s11n Data Node Browser mini-manual

The s11n Data Node Browser is a tool for browsing through any data saved via the s11n framework (http://s11n.net). It provides an easy-to-use interface for browsing data saved by s11nlite clients - essentially the same functionality as the s11nconvert tool, but wrapped up in a user interface. It is not yet full-featured. See below for the list of TODOs.

s11nbrowser home page: http://s11n.net/s11nbrowser/

ACHTUNG: editing data without understanding it's structure and inter-relationships may lead to data which cannot be read by the application which wrote the original.
You have been warned!

TODOs

In no particular order:

Modularize the API interface.
Allow editing of node data.
Add an MDI interface.(???)

Note that there are no guarantees that any of these features will be added (because i almost invariably use xemacs to edit my s11n data!).

Command-line options:

-f FILENAME
    Loads the given file at startup.

-? or --help
    Dumps some information to the console and exits.

-s CLASSNAME
    Sets the default s11nlite Serializer class (i.e.,
    the default output format). This is NOT persistant
    across sessions.

-dl and -DL
    Load DLLs. -dl will abort the app if a DLL load
    fails, while -DL is tolerant of failed loads. These may
    be used in combination and multiple times. e.g.:
       -dl mysql_serializer -DL /path/to/some.so -dl another_serializer

(The -dl and -DL options are not active in all versions.)

Menus and Toolbars:

Use Open Node to open s11n-saved data files. This will load any files which libs11n is capable of reading.

Use Save Node to save the currently-selected node, using the currently-selected output format.

Use Open DLL to open DLLs. This is sometimes useful for loading external Serializers and the like. Opening a DLL is enough to register all classes which have s11n-compliant classloader registration code in the DLL (this includes, of course, s11n Serializers, such as the mysql_serializer).

Use Serializers to select your prefered output format (i.e. Serializer class) and preferred file compression method.
Only compression techniques supported by your libs11n_zfsteam are actually supported, falling back to no compression if the selected format is not supported by the zfstream library.
Some Serializers may not actually output files, such as the mysql_serializer. Thus, don't be alarmed if you're using such a Serializer and saving to a file doesn't create one. To load non-file-based data used the "Force Load" option from the File menu.

Use Exit to... well, you know.

Use the various Edit operations to copy, cut, paste and delete nodes. The interface will not allow you to cut or delete the root node. The Free Clipboard action can be used to free up memory when you have a large item in the clipboard and wish to get rid of it. Save Clipboard can be used to save the clipboard contents to a file.

About shows information about the application, including the license and Help File shows this manual.

Views:

You can toggle the node tree and properties views on and off via the View menu or the corresponding toolbars.

Node List
The node list shows the current node tree. Right-click on nodes to get a popup menu with node-specific options.

Properties View
Clicking a node cause it's properties to be shown in the properties view.