Description Max Rydahl Andersen 2007-11-29 04:59:07 EST

Build ID: europe

Steps To Reproduce:
The thread I initially started at http://dev.eclipse.org/newslists/news.eclipse.dtp/msg00938.html died out. Thought I would give it a go here.

Is there any work going on providing a simpler way of setting up connections ?

Currently the ui requires 4-6 poorly layed out dialogs (the tables/tree are fully expanded which gives 100% heigh) + alot of redundant information (from the perspective of the user) for a simple setup of a single connection.

I know the ui covers all of the flexibility in connection providers etc. but for users that just want a simple connection to their database having to go through all these steps are daunting.

Current issues I have with DTP connnection setup as it is now (in the sequence of how I remember things ;)


1) The layout of the dialogs only work decently on windows - on linux and I also think mac all the dialogs fill up the screen in the full height.

2) Default selections are weird - e.g. I create a driver by finding the MySQL Driver/Mysql 5.something driver folder, fill in the details and when I come back the folder MySQL driver is selected instead of the Mysql 5.something which is the new driver i created.

3) The tree ui is used waay to much; it is not very scalable in smallish dialogs. Having a treetable would be much better since i wouldn't need to expand the nodes and then adjust the scrollbar constantly to get to the relevant children

4) The tree ui also shows everything by default which is probably what is causing #1 and I have to use the scrollbars *all* the time to find what i'm looking for instead of just browsing the part of the tree that I actually need.

5) But the *biggest* issue is that I have to go through so many dialog boxes to setup just one New connection.
Here are the steps needed to create the *simplest* mysql connection:

Click New Connection profile
a) Connection Profile Type
Select: "Generic JDBC Connection"
Click Next
b) Create connection Profile
Enter name, "local mysql" (the only required field here)
Click Next
c) New JDBC Connection Profile
There won't be any drivers, click the ...
d) Driver definitions
(this list shows up as one huge tree on linux (ugly), on windows I would have to scroll (tiresome))
Select Mysql/5.1 folder
Click Add...
e) Specify a Driver Template and Definition Name
(For MySql there are only *one* choice here - so why even show this dialog, why in a tree ?)
Expand the Mysql/5.1 node to be able to select the driver
Select driver
Click Ok
d) Edit Driver definition
Click the driver jar
Click Edit jar/zip
Click N times until I find the jar
(Here if I hadn't used an existing driver definition I would also have had to fill in the Driver class etc.)
Click Ok
f) Returns to Driver definitions with the 5.1 folder selected instead of the just created driver definition
Click MySQL JDBC Driver
Click Ok
g) Returns to Specify a Driver Template and Definition Name
Adjust the url/username's as apropriate
Click Next
h) Summary
Click Finish
Done!

Summary:
That is *7* different wizard/pages + *minimum* 20(!) clicks/selections + the clicks I need to find the driver + the adjustments for url/username.
That's crazy.
To be fair it gets reduced to about 4 wizard/pages + 9 clicks/selection if the driver is already there.

But lets compare this to e.g. create an connection in e.g. Aqua datastudio:

Click Register Server
a) Register server dialog
I select Generic JDBC here since Aqua datastudio bundles mysql.jar which is an unfair advantage ;)
Enter url/usernames (more typing is required here because i didn't select the Mysql template, so won't count it since it is just 4 easily filled in text fields)
Select Driver (N steps)
Click Ok

Summary:
That is *1* wizard/page + *3* clicks/selections + the clicks I need to find the driver + the adjustments for url/username

My point is that all the templating in DTP is nice etc. but it is waaay more intrusive than it need to be.

Why don't we just have *one* single page dialog where you can *choose* to use the templates or just fill in the details and don't care about the templates ?
And for the driver then if I fill in the details DTP could just store these if they are some new driver info.

More information: