VFP Data Converter - Bildschirmfotos
As long as there is no translation and complete documentation available I hope these pictures will help you to use the program. If there are any problems contact me.
FILE MENU
The following picture shows the File menu (German: Datei) of the VFPDC.
From the top to the bottom you will find the
- Wizard - Import/Export Definition
The wizard allows you to define your import/export and mappings - Daten konvertieren
This will open the main dialog where you select the definitions you created in the wizard together with the data you want to convert. Only the export definitions mapped to the already selected import definition are shown. - Daten senden
This will open the WebDAV send dialog that will allow you to send a file (XML/ICAL) to the Open-Xchange server. - Daten empfangen
This will open the WebDAV receive dialog that will allow you to send a file (XML/ICAL) to the Open-Xchange server. - Beenden
This will allow you to exit/close the program
WIZARD - MAIN SELECTION
The following picture shows the first page of the wizard Here you decide which steps/pages of the wizard you will access if you press the Forward button (German: Weiter). The Finish button (German: Fertigstellen) will jump to the last page, while the Cancel button (German: Abbrechen) will exit the wizard.
From the top to the bottom you can define what you want to do.
- Import
If you want to modify an existing import definition or create a new one check this box - Export
If you want to modify an existing export definition or create a new one check this box - Mapping
This will automatically check Import and Export and allows you to map the fields from the import definition to the fields of the export definition.
WIZARD - IMPORT DEFINITION
The following picture shows the first page of the import definition
in the wizard.
Note: The export looks basically the same...as do the
other export pages.
You can select existing import definitions from the list (German: Vordefinierte Quelle) you want to work with, you create a new definition or you can delete an existing definition (including the fields and mappings) by selecting it and pressing the Delete marked entry button (German: Markierten Eintrag loeschen). It is not possible to delete the example definitions and mapping but it's possible to make a copy!
If you want to create a new definition you enter a free ID (or just press the New ID button (German: Neue ID), enter the Name of your import definition and choose one of the available formats. After that you press the Add entry button (German: Eintrag hinzufügen) to save the new definition.
You can change existing definitions if you select it first, change the name and save the changed entry by pressing the Add entry button as described above. The following window will as you if you really want to rename the entry as an entry with the specified ID already exists. It is not possible to rename/change the example definitions and mapping!
If you want to modify an existing example definition you have to copy the definition first. This can be done by selecting the definition and then pressing the Copy marked entry button (German: Markierten Eintrag kopieren). After that you can modify the entry. The mapping will not be copied by this process. You have to recreate the mapping (see below).
The following picture shows the basic settings for the import definition. You can define a place to a file which should always be the source you want to import (normally you leave it empty). Here you can also select the separator used when importing textfiles or how many lines should be skipped before the real data begins. If you import from OpenOffice Calc or MS Excel you will specify how many lines and columns the program should look ahead before it should stop trying to find data to import.
The first textfield is the full path to the file (Filename) you want to import (German: Dateiname). The same is possible later at the export definition the save the converted data always into the same file.
The field separator can be selected by choosing it from the first dropdown box (German: Trennzeichen für Element Aufzaehlungen). There is a huge list available.
The Line with Column names (German: Zeile mit den Spaltenüberschriften) is exactly what you think. If you have Column names in the first line of the file or in the first line in the spreadsheet you enter 1 otherwise 0.
The First line with data (German: Erste Zeile die Daten enthaelt) specifies where the data lines start. I think it's clear.
With Read ahead lines and Read ahead colums
(German: Im voraus zu lesenden Zeilen/Im voraus zu lesenden Spalten)
you can specify how long it should try to find data until it will stop.
This is only needed if you import data from a spreadsheet application
like OpenOffice calc or MS Excel.
Don't set it to 0. High values like 100 should be used here.
The following picture shows the field definition of the import file. You have to define each column (German: Spaltennummer) here that you want to import.
The behaviour is more or less identical to the base import definition. The buttons have the same text, so I don't describe it any further (look at the 1st import definition page). After this page it will continue with the export definition if you've checked it on the first wizard page.
WIZARD - EXPORT DEFINITION
I skip the first export page here, but the second export page needs some explaination.
The entry field you see in the following picture is always available as you can define the default output file (see also import definition page 2).
The following block of options enclosed in a black border is only available if you have choosen a textfile (ASCII/ANSI) as export filetype. Here is a description from top to bottom.
- Schreibe extra Zeile mit Spaltenüberschriften
If you check this, a header line with the column names (export definition fields) will be written on top of the exported file. - Textzeile mit einem Zeilenumbruch abschließen
If checked (which normally should be the case) each line of data will be ended my a carriage return + line feed. - Eintrag (Element) mit einem Zeilenumbruch abschließen
This one will add a carriage return + line feed on every element not just the complete line of data. Normally you don't check this unless you know what you are doing. - Leerzeile schreiben
If you check this, a new line will be added together with the second checkbox you will get one line of data an empty line, then again a line with data and so on. If the second checkbox is not set only selecting this option will basically result in the same behaviour (adding carriage return + line feed at the end of each line). - Neue Daten an einer bestehenden Datei anhängen
If you check this the data should be appended to an existing file. - Trennzeichen für Schlüssel=Wert Felder
This dropdown box allows to specify which separator is used to separate Key and Value fields. - Trennzeichen für Element Aufzählungen
This dropdown box allows to specify the separator used to separate elements. It's the separator you also select if you want to import CSV data. TAB, Comma, Colon and other are possible values. - Werte (Elemente) in einfache Anführungszeichen setzen
This checkbox allows you to export values quoted using single quotes. - Escape Zeiche
You can specify the escape character here. Currently this option is disabled but it will be available in the future.
The following export page will never look like shown here. If you have selected a textfile (ASCII/ANSI) you will only see the upper option with the black border, if you choose XML (OX-XML) you will see the lower options.
If you are familiar with SQL you see in the upper box that it looks like an outline of an INSERT statement used to store data in an SQL table and it's exactly what you can do here. You can write down the basic insert command and the program will replace the <header_elements> string with the header (column definition) and the <data_elements> string with the data.
In the lower box you are able to predefine the server where the exported file should be uploaded and also the path on the server. You can select the Key using the dropdown box, then you can enter the value (German: Wert) to the following textfield and add it to the upper list by pressing the Add button (German: Hinzufügen).
I skipped the following export field definition because it has already been described and I also skip the page where you can enter Visual FoxPro code, because this is an advanced feature for professionals. You may want to look at the examples which have some comments to find out more about this feature.
WIZARD - MAPPING DEFINITION
The following picture shows the mapping of fields. Here you decide which previously defined import field will be saved in which export field.
You have to use drag'n'drop the import field mapping shown in the
upper left and drop it on the target export field shown in the upper
right. The resulting mapping will be shown in the wide table below the
import/export drag'n'drop enabled lists.
In the picture the entry Academic title is mapped to the
ox:title (which is the name of the XML field).
You can delete an existing mapping by selecting the entry in the wide table and press the Delete entry button (German: Eintrag loeschen). In this example no entry is selected, so the Delete entry button is disabled.
DATA CONVERSION DIALOG
After the definitions and the mapping are complete you can finally convert data. The dialog you will see is shown here.
As before the dialog is separated into several parts. This time
there are three parts. The first two parts show some basic import and
export definition information (Name and type of the import and export
format). You first have to select the import definition from
the listed items, the source of the data (German: Quelle). After
that you can select possible target items (German: Ziel) that
will be listed.
If there is no mapping available for the selected source
you won't see possible targets.
If you have selected source and target
the mapping will be shown in the grid and you can check your mapping
before you convert your data.
If you have selected the source and the target format you can start the conversion by pressing the Convert button (German: Konvertieren). You will be ask for the source and the target file if you haven't defined them in the definition. As you now see the complicated stuff is only creating the definition.
If you want to close the window just press the Close button (German: Schliessen).
WEBDAV - SEND & RECEIVE DIALOG
The send and receive dialog again look basically the same. You may only see the diffence when you look at the button in the lower right corner. You will see either a Send button (German: Senden) or an Receive button (German: Empfangen).
In this example I did access the Open-Xchange online demo which can be found at the commercial Open-Xchange home.
Most of the dialog should be self explaining, as the server url, user (German: Benutzer), password (German: Kennwort or Passwort) and path on the server (German: Pfad).
You may have an resource where you don't have to enter user and password, so you can disable it by unchecking the User and password required checkbox (German: Benutzer und Kennwort erforderlich).
The dropdown list for the path selection contains already several entries you can choose from. All entries that don't contain any [some value] element will be used if you select Receive all data (German: Alle Daten empfangen).
Normally you may not know which path you have to select then the possibility to use the Open-Xchange folder XML document is a nice feature. The XML document will be requested if you press the button Path selection from OX-Folderlisty (German: Pfad Auswahl aus OX-Ordnerliste).
The file path (German: Dateipfad) is again the target where to save the
data if you have opened the receive dialog, or the file you want to send
to the server if you have opened the send dialog.
If you selected to receive more than one folder you don't specify a file
but a directory. The files will be named after the type and id of the folder
plus an timestamp value (they look like this: webdav.contacts_2005-07-25_2346_85571.984.xml).
The OX-Folder list dialog shown here will show you all available folders you can access.
The dialog has one main element and that's the grid, where you can see details of the available folders. Additional information of the currently selected folder (see the small arrow in the first row) is shown in the box below the grid. There you can see if it's a default folder, who has created the folder and who modified it the last time.
The grid shows the ID of the folder, the OX-Module type, the Folder name, the OX-Type (public or private), the owner (German: Besitzer) and finally a column where you can select the folder.
With the buttons below the grid you can Select all items (German: Alles auswählen) or Invert selection (German: Auswahl umkehren).
If after you've selected your folders you can press the Accept selection button (German: Auswahl übernehmen). All selected folders will be added to the path selection of the previous dialog after the old entries have been removed. If you only select one folder only that folder will be added to the path selection. Unbound folders are not supported!