MADCAT

Tools are programs which can perform treatments on the data of a workspace. One treatment is called an "action".
They can be external programs (.exe) or user-specific libraries (.dll) compatible with models.
Tools are developed by workspaces suppliers. MADCAT has no tools by default. They are based on the API of MADCAT and the .NET framework of Microsoft.
They can access data to create/edit/delete items in your project. But you can also use them to perform treatments on files by using the powerful set of libraries of the .NET framework.
A tool can offer several actions. Actions are attached to items by the model (see ACTION). End-user runs them through the menu or the toolbar of MADCAT's interface.

Tools and their actions are defined in a XML file with extension XTL.

Task management
MADCAT provides a powerful task manager and log manager to execute tools' actions in different threads and trace any events or changes performed to the data. Actions can be scheduled, paused, resumed, canceled, re-run, and so on... in a very easy way.

All database updates are traced and can be checked after action's execution. Transactions can also be canceled when action fails to preserve the database.

Progress display
MADCAT provides to the end-user a very detailed progress window providing global progress, estimated end time, step progress and controls for action execution.

Logbooks
It also provides a logbook system which allow the end-user to capture all events and messages produced by the tools or only specific ones using filters. Logbooks can be exported, transformed in HTML because they are also XML files.

User preferences
Finally, MADCAT provides a user profile management which allow tools to define sets of options users can change freely. Options are automatically saved when user leaves MADCAT and loaded when he enters a workspace.
Each workspace has its set of options. Options are user-dependent (saved in the Windows's user-specific folders)