[Gvsig_english] PROPOSED FUNCTIONALITY: Data Manager in Project Manager

[Simon Cropper (The fosGIS Workflow Guides)]

Hi Guys,


Following on from another thread where this issue was raised I thought 
it might be valuable to list this as a potential functional upgrade to 
future versions of gvSIG.

*PREMISE & BACKGROUND*

At present, what data and where that data resides is unclear to the user 
when they open a project with gvSIG.

Obviously they can open every view or map and look at the properties of 
every layer but this is prone to human errors and is very time consuming.

At present, the program does a bit of housekeeping at start up with 
files that are unable to be found triggering a request by the package, 
to the user, of where that data now resides. If no legitimate files are 
located each reference to that file in a view is marked with a cross.

This behaviour is typical of most packages that view, analyse and map 
geospatial data.

One problem with this functionality is that it is unclear at times which 
dataset was used in that instance or where it originally resided. For 
example, if you have a regional wide dataset of rivers but cut this down 
to a size suitable for a particular project. As they are both called 
river.shp is is difficult without looking at where the original resides, 
which one is missing. Although the dialog says 'river.shp' is missing 
for me it is always difficult to establish which file is missing as the 
path is usually abbreviated.

Instances of the file in a Table-of-Contents marked as missing can not 
be resolved after the project is open. You need to exit without saving, 
restart and work through the omissions and point each file to each 
directory one-by-one. Alternatively you can open the project file with 
an editor and do global search-and-replaces of paths and file names.

*ALTERNATIVE PROPOSED FUNCTIONALITY*

As an alternative, rather than working through each instance of a file 
why can't gvSIG open to the project file. In the project manager, next 
to 'View', 'Maps' and 'Tables' is an option for 'Data'.

This lists all the data currently being used by the project. It provides 
the same data that is provided when you look in the 'properties' box in 
a 'View' but in tabular form.

Under each name, all the instances where that data has been used is 
listed. So in my example above.

Present  Data        Path                     Date           Records
Y/N      rivers.shp  /home/simon/gvSIG/Data/  5 August 2011  2100

   Object   Object Name                                ToC Name
   View     Rivers in Victoria                         Rivers
   View     Geomorphic Features of the Basalt Plains   Creeks and Streams

Apart from flagging missing data and allowing a user to resolve any 
problems before using a view or map, it could provide the functionality 
of managing data sources. Shapefiles could be copied, renamed, 
reprojected or converted (gdal libraries provide this functionality 
already); database connections would have all the relevant data to 
establish a connection, etc.

Something else that could be done is have alternative paths listed. At 
present I toggle a project between Windows and Ubuntu, by using a 
external program to find file references and change the paths from UNIX 
format to WINDOWS format (e.g. /home/simon/data to c:\data). Such a data 
manager could easily store alternative locations of files and allowing 
projects to be cross-platform.

Just a thought...

-- 
Cheers Simon

    Simon Cropper
    Website Administrator
    http://gis.fossworkflowguides.com
    The fosGIS Workflow Guide
    (c) Simon Cropper CC-BY-SA 3.0 Australia
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/deed.en