Project gensfw

This project is an excuse to practice BASH application programming using YAD.

The other purpose for this project is to aid in the creation of Schema Framework scripts.

Other scripts available in the project are:

• gensfw_session_procs generates an SQL script implmenting several session procedures.
• gensfw_srm_from_proc generates response modes based on the parameters of a stored procedure.
• gensfw_srm_from_proc_result generates a response mode for the output of a stored procedure.
• gensfw_srm provides a means to edit an SRM file by use of rudimentary-XPATH-like syntax for selecting lines to add, remove, or change the value.
• gensfw_proc_from_table is a more easily batchable creator of stored procedures from table definitions.

Unsuitablily of XSLT

I started with the idea that I would use XSLT stylesheets to build dialogs and to interpret that saved file format. I abandoned this strategy early in the project for a few reasons:

• XSLT is not very adept at managing arrays.
• XSLT processing cannot handle non-typeable characters that I plan to use to save multi-dimensional arrays.
• The final problem that turned me off of XSLT: the XML output of MySQL does not include meta information. The meta information must be acquired through a separate step and only in text format. Since I would have to parse the text anyway, it seemed logical to use this as an opportunity to develop a better mastery of BASH programming.

Disclaimer

I have just started to work on this project. This README is incomplete and does not yet contain complete instructions nor even a complete description.

The reason I am creating a repository for the project is because it is now referenced by another project of mine, mysqlcb, which contains the xmlify utility on which this gensfw project depends.

Usage

gensfw is the new command name, and there are several options for opening the program.

• gensfw alone will guide the user through selecting a database and table for processing.
• gensfw CaseStudy will begin running from the table selection dialog of database CaseStudy.
• gensfw CaseStudy Person will begin at the table processing dialog, using table Person from database CaseStudy.
• gensfw CaseStudy_Person.gsf will open a file that records the preferences in place when the file was created/updated.

Requirements

This project uses several outside resources:

• The BASH shell
• MySQL Database Server
• YAD
  • Install with your Linux distribution's version of sudo apt-get install yad
• mysqlcb
  • Download, configure, build, and install according to README instructions
  • This command/program runs a query and organizes the output before invoking a callback function that can use the query results.

Note that the Schema Framework is not necessary for this project. It is merely the intended consumer of the output of gensfw.

YAD Yet-Another-Dialog

This utility is a capable tool for generating a graphical user interface for a BASH program. While it includes many more features than the project from which is is derived (zenity), some interactions in gensfw are somewhat awkward. This is not a criticism of YAD, but only an attempt to temper expectations of user-friendliness.