root / pykota / trunk / docs / dumpykota.sgml @ 1744

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<chapter>
  <title>Export datas to other software with dumppykota</title>
  <para>Last modified on $Date$</para>
  
  <para>
    If you want to reuse <application>PyKota</application> datas in another
    software, but don't want to modify your existing application to
    have it connect to <application>PyKota</application>'s database, your
    best option is the new <application>dumpykota</application> command.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    <application>dumpykota</application> can export <application>PyKota</application>
    datas in a number of formats. As of September 27th 2004, output formats are
    comma separated values, semicolon separated values, and tab separated values.
    More formats, different, are planned : <acronym>XML</acronym>, <acronym>SQL</acronym>,
    and <acronym>LDIF</acronym> are planned, but are currently not implemented.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    <application>dumpykota</application> can't dump all datas at once though, you have
    to specify which type of datas you want. The possible types are :
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem><para>Users</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>Users groups</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>Printers</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>Printers groups membership</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>Users groups membership</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>Users print quota entries</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>Users groups print quota entries</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>History of payments</para></listitem>
      <listitem><para>History of print jobs</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist>  
  </para>
  
  <para>
    You can then import the dumped datas into a spreadsheet for example, 
    if you want to create complex reports with nice looking graphs and
    the like.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    This command could also be used if you plan to write your own management
    tools : just write wrappers around the <application>pkprinters</application>,
    <application>edpykota</application>, and <application>dumpykota</application>
    tools, and your own tools will automatically benefit from <application>PyKota</application>
    database backend independance layer.
  </para>
  
  <warning>
    <title>Warning</title>
    <para>
      Contrary to the <application>repykota</application> command, <application>dumpykota</application>
      doesn't currently limit which datas can be exported by normal users, so please take
      care to not allow normal users to read the <filename>/etc/pykota/pykota.conf</filename>
      file or to execute the <application>dumpykota</application> command if you don't
      want to expose possibly sensitive datas.
    </para>
  </warning>  
        
  <sect1>
    <title>Reference</title>
    <para>
      <cmdsynopsis>
        <command>dumpykota</command>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-v</arg><arg>--version</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-h</arg><arg>--help</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt">
          <arg>-f <replaceable>outputformat</replaceable></arg>
          <arg>--format <replaceable>outputformat</replaceable></arg>
        </group>
        <group choice="req">
          <arg>-d <replaceable>datatype</replaceable></arg>
          <arg>--data <replaceable>datatype</replaceable></arg>
        </group>
      </cmdsynopsis>
    </para>
  </sect1>
</chapter>

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$Log$
Revision 1.1  2004/09/27 08:19:14  jalet
Wrote some doc for dumpykota

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