[Gvsig_english] PROPOSED FUNCTIONALITY: Data Manager in Project Manager

[Agustin Diez Castillo]

On Aug 5, 2011, at 3:11 AM, Simon Cropper (The fosGIS Workflow Guides) wrote:

> 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
I would like add a column to this proposal 
Present	Data		Path						Date			Record		Type
Y/N		rivers.shp  	/home/agustin/gvSIG/Data/	5 August 2011	2100		Lines
> 
> 
>   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
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