Archive for October, 2009

Misc translation issues

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

The Galician translation is now complete.

e.g. #: dbe_plugins/dbe_sqlite.py:308
msgid “The SQLite details are incomplete”
msgstr “Os datos de SQLite están incompletos”

It is now time to enable SOFA Statistics to use multiple translations successfully. Here are some possible issues:

  • Overly-long strings: these can affect layout e.g. the buttons on the main form. There may be ways of abbreviating strings.
  • A locale not being installed on a computer. Lots more to learn about this but here is a linux command for identifying what is on your system
    locale -a
  • How to allow a user to select a locale (or to automatically use the locale of their computer).
  • Making sure everything works on Windows as well.
  • Getting the Galician po file approved by Launchpad (currently stuck in “Needs Review”)

Testing will begin soon. Most importantly, the internationalisation of SOFA Statistics has begun in earnest :-).

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Making beautiful output using SVG and JavaScript

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

The charting functionality of SOFA Statistics is not available yet but the technology required is coming together. At the current time the intention is to use the gRaphaelJS library (http://g.raphaeljs.com/) to create the charts and wxWebKit (wxWebKit progress) to display it. The goal is to have beautiful output without using a proprietary technology such as Flash (which also has printing problems). The gRaphaelJS library is still only version 0.2 but progress has been rapid. DmitryBaranovskiy is doing a great job (http://github.com/DmitryBaranovskiy/g.raphael/).

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Multi-language SOFA Statistics Begins

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Launchpad offers great support for translating applications into different languages (https://help.launchpad.net/Translations).  And Python http://docs.python.org/library/i18n.html (and wxPython http://wiki.wxpython.org/Internationalization) have standard ways of supporting multiple languages.  So it was always going to be achievable to make SOFA Statistics multilingual as long as people were willing to help with translation.  First to raise their hand has been Indalecio Freiría Santos (see SOFA Statistics discussion thread) and the Galician version should be available first.  If you are interested in adding translations please feel free to raise your hand in the discussion group http://groups.google.com/group/sofastatistics at any time.

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0.8.10 more netbook-friendly and users can view table designs

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

A small release before major work on internationalisation begins.  The main changes are:

  • Users can now view the design of tables in the default SOFA database.
  • More netbook-friendly design of projects form.
  • Misc improvements to interface esp when selecting data.

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Major maintenance release in 0.8.9

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Version 0.8.9 of SOFA Statistics is a significant maintenance release.

Important bug fixes:

  • The process of creating new tables directly into SOFA Statistics has been significantly improved.
  • Numerous interface bugs affecting settings tables have been fixed.

Under the surface, the code underlying the database tables and the setting tables (e.g. configuring data table design, modifying variable labels, adding project settings etc) has been aligned considerably.  In the process, numerous bugs were removed, especially for Windows users.  Setting tables now have cell as well as row validation.  The text browser control in the grid (a text box and a browse button when you click on a cell to edit it) is now laid out much better.  Setting table validation refers to the faulty column by name rather than number.  Focus is not lost in Windows when in the settings subtable in the project configuration form.  Hitting Enter when editing a combo box in a settings table no longer loses focus to the OK button (thus closing the table prematurely!).  Plus misc minor fixes and extra polish.

One of the next tasks is to enable users to modify the configuration of existing SOFA Statistics tables e.g. rename fields, add/insert fields, delete fields etc.  The groundwork laid down in this release should make that much easier to add.

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Vista and Win 7 Permissions in SOFA Statistics Installer

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Successfully installing an NSIS-created package requires some attention to the permissions of the person doing the installation onto their Windows machine.

A useful discussion of permission levels is here – http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?postid=2342257

If a user does not install SOFA Statistics with the appropriate permissions they might receive an error message like:

Error opening file for writing:
C:\Program Files\….

This may occur even if there is no folder called Program Files e.g. if they are installing onto a Swedish version of Windows.  See http://forums.gforums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=8a0906800e16ffd51be2d2fda1a23c4c&threadid=306563.

If it is necessary to check if a user is installing with administrator permissions, the following may be useful – http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Simple_tutorials.

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Installing missing dlls in Windows for SOFA Statistics

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Creating a Windows installation package that works on everything from XP Home Edition to Vista 64-bit Business Edition is manageable but not exactly trivial.  Sometimes a single file can create a lot of issues e.g. msvcr71.dll (See http://www.sofastatistics.com/blog/?p=113). To ensure this file is available on the target computer it is not simply a matter of transferring the file in the same way that other files are transferred.  The correct approach using NSIS is to run InstallLib.

The following item was helpful – http://blacksheepsoftware.com.au/bradley/wordpress/?p=17. The NSIS documentation of relevance is here – http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/AppendixB.html.

The snippet of code used in the latest SOFA Statistics package for Windows is:

; http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/AppendixB.html
IfFileExists "$PROGRAMFILES\sofa\start.pyw" 0 new_installation

StrCpy $ALREADY_INSTALLED 1

new_installation:

!insertmacro InstallLib REGDLL $ALREADY_INSTALLED REBOOT_NOTPROTECTED “G:\3 SOFA dev\sofalibs\msvcr71.dll” $SYSDIR\msvcr71.dll $SYSDIR

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0.8.8 able to add data directly to SOFA Statistics

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

Users are now able to add data directly to SOFA Statistics by configuring new tables in the default SQLite database and adding data directly to them.

There has also been an important bug fix for PostgreSQL when making report tables.  Interestingly, SUM(boolean) functions differently from the other SQL databases used.

The Windows installer should work better for many users esp on Vista or XP Professional.

A quirk has been noticed in the Windows version with the Enter key when configuring a new table and entering data into it.  Using tab or the mouse works in the meantime.  A fix is expected in the next release.

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