Comments on: Charts and Maps for Dabble DB http://itredux.com/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/ New Rules for a New IT World Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:42:55 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: IT|Redux - Database Roundup http://itredux.com/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/comment-page-1/#comment-46370 IT|Redux - Database Roundup Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:38:44 +0000 http://itredux.com/blog/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/#comment-46370 [...] Dabble DB: Dabble DB is developed by a small company from Vancouver, BC, and can be considered as a pioneer in the area of AJAX-based online databases. The founders have taken a radical approach to solving the problem of managing data online through simple metaphors, and came up with what I believe to be the simplest user interface out there. They were also the first to introduce a variety of feeds for your data, in multiple formats including CSV, JSON, PDF, RSS, and Text. More recently, they added support for charts and maps, giving us a good preview for what online Business Intelligence (BI) might look like down the road. Developer’s tip: the default JSON feed has a .json extension, but if you replace it by a .js extension, the resulting feed might be easier to parse in JavaScript. [...] […] Dabble DB: Dabble DB is developed by a small company from Vancouver, BC, and can be considered as a pioneer in the area of AJAX-based online databases. The founders have taken a radical approach to solving the problem of managing data online through simple metaphors, and came up with what I believe to be the simplest user interface out there. They were also the first to introduce a variety of feeds for your data, in multiple formats including CSV, JSON, PDF, RSS, and Text. More recently, they added support for charts and maps, giving us a good preview for what online Business Intelligence (BI) might look like down the road. Developer’s tip: the default JSON feed has a .json extension, but if you replace it by a .js extension, the resulting feed might be easier to parse in JavaScript. […]

]]> By: Francis Ip http://itredux.com/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/comment-page-1/#comment-45005 Francis Ip Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:35:52 +0000 http://itredux.com/blog/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/#comment-45005 EditGrid is the first, as I am aware of, web-based spreadsheet that supports multi-lingual capabilities, but is has some distance to go in terms of supporting multi-lingual properly. It would be even better if EditGrid also complied with the W3C's accessibility standard (WAI—Web Accessibility Initiative). The incorporation of charts and maps into Dabble DB looks like the first attempt at webifying primitive GIS (Geograpic Information System) features of Microsoft's map component in Office Suite or Corel's map component in CorelDraw—all are of the Office 1.0 genre. I don't know how much effort and code were required to extend the drill-down capability. Without macro and OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) capabilities, I believe that revision of underlying codes is needed to reflect the currency of charts and maps. This is another problem in synchronization, as mentioned elsewhere, perhaps. Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 do provide prettier user interfaces, but they still have a long way to go to catch up with the capabilities offered by Office 1.0 in terms of usability and productivity from an end-user's perspective. Microsoft and its counterparts are not sitting still, they have already moved into the Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 sphere. I haven't evaluated Office 2007's full capabilities and its web support yet. It is quite possible that Microsoft still has some distance to go in making Office Suite totally web-based, and preserving some Office 1.0 capabilities. As an end-user advocate, I would like to see how the so-called open-source Office 2.0 movement will play out against Microsoft. History may repeat itself similar to Netscape browser's fate! Netscape charged for downloads before IE was released to the market. When IE became available for free, and supported better user interfaces, Netscape lost market share and never recaptured its glory days, even when it became free. It would be interesting to see when IBM officially goes all the way to Java and Linux. It standardized its global user workstation internally to Windows NT-based workstations and Microsoft Office from OS/2 and Lotus Office Suite about 10 years ago. It may have already done so again by switching all the way to OpenDoc and Linux workstations! EditGrid is the first, as I am aware of, web-based spreadsheet that supports multi-lingual capabilities, but is has some distance to go in terms of supporting multi-lingual properly. It would be even better if EditGrid also complied with the W3C’s accessibility standard (WAI—Web Accessibility Initiative).

The incorporation of charts and maps into Dabble DB looks like the first attempt at webifying primitive GIS (Geograpic Information System) features of Microsoft’s map component in Office Suite or Corel’s map component in CorelDraw—all are of the Office 1.0 genre. I don’t know how much effort and code were required to extend the drill-down capability. Without macro and OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) capabilities, I believe that revision of underlying codes is needed to reflect the currency of charts and maps. This is another problem in synchronization, as mentioned elsewhere, perhaps.

Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 do provide prettier user interfaces, but they still have a long way to go to catch up with the capabilities offered by Office 1.0 in terms of usability and productivity from an end-user’s perspective. Microsoft and its counterparts are not sitting still, they have already moved into the Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 sphere. I haven’t evaluated Office 2007’s full capabilities and its web support yet. It is quite possible that Microsoft still has some distance to go in making Office Suite totally web-based, and preserving some Office 1.0 capabilities. As an end-user advocate, I would like to see how the so-called open-source Office 2.0 movement will play out against Microsoft. History may repeat itself similar to Netscape browser’s fate! Netscape charged for downloads before IE was released to the market. When IE became available for free, and supported better user interfaces, Netscape lost market share and never recaptured its glory days, even when it became free.

It would be interesting to see when IBM officially goes all the way to Java and Linux. It standardized its global user workstation internally to Windows NT-based workstations and Microsoft Office from OS/2 and Lotus Office Suite about 10 years ago. It may have already done so again by switching all the way to OpenDoc and Linux workstations!

]]> By: Al http://itredux.com/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/comment-page-1/#comment-44374 Al Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:49:27 +0000 http://itredux.com/blog/2007/02/08/charts-and-maps-for-dabble-db/#comment-44374 Hi, Thanks for the heads up on a cool Dabble DB feature. You might also be interested by <a href="http://www.editgrid.com/">EditGrid</a>, which allows placement of dynamic graphs and sheets in web pages. Regards -Al Hi,

Thanks for the heads up on a cool Dabble DB feature. You might also be interested by EditGrid, which allows placement of dynamic graphs and sheets in web pages.

Regards
 -Al

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