One of the main uses of the the commands in [dspace]/bin is to run them from a shell script, or cron, or even a shell script under cron -- that's why it is important they return a proper Unix-y command status to signal success or failure, for example. Mostly they follow the "--help" convention to display a list of switches and a synopsis. In the Unix tradition that's as friendly as it gets.
If you want menus and forms, why not add to the administrative functions on XMLUI or JSPUI? It'll be far more friendly, portable, and easier to build than a text-based menu system. If you want horrible text rendering of those menus, just fire up Lynx, the canonical plain text Web browser (though there are others). See http://lynx.isc.org/ -- Larry On Sep 22, 2009, at 10:03 AM, Jeffrey Trimble wrote: > I'm going to throw my $.03 into this. > > It seems that it would be a better set of tools to have all command > line scripts > be "menued" when possible. Now, that sounds a little advanced, but > it is > the 21st century. > > Many DSpace administrators out there aren't Unix Administrators, and > have > a difficult time with running shells. Thank goodness Dspace isn't > on a mainframe > and we have to write JCL to submit jobs! > > So why couldn't all the scripts be places somewhere and have an > overlaying > menu to deliver the choice to the user. Granted you might have to use > ncurses to create such a menu and it might involve C programming. But > is that really all that wrong when you consider what it is we are > doing > for the greater good? > > --------------------------------------------------------- > | DSPACE MENU | > | CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TO RUN | > | | > | 1 > Batch Import 5 > Re-Index | > | | > | 2 > Batch Export 6 > Index Update | > | | > | 3 > Checksum Checker 7 > Filter Media | > | | > | 4 > DSpace Info 8 > Item Counter | > | | > | Enter your choice and press <ENTER>: __ | > --------------------------------------------------------- > > Then it doesn't matter what's "under the hood". > > Okay, I'll go back to the rock from whence I came. > > Jeff > > On Sep 22, 2009, at 9:01 AM, Bradley McLean wrote: > >> Mark H. Wood wrote: >>> I understand the desire to avoid unnecessary platform dependencies, >>> but I appreciate having the scripts -- those class names are soooo >>> long and hard to remember. When I have need of a commandline tool >>> from DSpace for which there is no script, I tend to write my own >>> script even for a single use. >>> >> <flamebait><theonetrueanswer> Isn't bash available on all platforms? >> </theonetrueanswer></flamebait> >>> Maybe the scripts should be modularized out of the base package? >>> There could be a "sh scripts" add-on, a "cmd scripts" add-on, and >>> perhaps others as needed. >>> >> I'm uncomfortable with this, due to issues like drift and feature >> parity. >>> Or maybe we just need to extend dsrun so that it can look those >>> entrypoints up for us. If I could use 'dsrun ItemImporter' rather >>> than 'dsrun >>> long.path.through.the.namespace.itemImporter.ItemImporter' >>> then I might not need the scripts so much. This being Java, dsrun >>> could rummage through the classpath to find all of the methods with >>> the necessary signature, show a list if requested, and recognize >>> abbreviated names. (Actually it might be better to define a common >>> interface for classes which expose commandline tools, both as a >>> marker >>> for ease of introspection and to require the implementation of a >>> method which returns a brief description of the command.) >>> >>> Hmmm, it would probably be good to do both. >>> >> I like this direction, if we're unable to embrace the one true >> answer. >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, >> CA >> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart >> your >> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market >> and stay >> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register >> now! >> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf >> _______________________________________________ >> Dspace-devel mailing list >> Dspace-devel@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-devel > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA > is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart > your > developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and > stay > ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register > now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf_______________________________________________ > Dspace-devel mailing list > Dspace-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-devel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ Dspace-devel mailing list Dspace-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-devel
