When will 0.6 become available?

[Gandalf]

I have just come across Dataface and it looks nice... however, as mentioned in one of the articles in the forum, this is only a back-end tool for a database to quickly list, edit and create records. The front-end functionality would be equally nice to have

Is there a date for the release of 0.6 with all the wonderful new features?

Thanks much
--gandalf.

[shannah]

Hi Gandalf,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, front-end functionality would be quite nice to add at some point. Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

As far as the release of 0.6 goes, I'm already using it on 6 or 7 projects and everything seems to be working smoothly. There are, however, so many new features that it is taking some time to document them. I have been working at documenting them slowly, but I am waiting patiently for a span of 2 or 3 days when I can just focus on it to get it finished (surprisingly, it has been about a month and a half since I have been able to really focus on Dataface). The other final thing that I need to do before releasing it is to install it on Windows/IIS and run the unit/functional tests to make sure that Windows doesn't break it.

I apologize for the "all talk, no product" period, but I would rather wait to release it until the documentation and tests are up to snuff. I know how frustrating it is for users to download open-source software and get errors. Sometimes they won't end up giving it a second chance if they had a bad experience the first time.

In terms of time, perhaps we're looking at mid to late July.

[Aoirthoir]

When yall say front end functionality, what specifically do you mean by it?

[shannah]

Good point.. this is a little bit vague. There are two possible ways of looking at front-end functionality.

1. The ability to use the site as a public web site. (Dataface 0.6 will allow this with its permissions, actions, and templates).

2. The ability to create applications using a more user friendly environment. So that you don't have to edit config files, you can do the 'Point and click' thing. This would be nice to have.. but it is not on the radar just yet.

Best regards

Steve

[Gandalf]

Well, thanks for the prompt reply. I had a look at what's currently in the CVS in terms of "front-end" functionality and it turns out that this direction of "front-end" is not exactly what I need... My application is to maintain a database of various, interconnected entries via Dataface, and to generate Wiki pages from there.

I'll stick with Dataface for the back-end to maintain the database then and generate the Wiki pages using some php scripts.

Cheers,
--gandalf.

[shannah]

Hi gandalf,

Sourceforge CVS is well out of date. It is even older than the current 0.5.4 release. I transferred the repository to a local subversion repository some time ago for feature, convenience, and performance reasons.

What direction of "front-end" do you need?

Best regards

Steve

[Gandalf]

The front-end of the database should only display information in a certain layout, possibly deriving additional fields as records are loaded from the database. The PHP pages mostly consist of pure HTML and interspersed stuff to place fields in the template, possibly using conditionals and loops. It's not so much about generating something automatically, but rather being able to use a simple templating mechanism for records and computed fields.

--gandalf.

[shannah]

Dataface 0.6 does move in this direction, by:

1. Providing a "View" tab for records which is intended to be a record's public view (read only).
2. Allowing any record's view to be overridden with a custom template. (actually any part of the interface can be overridden with a custom template.
3. A rich permissions model that allows you to turn off any particular features or part of the interface depending on which user is logged in.
4. An actions framework to allow you to add your own custom actions and pages to your app.