Removing a server location

The removal of an existing Xindice server location is very straightforward. It is sufficient to select one of the servers shown in the Attrezzo Navigator and use the "Remove location" menu item located in the view's context menu. More than one location can be removed in a single action.

Refreshing the Navigator View

The changes that you make during the session are stored in the database as you you save your work. However, if changes are being made to the database at the same time from other sources, you will not automatically see those changes. Therefore, it is useful, and indeed advisable, that you obtain a fresh and up to date view of the server at reasonable time intervals. This can be done by pressing the "Refresh" button located on the Navigator's toolbar (it is the very first button in the toolbar). The length of time between refreshes is dependent on the usage of the database. 

Importing and exporting data

The interface permits data to be imported from the file system into an Xindice repository and, conversely, to be exported from the repository to the file system. This is done via wizards, which are described in the sections the follow.

Importing data into an Xindice repository

This functionality can be accessed by either clicking on the "Import" button on the Attrezzo Navigator toolbar or selecting the "Import" menu item in the "File" menu on the main menu bar. The wizard that is displayed is the one shown in figure 3.

 

Figure 3: The Attrezzo Import Wizard initially

Both Directory and Collection fields are filled in by using the "Browse" button on their right. The Directory field also keeps memory of past selections; its history can be accessed by pulling down the field. The initial text in the Collection field will show the Xindice element that was selected in the Navigator View at the time the Import Wizard was instantiated. The dialogs that are displayed when the two Browse buttons are pressed are shown in figure 4 and figure 5 for the "Directory" and the "Collection" field respectively.

  

Let's first look at the Directory dialog in figure 4. This is a standard Eclipse Directory dialog, in which the name of the desired directory can either be filled in directly in the top text field or picked by selecting a node in the hierarchical view. The directory that is picked represents the root directory from which the the left hand side box of the wizard will be filled in (see figure 6). The Collection dialog, shown in figure 5, is a filtered view of the contents of the defined databases, which does not show any Xindice documents but only servers and collections. When the dialog is instantiated, the element that gets automatically selected in the tree contained in the dialog is the collection that is indicated in the Collection field in the Import Wizard, and the tree is shown opened so as to reveal that selected collection. When the user picks any collection in the tree widget, its absolute path is displayed just above the tree widget itself in the dialog. The buttons above the tree widget emulate navigation in a browser, allowing to "go into" a selected collection (i.e. to display that selection as the root of the tree) or to "move out" of it and thereby enabling the user to bore in or out of a given hierarchy at any time.

When a directory is chosen as the starting point in the file system, the interface fills in the boxes below the "Directory" field. The box on the left contains all directories displayed in a hierarchical tree, whereas the box on the right displays the files contained in the selected directory. Figure 6 shows the wizard after selection of the source directory.

Figure 6: The Attrezzo Import Wizard filled in

As can be seen, all elements in the two boxes have checkboxes associated with them. Intelligent management of the check/uncheck mechanism permits the definition of what is to be imported at various levels. Checking a directory automatically checks all files and subdirectories contained in it. The full path of the selection is also shown via the greyed check boxes in the parents of the checked element (a grey check box indicates partial selection of that element). 

It is also possible to filter file types via the "Filter Types..." button. This works in the following way: first the user ticks the checkboxes of a set of files. She then clicks on the "Filter Types..." button, which brings up a dialog of possible file extensions. The user can pick a number of existing extensions or define her own extensions if she needs it. When the "Ok" button is pressed and the dialog is dismissed, the selection on the files will update itself to show as selected only those files whose name has one of the selected extensions.

Finally, it is possible to select an entire file system tree or deselect it all using the "Select All" and "Deselect All" buttons.

Two import options are represented by the two checkboxes at the bottom of the Wizard page. The first option enables the user to choose whether or not she wants to be warned every time a resource with the same name and in the same relative location of a selected file already exists in the database and is about to be overwritten.

The second option enables the user to have the whole directory structure, starting from the root directory shown in the Directory field at the top of the wizard page and down to the selected files, to be automatically imported as well.

As in all wizards, the "Finish" button is only enabled when the minimum amount of information necessary to carry out the import operation is provided. Furthermore, real time help, error messages and feedback are provided in the white area under the title.

Any error encountered during the import operation does not stop the operation itself, which will run until an import attempt has been made on all files selected by the user. All errors are recorded and a comprehensive error report is presented to the user at operation completion.

Exporting data from an Xindice repository

This functionality can be accessed by either clicking on the "Export" button on the Attrezzo Navigator toolbar or selecting the "Export" menu item in the "File" menu on the main menu bar. The wizard that is displayed is the one shown in figure 7.

Figure 7: The Attrezzo Export Wizard initially

When the wizard is displayed,  the left hand side box is immediately filled in with the collections available on all defined Xindice servers (as displayed in the Attrezzo Navigator). The navigational buttons at the top of the box enable the user to bore in and out of specific portions of the tree. As for the import functionality, all servers and collections are shown in the left hand side box and all documents contained within the selected collection are shown in the right hand side box. The Directory pull down field below the boxes is filled via the "Browse" button which, when clicked, brings up a Directory dialog as shown in figure 4. As for the import functionality, the pull down field keeps memory of past selections.

Figure 8 shows the wizard after selection of the source collection and of the target filesystem directory.

Figure 8: The Attrezzo Export Wizard filled in

The check/uncheck mechanism is the same as described in section Importing data into an Xindice repository, as well as the behaviour of the three buttons "Select Types...", "Select All" and "Deselect All" and the meaning of the two options represented by the two checkboxes at the bottom of the wizard page. 

As in the case of the Import Wizard, any error encountered during the export operation does not stop the operation itself, which will run until an export attempt has been made on all Xindice resources selected by the user. All errors are recorded and a comprehensive error report is presented to the user at operation completion.

 

Manipulating Xindice resources

Collections and documents can be created from scratch and added to a specified Xindice repository, modified or deleted from the repository.

Creating a new collection

The user can create a new collection in one of the following four ways:

1. by selecting the "New --> Collection" menu item in the context menu of the Attrezzo Navigator when either a server or a collection is selected;

2. by clicking on the "New" Wizard;

3. by selecting the "New" menu item in the "File" menu on the main menu bar;

4. by clicking on the "New Collection" button on the main toolbar when an Xindice Perspective is open.

The New Collection Wizard is then presented as shown in figure 9.

 

The user needs to select the parent collection (or server) in which the new collection will be placed. This is done by selecting an item in the hierarchical tree shown in the wizard. The buttons above the tree representation of the current servers' contents allow to "go into" a selected collection (i.e. to display that selection as the root of the tree) or "move out" of it, enabling the user to bore in or out of a given hierarchy at any time. The full path of the currently selected element in the tree is shown as text just above the box containing the tree gadget. The collection is created once the user presses the "Finish" button. When this happens, the Attrezzo Navigator opens up to show the newly added collection. Nested collections can be added in one go by entering the collections names separated by "/". For instance, in order to create the collection "catalina" and, within it, the collection "docs", it is sufficient to select the parent collection, in this case "AttrezzoDemo/src" and then to enter the string "catalina/docs" in the Collection name field.

 

Creating a new document

The user can create a new document in one of the following four ways:

1. by selecting the "New --> Document" menu item in the context menu of the Attrezzo Navigator when a collection is selected;

2. by clicking on the "New" Wizard;

3. by selecting the "New" menu item in the "File" menu on the main menu bar;

4. by clicking on the "New Document" button on the main toolbar when an Attrezzo Perspective is open.

The New Document Wizard is then presented as shown in figure 10.

The user needs to select the parent collection in which the new collection will be placed. This is done by selecting an item in the hierarchical tree shown in the wizard. As is the case for the New Collection Wizard, the buttons above the tree representation of the current servers' contents allow to "go into" (i.e. to display that selection as the root of the tree) a selected collection or "move out" of it, enabling the user to bore in or out of a given hierarchy at any time. The full path of the currently selected element in the tree is shown as text just above the box containing the tree gadget. In order to create the document the user needs to enter a name for the document in the Document name field and the name of the XML root element in the XML root element name field. The document is created once the user provides the needed data and presses the "Finish" button. When this happens, the Attrezzo Navigator expands to show the newly added document and, at the same time, an editor is opened with the newly created document in its buffer. Only one document can be added at a time. 

Editing a document

An XML document contained in the repository can be modified in the Editor window. The document is opened by selecting it in the Attrezzo Navigator and then either double clicking on it or selecting the "Open" menu item in the Navigator's context menu. The document is opened in the Editor in its own tab. More than one document can be opened simultaneously by making a multiple selection of documents in the Attrezzo Navigator and clicking on the "Open" menu item in the Navigator's context menu. 

The Editor's context menu offers several useful editing options. Among them, the "Save" option enables storage of the modifications back into the Xindice repository. Save can also be achieved using the appropriate menu item in the "File" menu on the main menu bar or using the "<Ctrl> S" shortcut. Finally, any given document can be saved with a different name and/or in a different location in the hierarchical tree by using the "Save As" menu item located in the "File menu.

When the user is finished working with a document, she can close it by either clicking on the "X" symbol on the document's Editor tab or by selecting the "Close" item in the "File" menu on the main menu bar. All currently opened documents can be closed simultaneously by selecting the "Close all" menu item in the "File" menu.

Deleting a collection or a document

Collections and documents are deleted from an Xindice repository by selecting one or more resource in the Attrezzo Navigator View and then either selecting the "Delete" menu item in the Navigator's context menu or selecting the "Delete" menu item in the "Edit" menu on the main toolbar. Multiple resources can be deleted simultaneously. Deletions can also be performed via the keyboard by pressing the "Delete" key.

When a collection is deleted, all of its children are recursively deleted with it. If any document that is due to be deleted happens to be open in the Editor, it is automatically closed. Any unsaved changes in the Editor are automatically discarded.