Friday, August 27, 2004

Totally - Database Considerations

Well, this is interesting.

I went to create an installer for Totally that included the demo database I've been testing with.
The database was 143 megabytes - when compressed into the installer, the size of the installer was 51mb.

A bit large for a download. So, since I'm using the Interbase IBConsole to manage my databases, (but delivering the Firebird data engine via MSM's in the installer, which will read an Interbase database anyway) I decided to do a backup and restore.

I've imported around 22,000 MYOB customers into Totally's database, and then deleted them all during my testing, but the database size remained the same (143mb). What's interesting is that now that I've removed all the data from it, and only imported about 500 customers, the database size still remained at 143mb.

Now that I've done a backup and restore using IBConsole, the database is now at a nice tight little 1.7mb. Perfect for an alpha demo download!

Look for it online soon. ;-)

Until next time, its all Totally good.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Totally - Customer Applet

Had a brain explosion.

I've been stuffing around with a generic process to display "things" for far too long and have really begun to confuse myself.

So I thought, right, lets create an applet that deals only with Customers. So I did and it took about an hour. It loads up all the customers, lets you select one, populates the form, allows you to edit the details, and then saves those details back.

Done. Don't know why I didn't do this before. Its so simple.

And because its an applet, and because its called by its ProgID, its a simple matter to unregister the old one, copy the new one in, register the new one, and begin using the new one. Simple.

FIGJAM.
;-)

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

.:Totally:. Relationships

Excellent.

I've gotten relationships to work.

For example, if a customer has numerous invoices to pay, I've now added some logic to show those invoices on the customer form.

BTW - the customer form definition is an XML file - so if a field needs to be added, one just needs to edit the XML file. Simple. Dead simple. There's even an editor that's built into Totally that lets you add new fields to the form and you can drag the field around the form, then save it.

It is taking a long while to get right, but I can see a day when this will be a very good application.

Just need to feed myself in the meantime.