#
# .../CPAN/hp200lx-db/docs/announce-0.07.txt
#
# written:       1999-05-24
# latest update: 1999-05-24 11:47:12
#

The Perl module familiy HP200LX::DB and HP200LX::DBgui version 0.07
should be available from any CPAN mirror near you soon.  It was
uploaded earlier today and confirmed by the CPAN daemons:

  The uploaded file hp200lx-db-0.07.tar.gz has entered CPAN as
  file: $CPAN/authors/id/G/GG/GGONTER/hp200lx-db-0.07.tar.gz
  size: 51772 bytes
   md5: db03e4b26ffe9e86892c46c868c9c31f

This release contains a couple of improvements and bug fixes and
a bit better error and constraint handling.

1. General DB handling, module DB.pm:
   a. DB header loader, analyzer, packer improved.
   b. load DBs whithout lookup table; the lookup table is missing
      if the DB was created by exporting or by some other tool
      and if the DB was open while it was saved.  The decoder loop
      was isolated for possible new applications.
   c. A few problems with the handling of time stamps were identified
      and fixed.
   d. $db->dump_type () method implemented for raw exports in text format.
   e. update attribute introduced, will be used in saveDB in the future.

2. ADB handling
   a. DOC: More details and clarifications about the ADB file format.
   b. recurrence objects now have constructor, packer and decoder
      methods.  The deocder was isolated from the constructor.
   c. new module DB/adb.pm to encapsulate some aspects of ADB files.
      Some code was isolated from catadb.pl

3. Scripts
   a. catgdb.pl -summary
      write one line summary about the database
   b. catgdb.pl -dump
      Dump the contents of all DB records (data and other parts)
   c. catadb.pl
      some code was transfered to DB/adb.pm

4. DBgui.pm
   a. Applied patches by Rod Whithby for better Perl/Tk compatibility.


Next Steps planned for version 0.08:
1. Use of dump_type method for CVS/RCS based version control e.g.
   as a backup and archival facility.
2. ADB importer: Creation of ADB data records and possibly complete
   databases.
3. catadb.pl -format yahoo
   ... to export ADB files in Yahoo! Calendar format.
4. DB.pm enhancements
   a. use of update attribute for automatic refresh of view points upon save
   b. importer to re-create DB from the output of catgdb.pl -dump
   c. constructors and loaders for other elements of the database.
      At some time, it should be possible to create a DB from scratch
      without using pre-fabricated templates.

Work in progress without specific releas plans:
1. More example scripts will be made available if time permits, e.g.
   a. getps.pl: a tool to fetch the "Pocket Standard", an online-edition
      of the Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" for the Palm Pilot
      which is the dumped into a GDB file using a pre-edited template.
2. A multiplexer module which encapsulates a collection of DB file
   into one object.  I'm not sure what this is good for yet, but
   it might be usable for web servers, query tools or who knows what ;)
   Maybe this will be useful for a DBI::DBD driver module.     
3. Scripts dealing with LDIF and vCard, iCalendar objects are currently
   in their infancy, maybe the grow up to be released some time...

I hope the software is useful for your purposes, but use it at your own
risk!  Feedback, e.g. bug reports, fixes and other suggestions are
welcome.  Especially, the "catgdb.pl -dump" and RCS/CVS facilities
are of great interest for me, suggestions in this area are very much
welcome!

g.gonter@ieee.org

