The PC-SIG Library 10

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ROKMAR ASSETS INVENTORY SYSTEM Version 2.0 Technical Reference Manual ROKMAR Computer Systems Copyright (c) 1990 ROKMAR ASSETS INVENTORY SYSTEM INDEX Introduction ................ 1 Copyright Notice ............ 3 ASREPORT .................... 4 BASIC Reporting ............. 6 Data Dictionary ............. 8 Custom Help Windows ......... 9 Custom Report Menu .......... 10 Page 1 INTRODUCTION This document describes the internal workings of the ROKMAR Assets Inventory System and methods to customize the report outputs. The most user requested feature of any application is the ability to create custom reports. Reports are one of the most important and useful outputs from an application, and certainly one of the most visible. The usefulness of the report can be degraded when the report heading and field names are described in a generic fashion using terms not used by the company. Most users want to customize their reports and create business specific versions that are immediately recognizable. This document will tell you how to do just that. This application is built over a relational database model. This means that fields in files can be linked to fields in other files. The fact that this system sits on a database allows us to be able to extract data by field name without having to know where that data is. A quick example would be to try this program: Type: ASREPORT ASSETS ASSET_KEY DESC The screen will display the data fields from the records from the file ASSETS sorted by ASSET_KEY. We have written our first report; see how simple this can be. This program and a list of all the data fields are described later. Page 2 INTRODUCTION (cont.) There are two custom reporting methods available with this system: the method described above using program ASREPORT, which is a simple data lister; and a second method which allows complete format control of the data. Any extraction and formatting scheme is possible from printing small gum labels to printing large 162 character wide reports to any printer type. Method two requires some programming expertise or the desire to fiddle around with some code. Since these reports are read only from extracts, no harm to the database is possible, so you can not hurt anything by tinkering. Page 3 COPYRIGHT NOTICE This software product is the copyrighted property of ROKMAR Computer Systems, and the usual shareware limited agreement applies: 1. No fee may be charged for the retail sale of this product other than a reasonable copy and distribution charge. 2. This product may only be distributed in its original and complete form, including documentation and copyright notice. 3. This product may not be distributed, whole or in any part as a section or part of any commercial product without written permission of ROKMAR COMPUTER SYSTEMS. DISCLAIMER ROKMAR Computer Systems, its owners, management, or associates will not be liable for any damages or claims related in any way to the use of this product and disclaims all warranties or implied warranties by the distributor. Page 4 ASREPORT PROGRAM This program us useful for quick report lists to the screen, to a printer or to an ASCII file that can be imported to any spreadsheet or wordprocessor to create business statements. This program is not incorporated into the application in general, but runs under DOS. This program can be included into the custom menu which is a part of the ASSETS custom report system in general. The name of the program is ASREPORT.EXE. The following descriptions will use the C> prompt. Don't be confused if you are using a different disk drive and see something else. For a demonstration, type: C>ASREPORT ASSETS The entire list of records will scroll across your screen. This is interesting if used as a browse of the data. Now try: C>ASREPORT ASSETS ASSET_KEY DESC Notice that only the data fields you selected, and in the order you selected appear. Interesting? The format of this command is: C>ASREPORT filename [file-element1 file-element2 ...] The filename in this case is ASSETS. The file elements are those listed in a later chapter and must be spelled exactly. If the file elements are not used, all elements will be extracted. If listed on the screen, the right most elements will be truncated. Now lets print something: C>ASREPORT ASSETS ASSET_TYPE DESC USER_DEF > PRN Another way to do this would be: C>ASREPORT ASSETS ASSET_TYPE DESC USER_DEF > myfile C>COPY MYFILE PRN The first method extracts the data and redirects the I/O to the printing device. The second method extracts the data and redirects the I/O into a file of your own choosing, then prints the file. Page 5 ASREPORT PROGRAM (cont.) Why extract the data into another file? This is one of the nicer features of this program. This file can be imported into any spreadsheet, (Lotus 123, etc.), database, or word processing program. The data may be used by the spreadsheet program to be reformatted, sorted in other ways, or used for more elaborate uses. A program may use this data to upload into other databases or report the data in other formats. The data may be included into a word processor for use inside a business report, or for any other special purpose. Page 6 BASIC REPORTING This section describes a more elaborate reporting system. This system is more complicated, but is without limitations in its usage for reporting, extracting, etc. This section is called BASIC reporting because it actually uses the BASIC language distributed with every MS-DOS/PC-DOS operating system. BASIC has all the power of any report writer program and more. It is virtually as simple to use, but is not limited in power as most every report writer programs available. Report writing is typically composed of three parts: 1. Extraction: The data is read from the data files and written to an ASCII file. Extraction is done in ASSETS by a program similar to ASREPORT, called EXTRACT. This program is used from DOS in the same way: C>EXTRACT filename [file-element1 file-element2 ...] 2. Sorting: The ASCII file is then sorted in the order the output is desired. Sorting is then done by a sort program. DOS supplies a sort program called SORT. The only problem with this program is that it will only work with files small enough to fit into memory. Sorting can be done with any sorting program available from numerous sources. If your database is not too large, the DOS sort will work fine. A typical example would be: C>SORT <infile >outfile Notice that in this case the sorting routine sorts the data in the order that the elements are in the record. This means that when extracting the data, you should list the elements to extract by the extract program in the order you wish to sort by. 3. Output Formatting: The sorted ASCII file is then read and written to the printer in some defined format. This can be done with any language, but examples are supplies using BASIC. The program should: - Read in each record of data from the ASCII file. - Either select or reject this record. - Format the output report line with the data and write this line. Any of the programs ending in .BAS are examples of report programs. Page 7 BASIC REPORTING (cont.) Finally, all three of these steps should be placed into a .BAT file as a packaged report program. This will require the use of a text editor such as the DOS EDLIN program, or a word processor which creates ASCII output files. This .BAT file can then be run from the DOS prompt or placed inside the custom reporting menu supplied with ASSETS. Following is an example, the file name is SAMPRPT1.BAT: REM ****************************************************** REM **** SAMPLE REPORT 1, SIMPLE LIST BY KEY ***** REM ****************************************************** ECHO OFF EXTRACT ASSETS > TEMP.DAT SORT <TEMP.DAT >TEMPSORT.DAT GWBASIC SAMPRPT1 DEL TEMP.DAT DEL TEMPSORT.DAT Notice the three main parts of a report program: extraction, sorting then formatting done here with GWBASIC. The BASIC program used here is SAMPRPT1.BAS. An example type of custom report might be: The user defined field 1 has been defined by your company to be the department responsible for the record. You will want a report which lists all records by department, then by client, then by record number. EXTRACT ASSETS USER_DEF ASSET_KEY DESC APPRAISAL DATE_PURCHASED > rptfile.tmp SORT <rptfile.tmp >sortfile.tmp GWBASIC MYRPT.BAS DEL rptfile.tmp DEL sortfile.tmp The BASIC program could put your company's name on the heading and describe the report as you use it. The field USER_DEF could be called DEPARTMENT CODE (or whatever you wish). You can even select only specific departments to print; in fact, any selection criteria you wish is possible. There are no limits at all imposed on a creative user. Page 8 DATA DICTIONARY The two data files are described here. For an in-depth textual description of each field, refer to the help windows. File ASSETS Field Description Size Cobol Pic ----------------- --------------------------- ------ --------- ASSET_KEY A unique key 5 X(5) DESC The Description of the 25 X(25) article of value. TYPE The Type code. A category 8 X(8) for the article, ie., tools, equipment, etc. LOCATION_STORED The Location Code where the 8 X(85) article is stored, ie., garage, off-site, xa-01-01, etc. USER_DEFINED A User-Defined code for any 8 X(8) special purpose requirement, ie., persons name, sub- breakdowns of Type or Location, anything you wish. DATE_PURCHASED The date the article was 6 X(6) purchased. (MMDDYY) PURCHASE_COST The purchase cost or value 7 9(5)v99 of the article. (characters) PURCHASED_FROM Description of where the 25 X(25) article was purchased from. APPRAISAL The appraisal value, if 9 9(5)V99 applicable. MODEL_NUMBER The article model number. 10 X(10) SERIAL_NUMBER The article serial number. 20 X(20) COMMENT1 First line of Comments. 50 X(50) COMMENT2 Second line of Comments. 50 X(50) Page 9 CUSTOM HELP WINDOWS Be sure to make a copy of the original help file before altering this file! The help windows are also user customizable with any text editor. Caution must be exercised here in that the windows follow a special format. The format is : <field > Must be 8 characters Text <next > The last help window should be terminated with an <end>. Refer to the current help window file distributed with the system. This file is ASSETS.HLP. The window automatically adjusts itself to the size of the text created by the user. This does not mean that the text can be of any size; any sentences going past the edge of the screen will be truncated. This will not hurt anything, so if it happens, just return and shorten the sentences of the help text. Customizing this file can be helpful when a company is making special uses of the fields provided. One example might be if the user defined field #1 is used for a persons name. The help window might become: <user-def> The enter the person's name that is responsible for this record. Be sure to left justify this field and always type with caps on. Page 10 CUSTOM REPORT MENU Provided with the ROKMAR Records Management System is a menu system to run any custom reports without leaving the ASSETS system. This menu system is documented in a separate document: CUSTMENU.DOC. This menu system can be replaced by any other menu system the user might feel more comfortable with. When the user selects the custom reports menu from the main ASSETS pull-down menu, the ASSETS system simply executes an external DOS command. The command that ASSETS performs is "CUSTMENU". Since the menu system supplied with this system is CUSTMENU.EXE, this program is run. The command that ASSETS does is equivalent to doing: C>CUSTMENU This means that any program or .BAT file called CUSTMENU could be run instead. To install another menu system, create a .BAT file called CUSTMENU.BAT which runs your favorite menu program and remove the CUSTMENU.EXE program from the directory. Then load all your report programs that you have into your menu. Commands that you might also place here are programs to backup your data, etc.