Genedator 1.2 GUI

Picture 1. Genedator 1.2 user interface
1. Menu.
Genedator 1.2 Menu contains 2 menus: File and Help.
In File menu you can select "New Table" menu item. In Help menu you can select 3 options:
"Help contents" - this window, "About" - info about program and "Plugin Manager" - window that
allows to download plugins for Genedator.
2. Main toolbar.
Main toolbar of Genedator 1.2 application containts
one element. It allows to create new table. Results of clicking this button is the
same ase selecting File->New table or pressing Ctrl+N on keyboard.
3. Table tab.
This tab identifies nam of table that generated data will fill.
You can add as many tables as you want. If you want to close table - click "x" element on
table tab.
4. Add/remove buttons.
Buttons allows to add and remove columns of given table.
allows to add new column to table. This column will be filled with one user-selected
generator.
allows to remove column. If you want to remove column you should select
this column in column list panel (6) and then press this button.


5. Table columns list panel.
This panel list holds the names of columns of table, for which data are
generated. You could add or remove column names using buttons(4).
6. Generator selection panel.
In this place
you can select generator for particular column. Firstly you should choose category of required
generator, e.g. "TEXT", "NUMBER". Secondly - after choosing category - you could select required
generator. Selected generator will be highlighted. Its nem will be displayed in Generator Name Panel(9).
7. Number of records field.
Usage of this element is quite simple. Put number of records you want to
generate.
8. Run generation button.
allows launching generating data proccess.

9. Generator Name Panel.
Displays name, version and creator of selected generator.
10. Generator config panel.
Each plugin which is loaded to Genedator application should contains configuration panel,
which allows to configure generator for particular column. Config panels can differs, because
plugin generators differs. However they can contain parameters which you can see in a lot of generators
like: Unique, Null ratio etc.
11. Data output chooser.
Allows to choose location of output file, which will contain
generated data. Genedator 1.1 allows to use 4 formats of output: CSV, SQL, XML, XLSX.
When you click this link, a new file choose window will appear and you can choose location you
want for output. At the bottom of this window you can select one of particular format.
When you set output location one of this icons:
will appear near to text with output
file location. If you click at this icon after generating data the deafult
editor should launch and open file with just generated data.

Picture 2. Genedator 1.2 output formats.




12. Cancel generation button
allows to cancel generation during e.g.
long-time process of generating data.

13. Progress bar.
Informs you about progress of generating data process. When generating is finished
progress bar looks like

Picture 3. Genedator 1.1 progress bar.
Working with Genedator
When you run Genedator 1.2 you can see that application looks like:

Picture 4. Genedator 1.2 look after starting.
New table creating.
There are 3 ways to create new table:
- Pressing Ctrl+N on keyboard
- Selecting from main manu File -> New table
- Pressing "New table" button in main toolbar
Adding/removing columns.
When you create new table for generating data then
you should define any columns that will be filled by generators.
To add column you have to press button
.
Then New Column Dialog Window (picture 9.) appears and you type the name of column.
Optionally you can select column type - TEXT or NUMBER.
When you press OK in this dialog new column will be created and its name appears in
Column List Panel (5). So it should look similar to this picture:
Notice that remove column button
is greyed.
If you want to remove a column from column panel list you have to select this column by clicking its
name. Then remove button will be active and you can remove column from columns list panel.


Picture 5. Column list panel after adding column.

Output setting.
Before starting data generating you have to set output file path first.
To do it you should clik on blue linkbutton with text: "choose location":
When you click New File Choose Dialog Window will appear and you can select location
for your file with generated data. Moreover you have possibility to choose format
of output file. Available formats in Genedator 1.2 are described below.

Picture 6. Genedator 1.2 output setting panel.
Generator selection.
To generate data you have to choose which plugin to use for particular column.
To set particular generator for particular column you have to click on column name in
columns list panel (5). When column is selected you can select particular generator's category
and particular generator from selected category. Then you can
configure generator for this particular
column. To configure generator for column you should use generator config panel (10).

Picture 7. Genedator 1.2 configuration plugin panel with acivated column and selected plugin.
Generating data.
Last step is the simplest. When everything is configured you should
press button
. This action will start generating data process.
When it comes to end progress bar will be painted (picture 3.) and you can open file with generated data.

Dialog windows
Input dialogs
New table
Type name of new table, which will be filled by generated data.

Picture 8. Genedator 1.2 New table dialog window
New column
Type name of new column, which will contain data generated by selected generator.
Column type identifies if this column's values should be textual or numerical values.
If textual - generated data in SQL format will be put between apostrophes (' ').
If numerical - data will be withoud apostrophes.

Picture 9. Genedator 1.2 New column dialog window
Warnings
Output not set
This warning appears when you click generate button and don't set ouput location first.

Picture 10. Genedator 1.2 Output not set dialog widnow
No plugins
This warning appears when you create new table and there are no active plugins in /plugins directory.

Picture 11. Genedator 1.2 No plugins warning dialog window
Generator not set
This warning appears when you want to generate data, but one of column isn't assigned to particular generator.

Picture 12. Genedator 1.2 Generator not set warning dialog window
Errors
Uniqueness error
This error is produced when you try to generate unique data in particaular column
but it is not possible in this case, e.g. you try to generate 100 records and one column
should contains unique random number in range 0 to 10. So there are only 11 unique numbers
but you would like to generate 100 random and unique numbers which in this case this is
not possible.

Picture 13. Genedator 1.2 Uniqueness error dialog widnow
Column name already exists
This error is produced when you try to add new column and you type in dialog window(9) name the same as
one of already existing column names.

Picture 14. Genedator 1.2 Column name already exists error dialog window
File not exists
This error occurs when you want to browse result file, but it haven't been filled yet by generated data.

Picture 15. Genedator 1.2 File not exists error dialog window
Output
Genedator 1.2 suports 4 output formats. Assume you have to generate data for table named Users.
It contains 3 columns: Name, Town, Birth date. Generated data in following formats are depicted down.
CSV
CSV stands for Comma Separated Value. You can learn about it at
Wikipedia - CSV.
Data generated in this format looks like:

Picture 16. Genedator 1.2 CSV output.
SQL
SQL stands for Structured Query Language. You can learn about it at
Wikipedia - SQL.
Data generated in this format looks like:

Picture 17. Genedator 1.2 SQL output.
XML
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. You can learn about it at
Wikipedia - XML.
Data generated in this format looks like:

Picture 18. Genedator 1.2 XML output.
XLSX
XLSX is format of Microsoft Excel files. You can learn about it at
Wikipedia - XLSX.
Data generated in this format looks like:

Picture 19. Genedator 1.2 XLSX output.
Genedator plugins
Genedator application is based on plugins which allow to generate data for
particular columns of database. When there is no plugins available in "plugins"
directory Genedator is quite unuseful.
Adding plugins.
To get the best from Genedator application you have to
add generators, which exist in form of plugins. You should put each plugins in "plugins"
directory which is placed in the same directory as Genedator application (jar file).
Some generators are available at project website. But of course you
can create your own generator and use it! Creating plugins is described in chapter
"Creating own plugins".