Ease linking office documents to other Database sources

OpenOffice.org 2.0

Document - ID	Specification Owner	Last Change	Status
	Falko Tesch	11.06.2004	Draft
Conforms to	StarOffice Specification Workflow v0.1, Aug 2003
Applies to	Calc
Task ID(s)	i20129
Category	Feature

Abstract

Calc 1.x can only connect to databases that are registered to OpenOffice.org. There is no easy and direct way to link databases to Calc.

With Calc 2.0 this will change by integrating the new database concept of OpenOffice.org 2.0 into Calc database linking.

i-Team Members (The specification owner is part of the i-Team)

	Name	E-mail Address
User Experience	Falko Tesch	Ft@openoffice.org
Development #1	Frank Schönheit	Fs@openoffice.org
Development #2	Niklas Nebel	Nn@openoffice.org
Quality Assurance	Marc Neumann	Msc@openoofice.org
Documentation	Uwe fischer	Ufi@openoffice.org

Approved for Implementation

	Approved by	Date
User Experience	<Name>	<Date>
Development		
Quality Assurance		
Documentation		
String Review		

Document Change History

Rev. Level	Change	Initials	Date
1.0			<Date>

Contents

Glossary	1

1	Motivation	1

2	User Scenarios	1

3	Goals	1

4	Requirements and Dependencies	1

4.1	Requirements	1

4.2	Technical Dependencies	1

5	Competitive Analyses	1

6	Detailed Specification	1

6.1	G11n	2

6.2	Error Conditions	2

6.3	Migration	2

7	Future Tasks	2

8	Notes	2

9	References	3

Glossary

Term	Description
<Term 1>	

Motivation

For the moment the user needs to go a quite long way to link external datasources to her/his Calc spreadsheets. Instead a more intuitive way should be found. The user should be guided through a small wizard that allows her/him to choose from varios sources as well as queries.

User Scenarios

A user has a dbase database in his local file system and want a Calc spreadsheet to connect/link to this database.

For the moment this user has first to register the database with OpenOffice.org 1.x, than he needs to know that he has to open the DatabaseBeamer to finally darg and drop the desired database table into his spreadsheet.

There must be an easier way to do all of that in a straight forward way, all from within Calc.

Goals

Ease selection and linking of databases/sources into Calc spreadsheets.

Requirements and Dependencies

Requirements

Prerequisites for this feature are the implementation of the following specifications:

Database Application

Select Datasource Dialogue

Technical Dependencies

See 4.1.

Competitive Analyses

MS Excel

Figure 1 MS Excel Data Source Selection dialogue

Figure 2 MS Excel Data Source Selection's Tools menu

Figure 3 MS Excel Data Source Selection's View Options

Detailed Specification

New menu entry:

Data

--

Define Range...

Select Range...

--

Sort..

Filter	►

Totals

Validity

--

Multiple operations...

Consolidate...

Outline	►

From Database...

DataPilot	►

--

Refresh Range

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
Menu Entry	F~rom Database...	Von Datenbank...	

Tab Order

<If necessary Describe or visualize the tabbing order. The description of the tab order has to contain which control has the initial focus.>

Key Board Shortcuts

<Key Board shortcuts used in dialogs have to be listed in a table with a small description.>

G11n

<Globalization related topics should be stated here. A globalization related topic is for example when a feature needs to be enhanced to satisfy special regional needs.>

Error Conditions

<List all error conditions, and the action the system takes about them. If an alert box comes up, which kind is it? Include exact text of messages, or say what points need to be covered. Error Messages need a string list>

Migration

<Any migration issues have to be stated here. For example how can users migrate from one version of a database to another?>

Future Tasks

<If there are features which couldn't be implemented but have to be implemented in the future. State these in here with a description why the feature couldn't be implemented right now.>

Notes

<Questions will arise during the writing of the specification. State these in here.>

References

<Give references to related documentation, such as engineering designs, technical specs, and other sources for related units. Also include links to documents that other sections in this spec need to refer to, such as user opinions usability test reports.>

Ease linking office documents to other Database sources

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Http://specs.openoffice.org/calc/ease-of-use/Ease_linking_office_documents_to_other_Database_sources.sxw

Ease linking office documents to other Database sources

Falko Tesch

2004-06-11T11:46:25

Matthias Müller-Prove