Rekall 2.2.6 review
DownloadRekall is a database front-end, somewhat in the style of MicroSoft Access
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Rekall is a database front-end, somewhat in the style of MicroSoft Access. However, Rekall is not itself a database, and does not include a database.
By this we mean that data is stored somewhere else in an SQL server, and Rekall is fundementaly just a tool to extract, display and update that data (of course, it does lots more than that, it does forms and reports and scripting and .... you get the idea).
It is database agnostic, and does not have any preferred database in the sense that Access(tm) uses the Jet. database engine (although the Windows version can use the Jet database engine via an ODBC driver).
Rekall can do lots of the things that you would expect of a database front-end (or if it can't, let us know!). You can design and use forms and reports, you can construct database queries, and you can import and export data (actually, you can copy data, import is just copy file to table, and export is just copy table to file). You can also create reusable components which you can use in forms and reports, to reduce application development time.
Rekall can be scripted using the the Python language. You can arrange that a script is executed when various events occur (for instance, when the user changes the value of a control).
Scripts can be associated directly with the event, but you can also store scripts in script modules for more general use. And, of course, you have full access to all the modules that are available for Python. Plus, Rekall has an integrated Python debugger with syntax highlighting.
RekallRevealed is run as a community website to support the GPL version of Rekall. Rekall is being included by some of the Linux distributions, and commercial components and support are available from TotalRekall and from theKompany.
What's New in This Release:
Dynamic Layouts
Dynamic layouts allow you to create forms where controls automatically resize depending on settings such as font sizes, and as the user resizes the form. This is based on QT's layout engine, althougn only a restricted set of functions are available.
Tool Boxes
Personally, the author is not a fan of tool boxes, but they seem to be popular, so Rekall now supports them. If you still prefer the old context menu mechanism, you can turn tool boxes off.
Wizards
Lots of the controls now have control wizards which prompt you for the important settings. Hopefully wizards will be avaialble for all controls by the time 2.3.x becomes 2.4.0
Stock Databases
Stock databases. Rekall will come with some stock databases (actually there is only one at present, the demo database, but more will be added over time) which can be used to create your own database. In addition, you can download stock databases from the web. See the Rekall section on downloading the database that runs this website!
Manual
The manual can now be accessed via a dedicated manual viewer (loosely modelled on QT's assistant program).
Other stuff
Lots of bug fixes, lots of other smaller additions.
What's New in This Release:
2.2.6 is the now latest stable release.
Mostly bug fixes since 2.2.4, particularly a problem related (I believe) to the default style used by Fedora Core 4
Rekall 2.2.6 keywords