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

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

 

It has been a freeble thus far. As I found out today that I've been
made redundant, I could start charging for it and begin my retirement!

In all seriousness, I'm really not set up to deal with e-commerce at
this point, and with the forthcoming job change, will probably have
less time to do so in the future. The easiest thing to do is give it
away.
===========================================================================
Chris

 

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:/www.dubea.org/XMLPropWorks

Please e-mail me at 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

 

Doh!

The e-mail address is

Sorry,


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

 

Chris,

The download link seems to not work.

TOP

 

Okay, GoDaddy is decidedly case sensitive!

Try again at

http://www.dubea.com/XMLPropWorks.zip

cheers,

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

 

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 http://www.dubea.org/xmlpropworks).

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
. 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
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/activelock/) 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

 

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

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

 

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@" 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

 

Never mind.

This functionality is available via CustomPropertyManager::Get2

Thanks

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

 

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:44:02 -0500, Chris Dubea

Hi to all those interested in XMLPropWorks
(http://www.dubea.org/XMLPropWorks).

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

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