Bug 278287

Summary:	There should be an option to view hidden kexi__ tables
Product:	[Applications] KEXI	Reporter:	Dimitrios T Tanis <dimitrios.tanis>
Component:	General	Assignee:	Kexi Bugs <kexi-bugs>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	adam, inksi, staniek
Priority:	NOR
Version:	3.0.x
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Compiled Sources
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Dimitrios T Tanis 2011-07-22 18:27:49 UTC

Version:           2.4 beta1 (Calligra 2.4 beta1) (using KDE 4.6.0) 
OS:                Linux

There should be an option to view hidden kexi__ tables, as they can provide information and data that -currently- changing them is not exposed through the UI.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Just open a DB project and look at project navigator.

Actual Results:  
There is no way to display Kexi's internal tables.

Expected Results:  
There should be an option to view the internal tables as they provide a way to change properties not exposed through the UI (such as objects' captions, etc).
Also viewing these tables can provide benefits for power users:
1) They provide a very quick way to view and change multiple properties without having to open all of them in the designer view.
2) They can be very usefull documenting tools (maybe at some time provide documenting reports)

Maybe the user should be able to view sqlite_master too (not quite sure about that).
But maybe we could provide a way to export CREATE TABLE script as a context menu option on the project navigator (maybe I'll split that to another wish later on).

PS. I filed this as a minor bug mainly because it can provide a way to change objects' caption (there is no other way).

Comment 1 Dimitrios T Tanis 2011-07-22 18:58:19 UTC

Forgot to mention.
This is also suggested as a workaround for:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277867

Comment 2 Jarosław Staniek 2011-07-22 19:23:59 UTC

Interesting idea! You won't believe but it popped up in my head in 2005 or so as well. The interesting side for the feature effect was e.g. that I can see table listing all tables/queries/etc. and removing given record should remove the related object. 
Technically it would be implemented as (surprise...) separate KexiDB (or Predicate) driver, kind of loopback.

Comment 3 Dimitrios T Tanis 2011-07-22 19:43:16 UTC

That's exactly what I had in mind. Something like a Master DB inside every Kexi file working as a loopback to control assets in Kexi file.

On the other hand, for the time being, simply exposing the tables to the project navigator would given access to some features (table columns properties, object captions, etc). Couldn't this be easily done for now (keeping the Master DB for later)?