Monday, October 19, 2009

Version Viewer

My colleague Graham Garlick has been working on a very cool Version Viewer application. It is essentially a GUI that allows you to view/compare two different versions of a dataset. It lets you compare geometries and attributes and determine what has changed between the two versions. Imagine Smallworld's conflict detector's Affected Objects Lister but the Version Viewer is easy for you to use in non-conflict situations.

What could you use the Version Viewer for?
- recovering attributes/records from data that is available in an older view
- analysing your data BEFORE a merge/post. You could build this into a pre-emptive conflict avoidance process
- selective merge/post by attribute
- data quality checks to see the who/what/when of changes in your data. Very helpful for investigating the inevitable question: "How/why did that data get changed and in what context were the changes made".

Graham also is responsible for the Dialog Designer. He used the Dialog Designer to build the complex Version Viewer GUI. As part of the Version Viewer demo, he can show you how you can dynamically change the GUI layout of that application using Dialog Designer.\

Please come by the iFactor Consulting booth at the conference and ask for a demo by Graham. If you are not able to make it to the booth, sent me a note at the contact information on the blog sidebar and I can arrange a demo.

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