[Qgis-developer] Clarifying access to non geographical datas

[haubourg]

Hi all, i would like to have your feedbacks on that point, before asking new
features.  

After some QGIS initiation courses, it clearly appeared to me that GUI
readability to access to attribute data should be improved. 

In this redmine ticket,  http://hub.qgis.org/issues/3631 #3631 , one asked
to allow 'add delimited text' plugin to add non geographic data. I do agree
with that need since newcoming users can't find by themselmves that the "Add
vector layer" also serves csv  data without geometry. It also is confusing
that QGis Browser shows a polygon vector layer on csv file since OGR doesn't
allow to choose geometric field. 

New spreadsheetformats are now also supported like XLS , ODS.. and so on. 
For us, it is really important since it was one of the most uses
functionnalities in Mapinfo, and one that still prevent us to uninstall it. 

IMHO, the import dialog present in "add delimited text plugin" is really
clear, and deserves to be extended to other non typed datasources:

    -Sample view is really a time saving feature to check if everything goes
well. I really think that would be useful for xls and ODS too. (check
enconding, check if formulas are well imported, check import area) 
 
    - *User should be able to import csv* or spreadsheet format without
geographical fields (use with table joins)
   - All csv or spreadsheet format do no control data types so it would be
necessary to *allow user to  choose* data types for each fields  (like
access or OOo does). 
   - For excel and ods, it would be nice *to allow to change import area*
(A1 - B52 ofr example) like Mapinfo does. 
   - Dialog to choose file encoding is missing also

All those requirement could be one "Add attribute data" button and dialog,
more readable than a plugin icon or a csv file filter in OGR. It should also
be plugged after OGR access to csv, either from "add vector layer" or from
Browser. 

What do you think of that? 

PS: Another option would be to rethink the whole "manage Layers toolbar"
because it starts to be crowded (vector, raster, 3 databases , 3 OGC).
Netbook and touchpad user would probably like more unified access? (like in
Mapinfo or Arcgis? ) 
 
régis



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