[Babase] Upload Programs Issues

Karl O. Pinc kop at meme.com
Thu Jun 14 15:16:50 EDT 2007


I'm putting these on the todo list on the wiki.
(Via "Changes we want to make to Babase" on the front page.)

On 06/13/2007 08:06:19 PM, Lacey Maryott wrote:
> Karl, (and everyone else)
> 
>    In working through some of the programs tonight, we came up with a  
> "wish list" of things that we would like to ultimately become a part  
> of the upload programs, as well as some questions. We'll try to  
> present them in order of urgency or priority level.
> 
> 1. In the WWWdiff program, there is no notification that the 2 files  
> which are being compared have different numbers of rows.  The first  
> set of files we tried had 302, and 304 rows, and the diff program  
> came up with 305 rows, but never noted a discrepancy.  It also didn't  
> show errors in every row subsequent to the start of the missing line  
> discrepancies.  Even having notification that there are a different  
> number of rows would give us enough information that we would know to  
> go looking for a problem, it wouldn't need to be specific.

It automaticlly re-synchs after differences.  So the line numbers
shown (305) don't necessarly match the original input lines because
it takes it more lines to show the differences.

Talked with Lacey.  She wants the line number counts at the top.

Added to the wiki todo list.

Also found a bug and added that to the todo list.  Added
a caution to the wwwdiff program doc that explains another issue.

> 
> 2. As we discussed on the phone, it would be helpful, and reassuring  
> if, when using Psionload, the confirmation of upload would list the  
> file which had been uploaded in babase.  Since there is no txt file  
> being dumped into the folder, there is no way to confirm that the  
> intended file was uploaded, and not a different one. Something like  
> "060704P1 successfully uploaded" would be helpful.

Done.

> 
> 3. In addition to the last issue, we have found that as we move to  
> only changing things within babase 2.0, it is increasingly important  
> that some form of change tracking program be implemented.  In foxpro  
> we always had a txt file for every file upload, which gave us details  
> about when the given file was uploaded and by whom.

It's on the todo list.  At the moment I'm finishing getting our
changes to PPA accepted into the main code.  (And fixing a bug and
some requests Catherine had.)

> 4.  The error messages which are produced by Psionload are a bit raw,  
> and we have some suggestions on a couple of them. I'm sure we'll come  
> up with more as we have only seen a few of the error messages thus  
> far.
> 
>       "Error: Sname not on Biograph or UNKsnames."
>        Our suggestion: "Error: Sname not found in biograph or  
> UNKsnames"

This is now fixed.

> 
>       "Error: Pntid *****, Nghid *****, Neighbor after statdate blah  
> blah (dead neighbor)"
>        ---Pntid and Nghid are irrelevant as the file doesn't actually  
> go into the system, and can't be searched, it can thus be removed.

Added to wiki todo list.

> 5. Also in the Psionload program, it would be helpful if at the  
> beginning of each error message, the name of the focal animal could  
> be displayed.  This makes searching for the error to fix it much  
> easier. Although, on a better note, the line numbers provided at the  
> end of each error message do actually reference the line within the  
> PTS file where the error is found, and that is a very helpful feature  
> as well!! :)

Added to wiki.  See comments there.

> 
> On a somewhat different note, Leah and I are actively thinking about  
> a way to document the changes we are making to the files as we go,  
> equivalent to a conversion errors record... since these changes  
> aren't being made to babase, we don't feel that the babase changelog  
> is the proper place, but we are working on coming up with a  
> systematic way of keeping track of those as well, so if you have any  
> secret places something like this could hide, do let us know! :)

You're changing the raw psion data files that ultimately go into
Babase so I wouldn't see a problem with putting it in the Babase
changelog.  But it's not my area....

Karl <kop at meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                  -- Robert A. Heinlein



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