Recent Posts

201

Living Room / Re: Chandler V1 is officially out.

« Last post by PPLandry on August 14, 2008, 01:39 PM »

Well, Chandler is not just a pim thou. If you have chandler server or server account you can sync your data with any chandler server. It also has web interface that works on the server which makes it very mobile.

On the otherhand as far as note taking and data management goes, it is nowhere near Sqlnotes that is for sure.

-kartal (August 14, 2008, 11:15 AM)

Chandler 1.0 does appear to be downer, not because of the end result, but because of the anticipation, the huge effort and (over) design that was put into it.

As for SQLNotes, it is not just a PIM either. In a few months, you'll be able to put your database on a web server and have remote access / group sharing. This combined with the soon to be implemented portability, will enable anyone to have access to group info using nothing but a USB thumb drive (and an Internet café of course!)

p.s. I guess this was a bit of thread hijacking. Let's get back to Chandler...

202

Developer's Corner / Call for coders for Microsoft Sync Framework and SQLNotes

« Last post by PPLandry on August 14, 2008, 10:14 AM »

Microsoft sync framework 1.0 was just released!

I'm looking at finding keen coders that would be willing to invest some time learning the Microsoft Sync Framework and eventually write the custom data provider for SQLNotes (www.sqlnotes.net). The aim is to use it to provide transparent sync with many apps (Outlook, GCalendar, etc.) and devices (pda's, phones etc).

I've created a public group on Diigo (bookmarks, web page clippings and annotations, forum) here:
http://groups.diigo....groups/sqlnotes_sync. There are a few links already. Do not hesitate to contribute as it is opened to all.

This is a unique opportunity to learn 2 new technologies : MS Sync and SQLNotes, plus of course significant contributions will be rewarded!

203

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Catalog - What Are You Using & How Do You Like It?

« Last post by PPLandry on August 01, 2008, 09:11 AM »

I believe that similar functionality is available in sqlNotes.

Yes, table creation and manipulation in UR lacks a number of features, you've just about got to create and populate the table in Excel or Word before bringing it into UR (as RTF), and even then it would be more for presentation purposes.

-ashwken (August 01, 2008, 08:05 AM)

UR is a great program and definitely more polished than current state SQLNotes, which is in beta. However, this is an area where IMO SQLNotes has an edge over URp.

In many aspects, you can consider SQLNotes as Excel with outlining capabilities, as the outlining tree supports formatting and has user-defined columns (text, date, number or checkbox types). The outlining grid is fully editable, printable and exportable. Equations can be defined between columns (i.e. fields or attributes in URp) and between rows (hierarchy based calculations). Item properties (color, backcolor, font, icons) can be determined from field values. Pivot tables and charts can also be used to summarize your info. Finally, as in UR, a rich text pane (HTML in SQLNotes, RTF in URp) is available to enter rich text content.

p.s. I'm the author of SQLNotes, so I cannot guarantee impartiality 

204

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 31, 2008, 01:14 PM »

Yeah, I understand that.  Of course, there are also the confirmation dialogs for removing the children of parent items as a security measure.  My issue was that I removed unrelated items and some other items disappeared, they were not parents or children of each other.  And they only disappeared after I exited SN and reopened it the next day.  So, it's more of a bug rather than an issue with using the system.

-superboyac (July 31, 2008, 12:58 PM)

You can check your backups... to understand what happened. The .bk2 should be yesterday's

205

Living Room / Re: Six Free Online Storage Services

« Last post by PPLandry on July 31, 2008, 12:45 PM »

I don't quite get the idea with adrive pro. For $7/mo, I get 50GB with webdav access...

For $5/mo, I can get web hosting with unlimited storage (was 1000GB, now unlimited) with FTP (multiple logins to share with friends), mySQL, mail, etc

206

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 31, 2008, 10:47 AM »

I use it daily too (of course) 

>Is there anything I can do before exiting the program that sort of ensures me that the changes are being saved?
You could click the save button, change item and come back to it

>I still think it's important to have a more sophisticated backup settings
True, but if the content is never saved, a backup will not help you. We must track this down first.

A QuickSearch does not find the missing info? [Edit]I see that it did[/Edit]

>and I don't see some of the items I added yesterday.
Use the journal grid (or a similar one with the DateFilter) to see items added yesterday. I don't recall ever loosing items...

>But in the properties, they appear in no grids, which is weird because I obviously entered them in a grid
You mean that they have no fields filled (other than the Item field)? There is a bug in the current version, where if the grid source field contains a space in the name, it isn't auto-assigned, hence would not show in the grid. This is now fixed. Updated version will be out today.

>Now, how do I add the lost items back into the proper grid?  Do I have to move it manually, or can I restore it somehow?
Simply assign fields to those items such that the grid will show it. It could be as simple as checking a yes/no field, or more complex. It all depends on the grid (source, filter, AlphaFilter, DateFilter). Show a screenshot if you're having problems.

207

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by PPLandry on July 27, 2008, 07:01 PM »

Related to the subject of thi mega thread, there's super list of Outliners announced there

-Armando (July 27, 2008, 04:15 PM)

Yowsers!!  Now that is a list!!  Thanks Pierre, now I know where to go to for a reference.

-superboyac (July 27, 2008, 06:40 PM)

Actually I have very little merit. The list was published by Chris Murtland here: http://www.outliners.../0/list-of-outliners. My only merit was to put this list on an online spreadsheet so all users can add/edit/sort, etc this list

208

Developer's Corner / Re: redmine: website tool for collaborative project todolist/wiki, bugtracking, etc

« Last post by PPLandry on July 21, 2008, 09:40 AM »

Drupal also has issue tracking, forum (threaded or flat) and collaborative docs, plus being a full-blown CMS and tons of add-ons. I'm looking at it right now, to unite the services related to my software: web-site (DNN), wiki style docs (Wikispaces), issue tracking (Mantis).

I'll post some more after testing it further.

209

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Announcing my new website (superboyac).

« Last post by PPLandry on July 17, 2008, 02:47 PM »

Drupal can do static pages too, not just blog and forum posts. Wordpress is also an excellent environment, but I don't have any experience using it and seems more oriented towards blog posting.

BTW, Drupal and SQLNotes have similarities: You create content (nodes in Drupal, items in SQLNotes) and then choose on which page(s) it is shown. Content is disassociated from pages (unlike many other CMS). So since you know SQLNotes, learning Drupal may be easier for you. 

210

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Announcing my new website (superboyac).

« Last post by PPLandry on July 17, 2008, 08:25 AM »

It took me about 1 day to get used to the Drupal. It is different than other CMS, but so much more flexible and powerful. The SQLNotes website is being re-designed using Drupal (was DNN).

Superboyac, if you need help with understanding Drupal, I can give out a hand, since I just went through it myself!

211

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 16, 2008, 04:18 PM »

The phone dialer is already there (CTRL-T) to activate.

1- Finds all numbers in the item and in parent items (enter only company number, not one for each employee, same for family members, etc).
2-Uses TAPI dialing rules, so easily adjusts between home and office.
2-Customizable phone number recognition through regexp.

You knew that right?

212

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 16, 2008, 11:26 AM »

The two timers are to help consultants who get paid on an hourly basis. Often, such an individual works on a main project and is interrupted by phone calls and must work on something else and later on return. The two timers are easy to turn-on and off. If you put the computer in pause (i.e. lunch), they stop counting.

There is no link between the counters and any fields, it is the responsibility of the user to enter the timed value in the proper project, etc. If you have any idea of how it could be used, do not hesitate to propose!

Related to this issue, the phone dialer is in need of major improvements, one of these is logged calls with duration (à la Ecco)

213

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 11, 2008, 06:41 AM »

Yes Thanks! it is already in the installation

214

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 10, 2008, 10:39 PM »

I updated the current build with a fix for this issue. I did not have the time to test it throughly, but it now saves correctly in those problematic situations.

I'll examine it in more details on monday.

With the recent problems with the SQLNotes web site (www.sqlnotes.net), due to hosting service SQL Server problems, I started looking at alternatives... and fell in love with Drupal (old site was using DNN).

It is not fully operational just yet, but users can get a good idea of what it will be by visiting this page: www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5 (the skin will be improved/changed once fully functional)

New features
- Faster
- Clean UI with space saving left task panel
- More customizable
- User blogs
- Integrated forums, flat or threaded, simpler image upload
- Support for anonymous user comments with email notifications
- List of site changes (new posts, comments, pages), New posts since last visit, etc
- Possibility of integrating Mantis or using Drupal's own issue tracking
- Live highlight of glossary terms in posts, with tooltip and links to detailed description page
- Site-wide search
- And much much more (there are probably close to 1000 free modules, I haven't explored them all)

215

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 10, 2008, 06:50 PM »

I'm off for 3 days, but will look at this on a priority basis on monday. Sorry about this issue. Have you tried to click the save button when auto-save is not working correctly?

BTW, I agree with all your points. When you enter content, it should be this (simple) way.

Some of the complexities (which I'll resolve) is that the HTML pane can be used in other ways. For example, you can open an HTML file from disk. Then any changes to the content updates the disk file (EN does not have this feature). You work on what looks like SN content, but it is really a local file (and eventually an FTP or other web file). You can also open a URL and view it, in this case, editing is disabled. HTM, MHT (and PDF) files are handled differently too, etc. It has many modes and managing all of these... well... needs a bit of improvements 

216

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 07, 2008, 07:31 PM »

Actually, some web content is not well captured by EverNote, anything with CSS and JS does not import well. Other programs, including MS Word do a much better job.

217

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 07, 2008, 06:48 PM »

Hi Superboyac,

MHT files are really neat since they support embedded objects and still work with the HTML Export feature. However, I'm still searching for a pluggable editor. The only one I found is no longer sold (it is used by EverNote). The plan is threefold:

1- Improve the HTML editor, to support images
2- Add support for MSWord editing of HTML content
3- Find/develop a built-in MHT editor

I hope this clarifies the current situation.

218

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 24, 2008, 08:20 AM »

True, but I'll quote you: Jet is much more efficient than most people give it credit.  And JET's "name" in itself, is a statement that it handles multi-table (and multi-query) queries with the optimum efficiency.

219

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 23, 2008, 03:19 PM »

You are correct that Jet is efficient with sparse matrices. It was only one of the deciding factors, that, and the eventual support for SQLServer (which AFAIK is not efficient with sparse matrices)

I forgot to add in the reasons: much easier search. Searching all occurences of a given text string requires a single SQL query on a single field. [edit] I added it to my previous post for completeness [/edit]

220

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 23, 2008, 02:55 PM »

Now I see that sometimes by double clicking (or pressing enter twice...) in a grid cell I can "pick" from a list of all the values previously entered in that column (er, "field").  That's close to what I'm looking for but I need the picklist to come from another (not the same) column!  Is that possible?

What does inheritance do?

-JohnFredC (June 23, 2008, 02:29 PM)

1- No, this is not possible
2- It assigns child items the same value as the parent.

221

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 23, 2008, 02:53 PM »

>Why not just use native Jet tables, creating new tables, fields, and views when you need them via parameter driven code that builds/executes the appropriate SQL statements. IMHO much more powerful/flexible, and with reduced query overhead, too!

SQLNotes aim is not to compete or replace MS Office apps, but to complement. Some applications are best served with MS Access, some with Excel, some with Word. Some with SQLNotes. Many reasons not to use straight tables:
1- As the data represents a "sparse matrix", this would not be efficient
2- Max of 255 fields in JET 4.0
3- Granularity: changes to invididual cells could not be tracked, dated, by who, etc
4- Multi-user: add/remove fields would require table locks. Record locking would prohibit updates to different cells of a given record.
5- Integrity: file-based databases tend to corrupt data, especially for records with many fields. Having 1 field per record works around this limitation.
6- For large number of fields with sparsely filled records, it may even be faster to do it the SQLNotes way.
7- It is not that different from column-oriented databases: http://en.wikipedia....Column-oriented_DBMS (in particular the Benefits section)
8- I have databases with 30,000 items, 400,000 field values, >200 fields and response times is still excellent event with 8 connected users.
[edit]
9- Much easier search. Searching all occurences of a given text string requires a single SQL query on a single field.
[/edit]

222

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 23, 2008, 09:23 AM »

InfoStore seems to be what is generally called a 3-pane outliner (as Zoot). SQLNotes is a 1-pane outliner (with an optional 2nd pane) following the steps of defunct Ecco Pro. It can function as a 3-pane outliner when using the properties pane:
1- First pane is the properties pane, where fields are tree nodes
2- Double-click on a field will open items in that field in the ScratchPad, aka the 2nd pane
3- The HTML pane is then the content pane

Now the first pane, could also be simulated with a hierarchical grid list view. As Armando mentioned, this is planned.

As to the concept itself, it is neither 1 table per grid (as this would restrict field assignments), nor a single table per file (as this would be terribly inefficient) and would not work well in a multi-user environment, which SQLNotes does very well.

223

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 22, 2008, 11:07 PM »

1. The hierarchical grid is great!  But in addition to each grid node linking to a gant chart, html document, etc, I need a definable grid as a node's document type a la InfoStore from MHSoftware (...)
2. Designation of Foreign Keys.
Is this already possible?  For instance, in a parent grid, designate a unique key field.  In a related/subordinate grid, designate a foreign key and declare referential integrity between the two.  Ideally, the display control for the foreign key on the subordinate grid would be a combo box linking to a (unique) list of the primary key values of the parent grid.

-JohnFredC (June 22, 2008, 10:50 AM)

Hi,

1. This could be possible (i.e. the components used have this possibility) but it isn't now. Each item in a given grid share a common set of columns. You can simulate this using forms or by using 2 grids.

2. Through inheritance, you can simulate relational tables (à la Access) no problem. However, referential integrity implies that no change is allowed that would break these defined relationships. This goes against the SQLNotes philosophy that items can have any number of user-defined fields. A contact can also have phone call info, task info, etc. That said, through inheritance (values>sub-items in field management), data can be made to look as relational, and MS Access can even generate report as if it came from relational tables. More info on how to do this can be supplied if desired.

224

Living Room / Re: DC Forum Members -- Tell Us About Your Website

« Last post by PPLandry on June 20, 2008, 03:39 PM »

I've designed numerous web site for customers (in another life), but I'm now concentrating on just one: www.sqlnotes.net, which provides information, documentation, discussion forums, bug tracking and download for my information manager, SQLNotes (code name).

It is based on DotNetNuke (DNN) CMS for the most part (SQL Server based), with Mantis for the bug tracking part (modified from stock, MySQL based) and WikiSpaces for the collaborative documentation.

It was opened exactly 1 year ago. It was hosted on Brinkster and now on 1X Web hosting. Usage is typically 1000-2000 pages per day, and 150 unique visitors. Stats here

225

General Software Discussion / SQLNotes: the next generation information organizer

« Last post by PPLandry on June 20, 2008, 01:47 PM »

An important update has been released. Download it at www.sqlnotes.net!