AETL Canvas Enhancements for consideration.

Hi,

Here are a few enhancements for consideration for the canvas areas. Some of these may be easy, some complex, and some pie in the sky. However, I figure it never hurts to ask for consideration - you guys have amazed me at some of the other enhancements you have made that makes my life so much easier :woohoo:.

1. A larger space between the two columns (Source Data / Target Data, etc.). The first thing that has to be done is move the right column to the right to make room for transformations. Ideally this could be user definable in settings somewhere.
2. A sub-transformation transformation that enables the user to drop on the canvas, set inputs and outputs, and open a canvas to drop other transformations on. This would enable us to create a group of transformations that are related then use that group of transformations as one transformations in the current transformations canvas.
3. The ability to store sub-transformations in the repository for reuse in other transformations. For example if there is a series of transformations (lookup, add, if null, if empty, etc) that are reused we could design once and reuse in other transformations.
4. Another thing that may help ease the clutter is to be able to minimize the transformation (like add, lookup, etc) so you just see the topmost row of information that is showing currently - with the connecting lines all terminating on that row when the object is collapsed. Expand the object for the view we have today.
5. The ability to set a different color for certain connecting lines or bold the lines in and out of objects. Again it gets complex in larger transformations. Currently, even selecting the line does not highlight or bold it. For example, clicking an item on the source side would bold and / or color all lines out of it to where it is connected. If an item with input and output is selected the lines would be bold and / or colored for the inputs and outputs. Maybe a different color for input vs output.
6. Looking at grid alignment - the default placement done by the program does not follow the grid spacing. It is impossible to line up new items I drag onto the canvas or existing items I move to those that were placed there by the program.
7. Arrange Horizontal and Arrange Vertical buttons that actually does something worthwhile. Stacking the objects on top of each other is worthless. That is the typical result. And with no undo we have to cancel and start over. Something like align left, align top, align right, and align bottom would be very helpful. So would a snap to grid on the canvas. Ideally, selecting a column of objects then click a button to space them on the grid one below the other.
8. I think you are working on this one - Source and Target field drop-downs at the top of the canvas that would allow us to select a field and have that field selected in the canvas. This is very important when dealing with lots of fields. Trying to find a field on a busy canvas is a pain.
9. Zoom the canvas. Zoom in and out. I am getting transformations that are wider than the screen. Scrolling left / right is somewhat clunky. Sometimes the toolbox has to be collapsed to see what is under it. Zoom out to see the entire canvas then select an area to zoom in on. Or a smaller image somewhere that shows the entire canvas (obviously unreadable) and the mouse pointer would be a box representing the screen (scaled either to the user screen size settings or 1024/768 type of thing. I would rather just see zoom on the entire canvas.
10. The links are in a straight line. It would be nice to have an option to route them around objects (ie like Visio) This and line color / bolding would be awesome.
11. Different color object background depending on what it is. For example, light blue for source data, light green for target data, light orange for transformations (or a color for a type of transformations - purple for lookup type transformations, red for math type transformations, etc). Of course have default colors and a setup area where the user could modify the colors if they choose.
12. On the Data Flow Diagram - for items like writer that has other property areas (Writer has the SQL Properties) show some indicator that something is there. Using Writer as an example - put the text "SQL" in small letters or an image of some type that would provide a visible indicator of something behind the object (such as sql commands).
13. Have the ability to insert a comment directly on an item - like Excel allows you to add a note on a cell and show it as a little red square to signify that there is a note. This helps the code to be more self documenting - like "Why did I do it this way" note for someone else or for later when the tranformation is edited again.
14. Group a collection of objects together on the screen so they move as one unit. For example: Group a lookup and the target fields the lookup data goes to together so they can be moved as one object.

Feel free to consider, question, or flat out discard any of these...

Thank for the feed back, we try to introduce the changes you requested when we get a chance.

At the moment and we are working on en enhancing support for salesforce and problems with green plum databases

Peter

Yes SalesForce is big. These suggestions are important but do not impact the core functionality of AETL like datasources, etc. Another one would be QuickBooks. I have had to get data in and out of Quickbooks and have another one of those coming up very soon. Will probably give the QuickBooks ODBC driver a try ( qodbc.com/default.htm ).

Careful with Undo as it does not work well..

This fairly clean layout:



becomes this when undo is clicked:

We have implemented some of your suggestions

Added ability to hide tabs on main screen
Added tabs to transformation editor
Added select count(*) from table menu item to sql browser
Added Space Horizontally and Space Vertically buttons
Search dialogue edit box values is stored in registry now
Addressed issues with date fields processing
Addressed issues of loading data from delimited files

Zoom the canvas. Zoom in and out. I am getting transformations that are wider than the screen. Scrolling left / right is somewhat clunky. Sometimes the toolbox has to be collapsed to see what is under it. Zoom out to see the entire canvas then select an area to zoom in on. Or a smaller image somewhere that shows the entire canvas (obviously unreadable) and the mouse pointer would be a box representing the screen (scaled either to the user screen size settings or 1024/768 type of thing. I would rather just see zoom on the entire canvas.


This functionality was implemented in latest release





Peter