Re: Core data model - binding question
Re: Core data model - binding question
- Subject: Re: Core data model - binding question
- From: Davide Benini <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:44:25 +0200
The idea of adding a separate author entity came to me exactly
because academic works have often more than one author. I had planned
to do this from the very beginning, but first I used a "simplified
model" to learn the basic of cocoa and core data. I am a very
beginner, the last language I used (apart from php for web pages)
was Amos on Amiga, so many years ago, so I needed to refresh my
coding skills. At any rate you are absolutely right here, I should
get the model straight asap, to avoid massive re-coding later.
This data base is not so difficult to build as far as the data engine
is concerned; I just had to learn the basic of core data and tailor
it to my needs. This is why I am really concentrating on the GUI. I
have checked out many bibliographic apps, and non one allows the user
to record notes and quotes, apart from Note Worthy, which is very old
and not so brilliantly implemented. So I thought I'd code it myself.
Most apps have also a bad GUI; Delicious Library and Books are
notable exceptions, but I need something more focused on the passage-
quote recording.
As a matter of fact, the Topic examples I used were fake; I chose
them as more palatable to IT coders, scientific people. I am actually
a humanist. My PhD is on Irish literature; I am studying the
influence of orality on James Joyce and Ciaran Carson. But, being
somehow scientific minded, my notes are very logically stored. I am
still using a filemaker database, and this cocoa app I am writing is
actually a clone of that data base, with hopefully a more usable GUI.
Thank you again for your precious suggestions; I must think carefully
about the data structure. I'll be back, hopefully soon, when my mind
is clearer, when the author entity is added and when my filemaker-
importing class is able to process correctly the author entity.
Cheers,
Davide
My first thought is that you should always plan your data model to
include
all features you eventually hope to add. Converting data between
different
.mom versions can be problematic, so you should structure things
for the
future, even if you can't use everything properly now. If you're
going to
eventually create a separate author object, do it now. Besides,
lots of
academic works have more than one author.
The second thought is wandering a bit off Cocoa, but my sense is
that for
data like this, it's entered once, but may be viewed countless times.
Structure your data for the viewing. In general, you have to write
code
anyway for object creation, so writing some extra code to link the
objects
up during their creation is not such a big deal. Users also accept
a bit of
a delay after hitting the "OK" button when entering something, but
are less
tolerant of a sluggish interface, so make the viewing code as
simple as
possible.
JT
PS - what are you doing your thesis in?
Thanks a million John, you are giving me such an invaluable help in
focusing where the real trouble is.
Sorry for giving little details at first, I didn't realise how linked
to the data structure this problem is.
I'll try to explain why my interface data is not consonant with my
data structure. The interface whose snapshot are illustrated here
( http://www.cnomania.it/garage/appreference.htm ) is "half" of my
GUI. As you see there are 2 tabs; the first one is used to introduce
data in the database, the second one (the one we are discussing) is
for just browsing. This app is targeted at academic researchers, me,
in particular; its aim is to keep all of my phd annotations together.
This is why every passage (which is actuallly a note, or a quote ) is
linked to a specific entry (a book, or an article, or a web page).
The Topic entity represents a thematic flag: a quote might be linked
to "chaos theory", "indeterminacy" and "jakobson linguistic". So each
passage is linked to one or more quotes.
My browser GUI, the one I am discussing here, is meant at exploring
my notes in a different, and more natural way. You wonder, "where did
I read about indeterminacy?" and boom you see the authors you have
read, and then you choose the book, and then you read the note you
took. This is why this interface is "twisted". I guess this is the
same metaphor that is behind iTunes: genres, author, album, song, but
I think the data model follows another order...
Now I am really wondering if there is a better way to structure the
data. I had planned to add an independent author entity in a more
advanced development stage; I am still learning, and I wanted to add
authors in elegant way, with a NSFormatter to recognise name and
surname. Do you think I should add an author entity right now? Should
this Author entity be linked to both book and passages, maybe as a
fetched property?
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