Final DTP Survey Results October 2010

We had eight people total complete the survey (a big thank you to all of you), which was more than I was expecting honestly. With as quiet as things have been in DTP lately, I was expecting the sound of crickets to be prevalent. :)

However... As promised, here are the final survey results...

Question 1: Where do you use DTP?

a) Standalone in Eclipse for the database functionality (green)

b) Within WTP or Dali (JPA) (red)

c) Within a commercial product from IBM, Oracle, Sybase, or other company (yellow)

d) Other (please specify) (blue)

As I said in my last post, this was a bit surprising to me. I had no idea that this many folks actually used DTP for its standalone database functionality rather than as part of a larger suite.

The responses to "Other" included:

• As part of our tool. For reading database meta data and for parsing SQL (planned).
• BIRT

I'm not sure how I forgot BIRT - it wasn't deliberate. But it's nice to confirm that DTP is in fact being used in a few different contexts.

2. How do you use DTP?

a. As a user

b. As a developer

Definitely more use of the DTP toolset for developers than users, but it's nice to see users represented in there as well.

Question 3: Where would you like to see DTP used?

This was an open-ended question and we ended up with three replies:

• As a replacement for SQuirreL SQL inside Eclipse.
• As more integrated with the IDE
• Or as a standalone RCP SQL Tool like PL/SQL Developer

Question 4: What functionality would you like to see in DTP? Or what changes would you like to see?

This was another open-ended question with more responses:

• Provide documentation about what is supported for each database... e.g. "how do I see an SQL query explain for Sybase ASE or DB2 UDB"?. After hours of experimenting I *think* its not possible but can't tell for sure.
• Offer the ability to specify an order when executing a batch of sql files
• ETL functionality - data extract and load
• Easier handling - see PL/SQL Developer! More DB-Status functions
• Improve the SQL parser as a standalone library

Each of these will probably find their way into Bugzilla as feature requests. And though not all will likely get done, it's good fodder for discussions going forward.

Question 5. Would you like to help with DTP?

There were only three responses - yes, no, and other. The other described itself as "willing to report bugs and test cases", which is great. "No" isn't helpful, but is understood due to a lack of time or resources. And "Yes" is what we always like to hear!

All in all, I'm pleased with the results. We received some constructive feedback in addition to simply discovering that our community still has a heartbeat. :)

As I said last time... If *YOU* have more suggestions for us, feel free to join the mailing list (dtp-dev@eclipse.org) or put a message on the forum/newsgroup and let us know what you're thinking. As always, we're looking for help - whether it's testing and reporting bugs, contributing patches, or becoming a committer!

Thanks again to everyone who filled out the survey. It helps to know what you are thinking!

Have a great Halloween and a wonderful weekend!

Early Survey Results...

Well, I'm happy to report that not only are there people willing to respond to my survey, but they're willing to respond to a survey about DTP! So it's good to know that there are a few people out there who are still alive and kicking in the community. :)

After a week, we've had 7 responders. No, it's not a huge number, but it's honestly better than I was expecting. And we've had some interesting responses...

The answers to the first question about where our users actually use DTP was shocking to me. I had no idea that this many folks actually used DTP for its standalone database functionality rather than as part of a larger suite.

For the second question, overwhelmingly nearly everybody who uses DTP seems to use it more as a developer than as a user.

Some of the responses as to where folks would like to see DTP get used were also interesting:

• As a replacement for SQuirreL SQL inside Eclipse.
• As more integrated with the IDE
• Or as a standalone RCP SQL Tool like PL/SQL Developer

We used to hear a lot about the SQuirreL SQL
angle in the beginning of DTP, but I hadn't heard that mentioned for a while. Sounds like the PL/SQL Developer is a similar request for functionality, but perhaps as a RCP application. We actually started a bit of this effort in the last release that's available in CVS (look in the Enablement project for the org.eclipse.datatools.enablement.rcp plug-in - it's rough, but it's a start).

And then we had some very thought provoking requests for new functionality...

1. Provide documentation about what is supported for each database... e.g. "how do I see an SQL query explain for Sybase ASE or DB2 UDB"?. After hours of experimenting I *think* its not possible but can't tell for sure.
2. Offer the ability to specify an order when executing a batch of sql files
3. ETL functionality - data extract and load
4. Easier handling - see PL/SQL Developer! More DB-Status functions
5. Improve the SQL parser as a standalone library

I'm not quite sure what we'd do for #1 or #4, the rest are pretty self-explanatory. Though we'd love to have any/all of these entered as feature requests in Bugzilla, it's great feedback. We *LOVE* feedback.

Do *YOU* have more suggestions for us? Well, if you haven't already filled out the survey, go ahead and fill it out now (click here for the survey). If you've already filled out the survey, feel free to join the mailing list (dtp-dev@eclipse.org) or put a message on the forum/newsgroup and let us know what you're thinking.

And as always, we're looking for help - whether it's testing and reporting bugs, contributing patches, or becoming a committer!

Thanks to everyone who's filled out the survey so far and thanks in advance to anyone else who does the same!

Where is DTP being used these days?

As we start looking at what will go into DTP (Data Tools Platform) 1.9 for the Eclipse Indigo (June 2011) release, it struck me that we don't know that much about how DTP is being used currently. It's been a while since we "polled the studio audience" to see what was up...

And though we have a skeleton crew now helping us with bug fixes and new features, we'd love to have more folks pitch in to help - whether it's by writing articles or blog posts, reporting bugs, or offering to lend a hand with patches for existing issues or new functionality. However the help is offered, we'll probably consider it!

But we'd love it if you use DTP if you could take some time and please answer a few survey questions:

Click here to take survey

Your answers will help us figure out where our priorities lie for this next release and what we may or may not have help with from the community!

Thanks in advance and I'll write up another blog post with the results a month from now to share those details.

Hope you're having a great week!

--Fitz

(Image from Discovery Education Resources)