so there won't have to any direct interaction with users.

Thanks,

chris =========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

IMHO mySQL or MSDE would cover what most users would be familiar with.

TOP

Reply to
TOP

Yeah, you are probably right. The downside is either brings a significant increase in the complexity of the installation process. SQLite is a fairly small dll that I can add to the installation files and it's completely transparent to the operator.

I can't say that about setup of either MySQL or MSDE.

Thanks

cd =========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

One of the features requested for the next version of XMLPropWorks was the ability to grab the value of a dimension.

This is possible from the Solidworks Custom Property manager by entering in something like "D2@ snipped-for-privacy@box.sldprt" in the value/text expression column which would give a result in the Evaluated Value column.

I've done some casual spelunking in the API and the functionality to perform that seems to be contained in the Document Manager API. Unfortunately, for some reason, SolidWorks has chosen to restrict the Document Manager API to license key usage. As I don't wish to encumber users with obtaining a license for the Document Manager, I was wondering if there is another means of accomplishing this evaluation under the standard API.

Any ideas, brilliant or otherwise?

thanks, =========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

Never mind.

This functionality is available via CustomPropertyManager::Get2

Thanks

=========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

Hi to all those interested in XMLPropWorks

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One of the enhancement requests I received via e-mail was :

"Specify format of fields, capitals, dates as ##-##-##"

I've built in a formatting function which allows the user to specify a format string.

Is a masked input box desirable as well? A masked input prohibits the users from entering a string unless if is within the confines of the specifier. I ask about this because there are some limitation to masked inputs. A masked input control can have text no longer than 64 characters, so it's really a one-line input box. Saying that I could see some use for it.

What's the consensus?

BTW, I'm about halfway through installing all the enhancements mentioned on the website (and some others which have made themselves apparent) so I should have a beta of v1.0 available for testing by months end. Let me know if you are interested snipped-for-privacy@dubea.org

thanks, =========================================================================== Chris

Reply to
Chris Dubea

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