InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by kp on 2010/01/14 17:00

It is obvious that you (individually and as a team of interested persons) have done a lot of hard, conscientious work. I would not be surprised if my question has been asked and answered elsewhere, but I didn't find it. My apologies if this is redundant. As a new user, evaluating the product, I'm very interested in the manual. I'm one of those people that are away from their desk more often than not, and need to maximize efficiency while in front of the screen. While learning/ evaluating IQ, being able to carry a print out of the manual (or portions there of) would be a great boon. I'd be able to read & think about the various things I can/ want/ should do with IQ - while waiting for a meeting, taking a parent to the doctor, and a few Mega-other things. I realize that the product is in beta, changing fast (I downloaded the current version vs last because of the added items!), and documentation always lags (one of the reasons I'm interested in IQ). I presume that what documentation that does exist is stored in IQ. Perhaps having it as a "sample" file available for download is possible? This would make updating the manual as easy (?) as keeping a "running" copy & uploading (Version control to merge multiple sources of documentation?). Taking a laptop to read from is better than not having any way to further investigate the product. A plus would be able to use local storage on a smart phone for both the manual & the program (personally, I travel to remote spots; get inside buildings to such a depth I can't receive cell; am not allowed to access client systems even with my own laptop; ...) Should I decide to implement IQ, perhaps I can be of some assistance in the future? Thank you for your patience and help with this question. Please feel free to request clarification, suggest I should shrug my shoulder and slap my forehead, etc. Despite believing myself to be the essence of clear communication, I haven't been able to convince anyone else of it!

Shrug My Shoulders & Slap My Forehead!

I downloaded the sample database, opened it up, and guess what I found? The Manual! SO SORRY to put this out when I missed the obvious!

I bet I will discover I can even print the thing out!

Thanks to all & hope you at least get/ got a good laugh!

Comments

There's no need to apologize; the manual in the sample database doesn't presently match the manual in the forum.

So you may want to print out things from the forum also, as I believe it's the more current and actively worked on.

As far as I know, no one's keeping up a pdf or .sndb manual in it's present state.

The forum manual is the one a few volunteers are continually updating; at some point in time, probably prior to version 1.0, things will be synchronized.

I believe the present plan is for Pierre to devote his time to mostly programming, to get us to get us to version 1.0.

Please keep giving feedback as you get your feet wet--this is an AMAZING program.

It would be really nice to be able to synchronise your database manual with the online version.

I dont think that's possible with the (Drupal) site software (?), but I'm beginning to wonder if Drupal is the right final home for the manual anyways...

In particular I struggle with the table of contents page www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php

That would be much easier to read if one could expand / collapse nodes, with the option to collapse all/expand all. With everything expanded I use browser search, but to actually scan it, with all expanded is almost impossible (for my eyes/brain at any rate).

It needs more flexibility, (like an IQ file has!)

I have no idea what the options are - I think one can synch a file with the Mantis (bug-reporting) site?

But that's not an outline as such, just a list. (Correct me if I wrong there)

What do other think about the future (& form) of the manual ?

Tom: My 2 cents

Documentation should be IQ dB which users can annotate / add fields, etc to fit their use

Online version should be syncable or downloadable

Documentation should include as many videos as possible

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-2

I'm also thinking about how to improve the documentation (content, environment, etc). I've got some ideas and will report back when I have something concrete to propose.

Thanks to all for your efforts.

[quote=Tom]

It would be really nice to be able to synchronise your database manual with the online version.

I dont think that's possible with the (Drupal) site software (?), but I'm beginning to wonder if Drupal is the right final home for the manual anyways...

[/quote]

One of the main reasons I choose Drupal, a little over a year ago, was that the internal storage format is HTML. This is quite rare amongst forum software. This ensures that whatever form the end documentation takes, the work done by you (devoted IQUsers) will not be lost and easily imported, be it in an online help module, an IQBase, a standard help file.

Jim (J-Mac) made a point in another thread www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php that comments aren't great after the manual/Book pages - I agree (I try to avoid posting after Book pages - when I did I found the post becomes very quickly outdated)

Would it be possible to separate those posts after Book pages into separate threads (maybe with the same name) ?

And block commenting on Book threads?

What do you think?

Keith wrote (using the contact form)

[quote]Hi Pierre,
I couldn't upload this file. It's a MHT capture of the present online
format.

I'd planned to respond to the recent "Documentation" thread with this. It
should come in handy, both in development and determining final format. (I
really like how it looks in this format!)[/quote]

[quote][snip]

I'd planned to respond to the recent "Documentation" thread with this. It
should come in handy, both in development and determining final format. (I
really like how it looks in this format!)[/quote]

[/quote]

Keith, I downloaded the file & it's terrific. Even after all this time using IQ, I learned a few things just by browsing thru it in this easy format. Thanks so much for tending to the documentation as you do & for creating this file. Like you, i'm sure it would be better if we could sync to the online version & maybe that will happen one day but this is really terrific.

One question to you -- or anyone: would you import this file into your working dB or would you elect to keep it as separate dB, i.e. open a 2nd IQ specifically for the manual?

Many thanks for all the above.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-2

[quote=jan_rifkinson]

would you import this file into your working dB or would you elect to keep it as separate dB, i.e. open a 2nd IQ specifically for the manual?

[/quote]

I'm keeping it separate due to its size, and unfinished nature. Also I tend to run it in another IQ session, on the second monitor.

This huge effort, Keith, merits a new feature: Item>>Recapture, to refresh a web page capture

Coming up soon

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

This huge effort, Keith, merits a new feature: Item>>Recapture, to refresh a web page capture

Coming up soon

[/quote]

super !!!

and Keith, I'll echo Jan's words of thanks

[quote=Jan]Keith, I downloaded the file & it's terrific. Even after all this time using IQ, I learned a few things just by browsing thru it in this easy format. Thanks so much for tending to the documentation as you do & for creating this file. [/quote]it is a real treat to be able to have it open in IQ. Thanks Keith!!

Also Jan,

personally I will keep the file separate - I can always have two instances of IQ open* (have to be careful when web-clipping though).

* unfortunately I dont have dual monitors but recently bought a widescreen (was with 4:3 till this year)

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

new feature: Item>>Recapture, to refresh a web page capture

[/quote]

Awesome. Along these lines...

I've been thinking about ways to keep the new .sndb in sync with the manual on the forum.

1) For forum manual changes, both existing and new pages, is there some way to have them automatically feed/refresh a stored online version.

2) Is an online version as simple as storing it whereever you store the Mantis .sndb, and (hopefully easily) implementing a one-way sync like the Mantis one?

3) Might some of us be allowed write access to the stored version, to directly make changes there. And if so, would the tracking simply be a "changes" grid, with an item for each.

4) And if so, could changes automatically feed back to the forum?

5) If none of this is practical, would the Item>Recapture work for multiple selections, and also would it pick up the new IDItems created, the new book pages? If so, perhaps just using this, and posting a periodic IQmanual.sndb update along with the downloads would be the most practical.

(Incredible work Keith... I have a few ideas but I'll let Pierre comment first on your questions as I'm sure he's got some more tricks up his sleeve...)

Hi Keith,

Maybe that's a monitor issue (you might work with a higher resolution setting than me ?) but this how the manual's grid appeared (or something similar) when opened for the first time -- 1280*800.

Is this only me ?

(keeping the new user in mind... of course)

Suggestion : hierarchies could also be collapsed before the DB is saved and sent to the server.

I got the same display. I would keep only the #, items and URL column

Good Morning, All !

Wow! I knew this was an active forum when I first looked at it. I posted my original comment, came back and said "oopps!" and expected minimal response. However, I can see that the documentation is a very hot topic. And with the additional programming updates, I certainly understand the issues. I appreciate all the comments and direction that everything appears to be taking. I especially liked the idea of being able to add my own notes to the manual. I presume I could add them as links so that I can update the manual as available (I presume broken links display in some fashion so that I could relink to appropriate places). This would allow me - possibly at any level of competency - to annotate my "creative" ideas on how to implement something related to what I have just read.

Actually, this is the first I've had a chance to work with IQ since my original post. I did miss the link to the online manual. I'll tackle that immediately. For what it's worth ... when I did open the sample database (with documentation) I ran into one problem almost immediately. Because I was totally unfamiliar with the product, I almost instantly managed to "lose" an entire window with the details displayed. I ended up reloading the database into a new instance of IQ and managed to do the same thing again. Is there some way I can open a database as "read only"? Once I've learned a bit, I could then reset back to read-write to add my own notes, etc.

Computer work is a crisis business. The half hour I allowed myself to work on this stuff today, just vanished with phone call from a client. I can see a great deal of potential use for this product. However, until I can learn enough to make a quick jump start, a full evaluation will be delayed.

Keep up the good work! I'm impressed by the active user organization & it does significantly factor into my future decision.

Don't have too much fun!

[quote=kp]when I did open the sample database (with documentation) I ran into one problem almost immediately. Because I was totally unfamiliar with the product, I almost instantly managed to "lose" an entire window with the details displayed. I ended up reloading the database into a new instance of IQ and managed to do the same thing again. Is there some way I can open a database as "read only"? Once I've learned a bit, I could then reset back to read-write to add my own notes, etc. [/quote]

Hi Kp,

Why not just experiment with the product without fear of erasing stuff. Read only won't allow you to do anything.

One you're more familiar with the UI, just create a new DataBase : create a new DB (and I strongly suggest you start from the sample one, not the blank one ! -- It's very easy to erase all items you don't want in there and change stuff along the way, but it's harder to start from scratch... Trust me.)

[quote=kp]

For what it's worth ... when I did open the sample database (with documentation) I ran into one problem almost immediately. Because I was totally unfamiliar with the product, I almost instantly managed to "lose" an entire window with the details displayed. I ended up reloading the database into a new instance of IQ and managed to do the same thing again.

[/quote]

Hi kp,

There was a serious issue with the HTML pane content which appeared in version 0.9.25Pre-Rel15 and is now fixed. It may have been the cause for the lost content you experienced.

You can download the new version here.