= clevic

http://clevic.rubyforge.org

== Quick Start

For code examples, see Clevic::Examples.

For documentation, see Clevic::ModelBuilder and Clevic::Field.

== Description

Database framework and Model/View GUI for editing of table data and
data capture in a pre-existing reblational DBMS. Works with Qt
and Java Swing. Uses SQL to do sorting and filtering wherever possible.

Based on the idea of a Field, which contains information to display
a db field in a UI of some kind. This includes display formatting, edit
formatting, edit parsing, sets of values for eg foreign keys.
And lots more.

Using Sequel means Clevic works with Postgresql, Mysql and so on. It's been
tested with Postgres and sqlite.

Using Qt and Swing means it runs on Linux, Windows and OSX. The Qt
code is thoroughly tested in Linux, slightly tested in Windows and OSX. Swing 
is tested in Linux and OSX.

== Features

=== User Interface

* edit data in a table
* in-place combo boxes for choosing values from related tables (foreign keys)
* distinct combo boxes to list previous values for a field
* display read-only fields from related tables
* Multi-level filter by current field
* search by field contents
* cut and paste in CSV, and paste from HTML in the Java framework.

=== Shortcuts:

* Ctrl-<tt>'</tt> for ditto (copy value from previous record)
* Ctrl-; for insert current date
* Ctrl-] for copy from previous record, one field right
* Ctrl-[ for copy from previous record, one field left
* Ctrl-f to find a record
* Ctrl-l to add a filter (by current selection)
* Ctrl-k to remove a filter
* cursor keys, PgUp PgDown etc for movement
* shift with movement keys to extend selection
* Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab to move next/previous table views
* F2 to edit a field
* F4 to display a combo box for a field, where appropriate

=== Model definition:

Models and their UI representation must be defined in Ruby. A descendant of Sequel::Model
that includes the Clevic::Record module will provide a minimally functional UI.

Beyond that, the framework provides a DSL for defining more complex and useful behaviour
(see Clevic::ModelBuilder).

=== Framework

* uses Sequel for data access.
* can use blocks to format values for particular fields.
* sensible caching to handle large data sets without unnecessary memory and cpu usage
* extensions to various Qt classes to make db programming easier.
* leverages SQL whenever possible to handle large datasets, sorting, filtering
  etc. So it's probably not suitable for talking to a remote db across a slow link.

== Problems

There are some tests for algorithmic code, but Clevic needs a comprehensive testing framework.

== Synopsis

	clevic model_definition_file.rb
	
== Requirements

* db driver (ie pg)
* rdbms (ie postgres)

== Install

 sudo gem install clevic

Note that clevic depends on qtbindings, which takes a while
to compile native code.

== Thanks

* Michelle Riley for help debugging under windows
* Jacob Buys for pointing out the qtbindings gem

== License

(The GPL-2 License)

Copyright (C) 2008-2011 John Anderson

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.