GoogleSummerOfCode2006: DBase Migration Plugin

Name: Jonathon Manning desplesda@gmail.com jabber:desplesda@borderlinenormal.com

Quest: Implementing migration and backend plugins to enable Kexi to work with DBase databases!

Favourite Colour: Green.

Why: Kexi is excellent, but other database formats are in use, in particular DBase. To this end, the Kexi developers have requested a plugin that provides import support for DBase databases.

Why am I the right person for the job? I am a skilled C++ coder with an interest in desktop productivity applications, I have a particular interest in database applications, and I am an eager coder with a lot of time for improving KDE applications. My past experience with open source development includes my successful completion of the 2005 Summer of Code (I implemented encrypted folders in GNOME's Nautilus file browser), and I know my way around CVS, SVN and all the components needed for efficiently working with OSS projects.

I'm fluent in C, C++, PHP, Perl, Python, and shell scripting. I'm a relative newbie when it comes to the finer points of KDE development, but I'm also a fast learner. My experience with database programming work includes approximately half a year working with Morfik Technology on their Morfik product (a web server with an embedded Firebird database, used for rapid-deployment web applications).

I'm currently completing a Bachelor of Computing at the University of Tasmania, Australia, so work on this project would of course have to work around classes. My mid-year exams take place between June 10 and June 27 (unfortunately close to the mid-term project evaluations), but apart from that I am free from any major scholarly obligations, and I am able to commit a large amount of time to the project.

I would use Qt4 during the development of this plugin, and make use of its QtTestLib framework to streamline the process. I'm currently unsure of where I would get access to a copy of DBase to generate test databases, but that is a problem to be solved in short order.

Once the migration plugin for DBase databases is complete, I would then code a simple read-only backend plugin to enable users to more directly work with their databases.