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DEEPLOOK : a full-featured database management system to catalog the files on floppy diskettes or the hard drive with the added feature that it will automatically catalog the CONTENTS of ZIP/LZH/ARC and other types of compressed files. Yes, it's yet another disk file indexer. Especially designed to index files on your floppy diskettes, you might ask how is DEEPLOOK different from the hundreds of disk indexers already out there? Well... DEEPLOOK solves the problem of finding that computer file or program you know you have but it's buried inside a COMPRESSED file archived onto a floppy disk to save room on your hard drive. Compressed files usually have a file name extension of .ZIP, .LZH, .ARC and sometimes even .EXE. One compressed file can contain literally hundreds programs and files. We are going to make the assumption that if you have compressed files you know enough about compression and de-compression that further explanation in this document is not necessary. Most of the popular compression methods in use today come with a disk file (usually ending with .DOC) which explain their methods in detail. We refer you to those documentation files if you need more information about file compression. DEEPLOOK can automatically read the contents of your compressed files (including the self-extracting EXE files), and store the list of files in an amazingly fast database so that you can later search it or generate reports to your printer or to disk files. This means you don't have to do a lot of data entry to get the basic database started. DEEPLOOK even has an "Auto Pilot" feature that will automatically read each file on your floppy disk or hard drive subdirectory. If it is a compressed file it can extract the names of the files therein and add them to the database. If it is not a compressed file, it will add the file name to the database but without the compressed file storage information. You can use the Auto Pilot feature or you can use the directory list that DEEPLOOK puts on the screen and individually select which files go into the database. There are more details about all of this later on. DEEPLOOK allows you to turn off the reading of compressed file contents if you'd rather not catalog the contents of compressed files. The Database: ------------- Each entry in the database has the following information: File Name File Date File Size Disk ID (volume label or directory name) File Type (Regular, Compressed, Storage or Nested) Comment (up to 30 characters) Storage File (the ZIP or ARC file if the file is compressed) If the file is stored in compressed format, it has the associated compressed file name (i.e., the ZIP or ARC file) where the file is stored and the type of storage. This last item is left blank if the file is not stored in compressed format. The Comment field is open for you to enter comments about different files using DEEPEDIT. If the file is compressed and contains a comment, the compressed comment will be placed in the comment field, which you can later delete or edit. About all you have to do is make sure that each disk you plan to enter into the database has a unique volume label. (See your DOS manual about how to change the volume label.) Although DEEPLOOK checks for duplicate entry of storage file names, it does no checking for duplicate volume labels. If you use DEEPLOOK to read files on your hard disk drive, the name of the subdirectory is used as the volume label. About File Type: ---------------- Regular : any file that is not stored inside a compressed file or is not a compressed storage file (ARC, ZIP, LZH, etc.) Compressed : any file that is stored INSIDE a storeage file (ARC, ZIP, LZH, etc.) Storage : a special storage file that contains files in a compressed format. Storage filenames end with the extension of ARC, ZIP, LZH, PAK, ARJ and sometimes EXE. Nested : a storage file that is contained within another storage file. DEEPLOOK will not read the contents of a nested storage file, but it will mark it as "nested" so you can later design a report (using DEEPREPT) to see where all your nested storage files are. (See details below about DEEPREPT.EXE. Set the search criteria to FileType = "Nested".) The Programs ------------- There are three main programs that are used to run the DEEPLOOK database system. (Be sure to see the list of accompanying files later in this documentation.) DEEPLOOK.EXE : this is the directory reader which creates the database and adds the file names, etc. to the database. DEEPREPT.EXE : a full-featured report generator for use with the DEEPLOOK database. You can create reports with any field, sorted by any field(s), filtered for value(s) in any field. You can print the report to the screen, to the printer or to disk files, as ASCII text files or comma-delimited files which can later be imported into Lotus, Reflex, dBase, Paradox, etc., etc. DEEPEDIT.EXE : this allows you to quickly search the DEEPLOOK database, and edit any field for any database entry. Actually, you really should edit only the comment field, but the other fields are there to be seen and edited if you wish. You can also bulk-delete files, such as deleting references to all the "READ.ME" files when it's not really necessary to have them in your database. Each of these programs is discussed in detail below. ┌─────────┐ │Hot Keys │ └─────────┘ Each of the programs in the DEEPLOOK series relies heavily upon "hot keys" to access the many program functions. Hot keys can take two forms. One is the use of the "Function" or F-keys. These are the keys labeled F1, F2, etc. that are grouped at the far lefthand side of your keyboard where they belong. (Your keyboard may have the F-keys along the top row of the keyboard, but they don't belong there.) The other form of hot-key is a key-press combination using the Alt or the Ctrl key and one other key. For example, in DEEPEDIT Alt-D deletes the current record from the database. (More details about this later.) To activate this command, hold down the key labeled "Alt" and press the letter D at the same time. To activate Ctrl-D (bulk file delete), hold down the key labeled "Ctrl" and press the letter D at the same time. In most cases, all the active hot keys are visible to you on the screen, so you don't have to try to remember them all. All you have to do is know how to operate them and what their actions will be. ┌───────────────┐ │ DEEPLOOK.EXE │ └───────────────┘ DEEPLOOK is the program which reads directories and adds the names of the files therein to the DEEPLOOK database. You've got to run this program first in order to create the DEEPLOOK database and put something in it. DEEPREPT and DEEPEDIT won't function properly unless there is some "data" in the database. DEEPLOOK is started by typing DEEPLOOK followed by the letter of the floppy drive you wish to use to catalog a diskette. For example, at the DOS prompt type "DEEPLOOK a" (without the quotes) to catalog the A: drive. If you type DEEPLOOK without a following letter, DEEPLOOK will read the current hard disk drive directory. Usage:seage: DEEPLOOK d -where d is the letter of the floppy disk drive you wish to index. Run DEEPLOOK without d to index the current hard drive subdirectory. When DEEPLOOK begins you see a directory "pick list" showing all the files and subdirectories for the floppy diskette (or hard disk drive). The files are in capital letters of one color. The directories (if there are any) are in lower case letters in another color. This list operates very much the way a "menu" operates. You'll see a colored bar (the highlight bar) marking the first file in the list. You use the cursor (arrow) keys to move the highlight bar up and down the list of files. You can also use PgUp and PgDn to move the highlight bar around. You can also use the <End> key to jump to the end of the pick list and the <Home> key to jump to the top of the list. If there are subdirectories showing in the file list you can change to one of these by moving the highlight bar to the desired subdirectory and pressing <Enter>. A new file list of files in the chosen subdirectory will appear on the screen. The file list appears just the way it appears in the directory itself. You can sort the list in any of three ways. <Alt-N> sorts the list alphabetically by file NAME. <Alt-S> sorts the list according to the SIZE of the files. <Alt-D> sorts the list according to the DATE of the files. When the highlight bar is covering a file you wish to add to the database, simply press <Enter>. This will add the file to the database and remove the file from the pick list. You can change the directory filter mask. The default mask is *.* meaning that all files in the directory show in the list. Press <Alt-M>, type in a new file mask (at the bottom of the screen) and press <Enter>. For example, you may want to have only LZH files showing. Type *.LZH at the edit prompt. Press <Esc> to cancel the mask edit function. The LOOKDEEP feature can be toggled on or off by pressing <Alt-L>. Turning LOOKDEEP off will cause any selected files to be indexed into the database, but the contents of any compressed file (ZIP, ARC, LZH, etc.) will NOT be read and indexed into the database. Turning LOOKDEEP * ON * will allow the contents of the compressed files to be indexed into the database. A nice feature of DEEPLOOK is the Auto Pilot function. With Auto Pilot on, ALL the files shown in the directory list are processed into the database. If LOOKDEEP is ON, the contents of all compressed files will automatically be indexed into the database. Press <Alt-A> to start Auto Pilot. Press <Esc> to cancel Auto Pilot while it is running. If, while Auto Pilot is running, a duplicate file name is found in the database, the name will not be added again and the contents of a compressed file will not be read again. You must use manual selection (Auto Pilot off) in order to have the program re-read the contents of a compressed file. DEEPLOOK will automatically terminate once all files have been processed on Auto Pilot. Press <F1> to see a Help screen. Press any key to remove the help screen. Press <Alt-X> when you are finished using DEEPLOOK and wish to return to the DOS prompt. Some Notes about using DEEPLOOK.EXE: ------------------------------------ While DEEPLOOK expends considerable effort to trap floppy diskette read errors, there may be times when it will just stop working in the middle of a run. Sometimes it will stop and declare a "run time error." Other times it may "hang" so that you'll have to turn the computer off and back on again to get your computer back. Although we have tried to trap these errors and at least report them to you and exit gracefully, there are still some errors we haven't been able to catch. We've had this happen on our own floppy diskettes and have no reason to believe that it won't happen on yours. You can prevent a lot of this kind of crashing by making sure that you have good and fresh floppy diskettes. Most floppy diskette errors are caused by some kind of damage to the surface of the diskette: grungy fingerprints, dried cake crumbs, scarification from writing on the diskette with a ball point pen, etc. Copy your files to new floppies every so often. Floppy diskettes were not designed to last forever. It's worth noting that if DEEPLOOK has a problem accessing your floppy diskettes, you, too, will likely have a problem reading it or copying it. So, given the chance for all these floppy disk errors, why would one want to use DEEPLOOK? Because when it works, it works so well and so effortlessly for you, the user. You can quickly and easily have an index of where ALL your files are, even those that are hidden inside a compressed file. Of course, using DEEPLOOK to read files on your hard disk drive eliminates the risks inherent in floppy diskettes. ┌───────────────┐ │ DEEPEDIT.EXE │ └───────────────┘ DEEPEDIT is the file searcher and editor which reads each record in the database and lets you view, edit, or delete records from the database. DEEPEDIT will not operate if there are no records in the database or you have not used DEEPLOOK.EXE to add records to the database. DEEPEDIT starts by bringing up the first record in the database in a data entry screen. Records are sorted in alphabetical order by filename in one of the indexes that accompanies DEEPLOOK. That is why when DEEPEDIT first starts, the record number reported may not be record # 1. However the file name shown in the data entry screen will be the first one alphabetically in the index. You use <F8> to move forward to the next record. Press <F7> to move backward to the previous record. If you are at the very beginning of the list, you will have to press <F7> twice in order to move backward to the very end of the list. The same is true if you are at the very end of the list; you will have to press <F8> twice to move to the beginning of the list. In the data entry screen you have full editing capabilities. Use the arrow (cursor) keys or the <Tab> key to move among the 6 fields for the current record. You can edit any field, but remember that changing file name, file size, disk id, file date or storage date may create a record that is inaccurate from what actually resides on the floppy diskette. Most important, you have the capability to edit the Comment field. This can be very useful in making notes about certain files to remind you of things when perusing the database. But remember, and we will repeat this: any changes or edits you make ** HAVE TO BE SAVED ** back to the database before you move on to the next record. Press <F10> to save the current record with its changes back to the database. To help you locate files quickly there are two hot keys you can use. Press <F6> to have the program QUICKLY search for a file name and bring it into the entry screen. In the search screen type the name of the file you are looking for and press <F10> to continue (or press <Esc> to stop the search). The search operation is not an exact match operation, but the closest it can find. The search operation starts at the beginning and stops when it finds the exact file name you specified, if it exists. More accurately, it stops when it finds the FIRST OCCURRENCECCURENCE of the file name in the event there are several occurrancesccurances of the same file name. It then retrieves the record and places it in the data entry screen. In the event that it finds no exact match, the search operation will return the file name that is CLOSEST to the one you specified. It does this rather than giving up and saying "can't find the file...". For example, you may know that you have some files in the database named "READ.ME", "README.1ST", and "README". If you enter READ as the file name for which to search, the program will retrieve the first of these. Press <F4> to view a scrolling LIST of the file names in the database. You use the arrow (cursor), PgUp, PgDn, End and Home keys to move about the list. You can press <F6> while the LIST is visible and search the list. What was said in the previous paragraph about searching the database applies also to searching the LIST. Press <Esc> to cancel the list and return to the data entry screen. If you press <Enter>, the file name that is HIGHLIGHTED in the LIST will be retrieved and placed in the data entry screen. Press <F5> to jump to a specific record by record number. Use this to quickly retrieve a specific record if you know which record number it is. The record number of the currently displayed record is shown in the bottom part of the frame around the data entry window. Press <Esc> to cancel a record number jump. You cannot jump to a record number which doesn't exist. DEEPEDIT also offers some database management functions: Press <Alt-D> to delete the currently displayed record from the database. You'll be asked to confirm (Y/N) before the delete actually takes place. Once a record is deleted, there's little hope of getting it back. Press <Ctrl-D> to BULK delete file names. For example, you may wish to delete all the READ.ME files or all the .OBJ files from your database. In the first case, enter READ.ME as the file name to delete and press <F10>. (Press <Esc> to cancel bulk deleting.) In this case all the files with a FileName of READ.ME will be deleted from the database. In the second case, type *.OBJ as the file name to delete and press <F10>. In this case all the files with names having the extension of .OBJ will be deleted from the database. Press <Esc> or <Alt-X> to EXIT from DEEPEDIT. ┌───┐ REMEMBER: Press │F10│ to save those edit changes back to the database. ======== └───┘ ┌──────────────┐ │ DEEPREPT.EXE │ └──────────────┘ Once our data has been entered, edited and stored, it is most useful to be able to retrieve selected parts of the information in the form of reports. DEEPREPT is a sophisticated menu-driven report writer which will produce tabular reports from any and all of the fields available in the DEEPLOOK database. You can sort on several different fields or you can "filter" the reports for specific field values (such as FileDate = @Today). You can create new fields in the report with calculated values based on database field results (such as if FileType = "Regular" then print "OK"). You can also define summary fields that contain counts, totals, averages, standard deviations, etc. You can produce reports that are "comma delimited" and saved to disk as a file that can later be imported into Lotus, Quatro Pro, dBase, Reflex, Paradox and any computer program that will read in comma-delimited data. We'll go into more detail what all this means and how you go about producing these reports. Any report can be sent to the screen, a printer or to a disk file. Once you create a report to your satisfaction you give it a name and store it so that it can be quickly retrieved and run in the future. DEEPREPT supports 21 printers, dot-matrix, laser and daisy wheel. There are 39 pre-defined formulas which can be used in reports you design. We have included several reports which we designed. These reports demonstrate how to use some of the powerful features in DEEPREPT. It will be well worth your time to see how these were set up and what their output looks like. Doing so will help you to learn quickly how to use DEEPREPT to its fullest capacity. Getting Started --------------- DEEPREPT is fully menu driven and uses several of the function keys (F2, F10, etc.) to retrieve, create, save and print reports. This is the full menu for DEEPREPT. We will walk you through each of these menu options. ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option When any menu or screen is active, the available "hot keys" are always shown at the very bottom of the screen. You will soon find it very convenient to check the bottom line of the screen to see which keys are activated at any given time. When DEEPREPT first starts this is all you will see of the Main Menu: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ √ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option At start up, you can either create a new report definition or load a previous report definition that you saved. The DEEPLOOK shareware package comes with several predefined reports. They are stored in the files QUERY.DAT and QUERY.IX. If you do not wish to use these report definitions you should delete the files QUERY.DAT and QUERY.IX. Use the DOS delete or erase commands to do this at the DOS prompt. (Please refer to your DOS manual to understand how to use DOS commands.) If the QUERY files are not available or if they contain no saved report definitions, then "New Report" and "More Options" are the only option you will have when DEEPREPT first starts. If you choose "Load Report" , a menu labeled "Load Report" appears on the screen and you choose the one you wish to load. (Throughout this documentation file, we will use the check mark √ to indicate which menu option we are choosing. The check mark does not appear on the DEEPREPT menu, but rather the colored selector bar.) If you choose "New Report" you must first indicate which type of report you wish to create. A menu labeled "Report Type" appears on the screen: ┌──────── Report Type ──────────┐ │ │ │√ Tabular Report │ │ Comma Delimited ASCII File │ │ Fixed Length ASCII File │ └───────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Cancel Enter - Select Report Type (See "Report Types" below for a description of each of these types.) You are then asked to type in a name for the report. You have up to 40 characters, so you can make the name descriptive of the report. You might name a report "Storage_Files_Sorted_By_Date". Press <Esc> to cancel the naming operation. By attaching a name to a report definition you can save the report definition and recall it later. Once a type of report has been selected and a name given, the Main Menu appears again with a new option: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ √ Select Files │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option The next option available in creating a new report definition is to select the files that will be used. Here there is only one file - called FileList. A file selection menu will appear: ┌──────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐ │ Selected Files │ Available Files │ ├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤ │ │ FileList │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch AltP-Primary File Since there is only one file available in DEEPLOOK, you simply press <Enter> to select the file. When you do, it moves to the other column, like this: ┌──────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐ │ Selected Files │ Available Files │ ├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤ │ FileList │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch AltP-Primary File Since there is nothing more we can do here, press F10 to return to the Main Menu, which now is the full menu: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ √ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option The next step is to select which fields will be in the report in which order. Select the "Select Fields" option and a field selection menu appears: ┌─────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┐ │ Selected │ Available │ │ File Field Print │ File Field │ ├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │ │FileList FileName │ │ │FileList FileDate │ │ │FileList FileSize │ │ │FileList DiskID │ │ │FileList FileType │ │ │FileList Comment │ │ │FileList Storage │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch AltM-Move AltP-Print Following our example report, you move the menu cursor over each of the three fields to be in our report and press <Enter>. As you do, the field names move to the selected side of the screen: ┌─────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┐ │ Selected │ Available │ │ File Field Print │ File Field │ ├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │FileList FileName Always │FileList DiskID │ │FileList FileDate Always │FileList FileType │ │FileList FileSize Always │FileList Comment │ │ │FileList Storage │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──Columns used: 35 ──────────────┴────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch The menu screen also reports the number of columns used. If columns used ever exceeds 80, you are asked if you want to use compressed print (for printing to a printer only.) At this point the menu cursor bar is still in the Available side of the screen. Now Press <Tab>. The menu bar now moves to the Selected side of the screen and two new hot keys become available: ┌─────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┐ │ Selected │ Available │ │ File Field Print │ File Field │ ├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │FileList FileName Always │FileList FileType │ │FileList FileDate Always │FileList Comment │ │FileList FileSize Always │FileList Storage │ │FileList DiskID Always │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──Columns used: 45 ──────────────┴────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch AltM-Move AltP-Print The fields are listed in order as they will appear across the page in a tabular report. In this example, each line will show... FileName FileDate FileSize Use <Alt-M> to Move, or change the order of these fields. If you select one of the fields on the "selected" side of the screen (by pressing <Enter>), it will remove the field from the selected side of the screen and send it to the "Available" side of the screen. <Alt-P> rotates the field print column among 4 available options. The default option is "Always" meaning that the value of the field will always show in the report. The next is "Never". This means that the values in the field will never be seen in the report, but you may need to select the field for sorting or some other purpose. Third is "Unique". This only prints the field value if it is different from the preceding field value. If we had the (unlikely) situation that several files had exactly the same size, if FileSize print was set to Unique, our report would look like this: MYFILE.TXT 02/11/93 4566 YOURFILE.TXT 07/16/88 " MYFILE.DOC 03/03/91 " EMPTY.TXT 09/08/90 " BIGGER.DOC 01/17/91 7781 Indent/Unique prints the field value when it is unique and so is the value of the field to the left. Once all the fields have been selected and they are in the correct order and the field print options are satisfactory, we press <F10> to return to the Main Menu. ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ √ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option Now we want to specify the sort criteria. We then get a menu similar to the field selection menu. (NOTE: It is not necessary to specify sort criteria once fields have been selected. A report can be created and run taking records in their natural order if so desired. Usually we will want to sort.) Notice that the available fields is NOT all the fields in each record, but only those fields we selected (above) to be in the report. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐ │ Selected │ Available │ │ File Field Order Group │ File Field │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤ │ │ FileList FileName │ │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ │ FileList FileSize │ │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch AltM-Move AltO-Order AltG-Group As with similar menus above, we select the fields on which to sort in the order in which we want them sorted. As we select them, they move to the "Selected" side of the screen. Once we have set the needed sort criteria, we press <Tab> to move the selector bar to the Selected side of the screen. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐ │ Selected │ Available │ │ File Field Order Group │ File Field │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤ │ FileList DiskID Ascending 1 │ FileList FileDate │ │ FileList FileName Ascending │ FileList FileSize │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Remove Tab-Switch AltM-Move AltO-Order AltG-Group On this side of the screen, pressing <Enter> sends the selected field back to the "Available" side of the screen. <Alt-M> allows you to change the order of the selected fields by MOVING them around. <Alt-O> toggles the sort order between ASCENDING and DESCENDING. <Alt-G> allows you to create GROUPS and then have summations, such as group totals, etc. show in the tabular report. We will define DiskID as Group 1. This will group all the files by DiskID. This is very similar to a sample report we have provided in the QUERY file, "FilesByDiskID". This report will list all the files by file name for each disk ID and then put a footer showing the number of files and total bytes on each DiskID. We'll see how this happens later when we select Report Totals from the Main Menu. Just a quick note about sorting. Although we are using very fast sorting algorithms in this program, sorting is still the most time-consuming part of generating a report. Sorting starts with the first field selected, in this case DiskID. The only time it will use FileName is when it has two or more identical DiskIDs. Since it is very likely that there are numerous records in the database with identical DiskIDs, it makes sense to sort on a second key, here FileName. We could add additional sorting keys, such as FileDate. In this case it makes no sense to do so because the only time the sorting algorithm will need to look at FileDate is if it finds two or more identical FileNames on the same DiskID. That would be impossible, as DOS only allows unique filenames on one diskette or subdirectory. However, if our sorting were like this: FileName FileDate it might make sense to add a third key, such as DiskID because there could be identical file names with identical dates on different diskettes (backup copies, etc.) Notice that although we are sorting by DiskID first, DiskID is not the first column in the report. FileName is the first column and it will appear in alphabetical order, for each DiskID. To see this, load the report "FilesByDiskID" , print it and study the output. We press <F10> to return to the Main Menu: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ √ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option Next we will specify search criteria. This is what is called "filtering" the database. All the records in the database are matched to some pre-defined criteria, thus filtering out unwanted records from the report and keeping only the records that meet our criteria. This is one of the areas where the real power of DEEPREPT becomes apparent. We will show you how it works and set up a sample search criteria for you, but you are here limited only by your imagination. As long as your criteria are accepted by the program (when you press <F10>) you can include the criteria in your report. Also NOTE: search criteria are not required in order to run a report. They are there for your convenience. Upon selecting "Specify Search Criteria" the search criteria screen pops to the surface: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ File Field Search Criteria │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ FileList FileSize │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ FileList Comment │ │ FileList Storage │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Edit search criteria Notice that all the fields are available, not just the fields selected to be in the report. The first step is to move the selector bar to a field and press <Enter>. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ File Field Search Criteria │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileDate ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ FileList FileSize │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ FileList Comment │ │ FileList Storage │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Accept Search Criteria F2-Fields F3-Formulas Press F2 to get a list of available fields. We'll do that and select FileList FileDate. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ File Field Search Criteria │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileDate FileList FileDate = ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ FileList FileSize │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ FileList Comment │ │ FileList Storage │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Accept Search Criteria F2-Fields F3-Formulas Next we'll press F3 to get a list of all the formulas available to us. ┌───────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Formulas │ Field Search Criteria │ ├───────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Abs │FileName │ │ Ave │FileDate FileList FileDate = │ │ CurrTime │FileSize │ │ Date │DiskID │ │ . │FileType │ │ . │Comment │ │ . │Storage │ │ TimeStr │ │ │ Today │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ └───────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Select Formula We'll move the formula selector bar to "Today" and press <Enter>. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ File Field Search Criteria │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileDate FileList FileDate = @Today▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ │ FileList FileSize │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ FileList Comment │ │ FileList Storage │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Accept Search Criteria F2-Fields F3-Formulas Now we press <Enter> one more time to accept the search criteria. @Today is one of the powerful formulas available to you in DEEPREPT. @TODAY knows what date today is - it automatically picks it up from the date clock in the computer. We just load the report and run it. We DO NOT have to go into the report definition each time and write FileDate = 03/17/93. We simply wrote FileDate = @TODAY. DEEPREPT takes care of all the details of filtering out all the records in the database where FileDate is some date other than Today. There are 39 pre-defined formulas such as @Today available in DEEPREPT. How each is used is shown later on. You do not have to use F2 and F3 if you know what search criteria you wish to enter. Here are some examples of some simple search criteria you may wish to use: FileList FileSize > 100000 (filter out all small files from the report) FileList FileType = "Storage" (show only names of storage files) FileList Comment <> "" (show only file names that have a comment) Press <F10> to continue to the Main Menu. ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ √ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option Next we'll try entering a computed field. A computed field is a new field in the database that is created "on the fly" while the report is being generated. Actually the field is not in the database, but appears in the report only, but it acts as though it were a field in the database. Again, it is not necessary to create computed fields in order to print a report, but this is one of the most powerful features of DEEPREPT. In actual practice you will want to "Create Computed Fields" BEFORE you "Specify Search Criteria." That way you can specify values in the new computed fields to filter on. Creating computed fields brings up the computed field screen. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Name Expression Type │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Edit Ins-Add Del-Delete If there were computed fields already defined we move the selector bar to the one we wish and press <Del> to delete the computed field. We press <Ins> to add a new computed field: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ Name: │ │ Picture: │ │ Expression: │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel F10-Continue F2-Field Types First, we must decide on what type of field we want to compute. Press <F2> to get a pick list of our available fields: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: │ │ Name: │ │ Picture: │ │ Expression: │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────────────┐ │ │ String │ │ │ Boolean │ │ │ Integer │ │ │ Real │ │ │ Date │ │ │ Time │ │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ ├──────────────┘ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Select Field Type We'll discuss what each of these field types means a little later. For now, we're going to move the selector bar to "Real" and press <Enter>. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: Real │ │ Name: DaysOld │ │ Picture: 99,999 │ │ Expression: ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel F10-Continue F2-Field Names F3-Formulas We'll name the field "DaysOld" and make it's "picture" 99,999. (We'll discuss pictures just a little later.) You can name the computed field anything you wish in the space provided. We're now ready to write the expression for the computed field. Now, press <F3> to get a list of the formulas: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: Real │ │ Name: DaysOld │ │ Picture: 99,999 │ │ Expression: │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────────── Formulas ───────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Abs InStr Max Time │ │ │ Ave False MidStr TimeStr │ │ │ CurrTime Hour Min Today │ │ │ Date LeftPad Minute True │ │ │ DateStr LeftStr Month Upcase │ │ │ Day LenStr Pad Year │ │ │ Dec Locase RightStr Yes │ │ │ If Num Second ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ │ Inc No Str │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Select Formula We'll select Today. This places @Today in the Expression line. Next we'll type a "minus" sign (-). Then we'll press <F2> to get a list of fields. We'll select FileList FileDate. This places FileList FileDate next in the Expression box. Here, then is the Expression: @Today - FileList FileDate It simply calculates the number of days between Today and the date the file was created. Now we press <F10> to continue. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Name Expression Type │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ DaysOld @Today - FileList FileDate Real │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Edit Ins-Add Del-Delete We now have our first computed field. Let's press <Ins> and create another one that will use the first one we just created. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ Name: │ │ Picture: │ │ Expression: │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel F10-Continue F2-Field Types Press <F2> to select the field type. This time we are going to select String. We'll name it "YearsOld" and make its picture XXXXXX. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: String │ │ Name: YearsOld │ │ Picture: XXXXXX │ │ Expression: │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────────── Formulas ───────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Abs InStr Max Time │ │ │ Ave False MidStr TimeStr │ │ │ CurrTime Hour Min Today │ │ │ Date LeftPad Minute True │ │ │ DateStr LeftStr Month Upcase │ │ │ Day LenStr Pad Year │ │ │ Dec Locase RightStr Yes │ │ │ If Num Second ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ │ Inc No Str │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel Enter-Select Formula Next press <F3> to get the formula list We'll select "If". This clears the Formulas list and places "@If(" in the Expression line. You'll see that @If ends with the left (open) parenthesis. This is a clue that we are going to pass some "arguments" to the @If formula. Next press <F2> to get the Field list. Notice that there is a new field at the end, DaysOld. That's the computed field we just created, but this field does NOT have the FileList notation before it. It's a field, alright, but not one of the fields in the FileList database. Let's select DaysOld. @If(DaysOld Now we'll test DaysOld for a value. We'll use the "operator" > which means "greater than". (More about operators later on.) So we type > 365.0 and press enter: @If(DaysOld > 365.0 Next we add a comma and then press <F3> to get our formula list again. This time we'll select Str, which places @Str( in the Expression line. (Notice the left parenthesis again.) @If(DaysOld > 365.0, @Str( @Str requires 2 arguments. We're going to divide the real field DaysOld by 365 and convert it to a string with the picture "999.9". That is what @Str does. It converts a number to a string. (@Num on the other hand, converts a string to a number.) So we'll type in DaysOld / 365, "999.9" and close the @Str formula with a right parenthesis. @If(DaysOld > 365.0, @Str(DaysOld / 365, "999.9") That is what is going to happen if DaysOld IS greater than 365 days. If DaysOld is NOT greater than 1 year we'll just display the "null" or empty string (""). @If(DaysOld > 365.0, @Str(DaysOld / 365, "999.9"),"") So what is this computed field going to do? It's going to test DaysOld to see if DaysOld is more than 1 year's worth of days. If the file is more than 1 year old it's going to calculate how many years old it is and put that value in the YearsOld computed field. If the file is still a "baby", it will leave it alone and not say anything. Retrieve the report definition "AgeOfFiles" and run it to see how this appears in the report. You may be surprised at how old some of your files are! There are a few things to note here. At the beginning of our writing this computed field we defined the field as having a picture of XXXXXX: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: String │ │ Name: YearsOld │ │ Picture: XXXXXX │ │ Expression: @If(DaysOld > 365.0, @Str(DaysOld / 365, "999.9"),"") │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ This allows us to have the null string show in the report as though there was nothing there. Had we defined the picture here as 999.9 then the null string would have showed up as 0.0 in the report which tends to clutter it up. We defined the picture in @Str as 999.9 to force the result to be all numbers with just one decimal place, even though most calculations here would have yielded more than 1 decimal in the calculation of dividing DaysOld by 365. Since the @If formula is one of the more important ones, let's discuss it here. @IF(Condition, Result1, Result2). The condition is a true or false test. If the test passes (i.e., it is "true") then Result1 is returned. If the test fails (i.e., it is false) then Result2 is returned to the computed field. In our Expression we defined the test as DaysOld being greater than 365. If the test passes, then the result of DaysOld divided by 365 is returned to the computed field YearsOld. If the test fails (i.e., it's a "new" file) then we are just not going to say anything. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Name Expression Type │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ DaysOld @Today - FileList FileDate Real │ │ YearsOld @If(DaysOld > 365.0, @Str(DaysOld / 365, "999.9"),"") String │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Edit Ins-Add Del-Delete New we press <F10> to return to the Main Menu: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ √ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option Next we'll Setup some Report Totals. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Group File Field Total Type │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 1 FileList FileName │ │ √ FileList FileLength │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ Grand FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileLength │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Edit Del-Delete You'll recall that we defined group 1 above as grouping on DiskID. We'll move the selector bar to the first FileList FileLength and press <Enter>. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: │ │ Picture: │ │ Condition: │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ Grand FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileLength │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel F2-Total Type We'll press <F2> to get the list of available total types. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: │ │ Picture: │ │ Condition: │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────────┐ │ FileList FileLength │ │ Average │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ Count │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ Maximum │ │ FileList FileType │ │ Minimum │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ STDV │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ Summation │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └─────────────┘ We're going to choose Summation, which will take numerical values in each record and sum them into a Total. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Type: Summation │ │ Picture: 999,999,999 │ │ Condition: FileList FileType="Storage" OR FileList FileType="Regular" │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ Grand FileList FileName │ │ FileList FileLength │ │ FileList FileDate │ │ FileList DiskID │ │ FileList FileType │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Esc-Cancel F2-Total Type We'll complete the condition as shown here. This uses the Boolean OR (see below.) This means that the lengths of all "regular" and all "storage" files will be summed for each DiskID and reported at the end of each DiskID's listing in the report. Load "FilesByDiskID" and run it to see the results. We press <F10> to continue and <F10> again to return to the Main Menu: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ √ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option We have now come to the place where we will print our report. ┌─────── Print Destination ────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report to the Screen │ │ Print Report to the Printer │ │ Print Report to a File │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └──────────────────────────────────┘ Usually it is a good idea to print the report to the screen the first time we design a new report so we can see what it looks like and make any changes it it isn't doing what we expected it to do. If we choose printer, the report will be sent to the printer we've selected (see below) or a default printer. If we choose to send the report to a file (ASCII), we will be asked for the name of the file. While the report is processing, we are updated as to the number of records being read: ┌──────────────────────────┐ │ Records Read..: 1187 │ │ Records Found.: 988 │ │ Records Sorted: 988 │ └──────────────────────────┘ The report of records found will differ from the number read if we have defined a search criteria in our report definition. The difference is the records "filtered out" by our search criteria. While viewing our report on the screen, when we are finished we press <F10> to return to the Main Menu. ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ √ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option Assuming that the report is what we want, we select "Save Report" which will save the report definition under the name we gave it at the beginning so we can later recall it with "Load Report". ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ √ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option When we select "Report Options" from the Main Menu we get a menu of options: ┌───────── Report Options ─────┐ │ │ │ Report Width 80 │ │ Page Length 66 │ │ Left Margin 0 │ │ Top Margin 2 │ │ Bottom Margin 2 │ │ Compressed Print Off │ │ Skip Duplicates Off │ │ Groups on New Page Off │ │ Report Title On │ │ Print Sort Criteria On │ │ Print Search Criteria On │ │ Column Headings On │ │ File Names On │ │ Summary Only Off │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Change option Most of these options are self-explanatory. Numerical values can be edited and changed. The on/off values can be toggled between on or off. The options Report Title, Print Sort Criteria, Print Search Criteria, Column Headings and File Names refer to page headers which appear at the top of each page. These are usually useful and helpful to have on the printed reports. If you are saving the report to a disk file, you will probably want to turn off some of these header options. Press <F10> to return to the Main Menu: ┌─────────── Main Menu ──────────┐ │ │ │ Print Report │ │ Select Files │ │ Select Fields │ │ Specify Sort Criteria │ │ Specify Search Criteria │ │ Create Computed Fields │ │ Setup Report Totals │ │ Report Options │ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │ New Report │ │ Load Report │ │ Save Report │ │ √ More Options │ └────────────────────────────────┘ Esc - Quit Enter - Select Option ┌────── More Options ─────┐ │ │ │ Clear │ │ Save Report As... │ │ Delete Report │ │ Set Printer Type/Port │ │ Set Key Range │ │ View Last Report │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └─────────────────────────┘ Esc - Cancel Enter - Select Option You'll notice that this menu behaves much like the Main Menu in that not all menu options are always available. It depends how far you have proceeded in defining or loading a report definition what menu options are available. "Clear" will clear the current report definition from memory so you can start again with a new report definition. "Save Report As..." allows you to change the name under which the current report definition is saved. "Delete Report" allows you to delete the current report definition from the QUERY database. "Set Printer Type/Port" allows you to select the printer to which you will be printing your reports. There are 21 printers available in DEEPREPT: ┌───── Printer Selection ──────┐ │ │ │ Ascii Plain Printer │ │ C. Itoh 8510 Prowriter │ │ DataProducts DP │ │ Diablo Compatible │ │ Epson FX Series │ │ Epson LQ Series │ │ Epson MX Series │ │ Facit 4512 │ │ Generic Epson │ │ HP Desk Jet │ │ HP Laser Jet │ │ HP Laser Jet Font G │ │ HP Laser Jet II │ │ HP Laser Jet Plus │ │ HP Laserjet Font F │ │ IBM Proprinter II │ │ NEC 3510 │ │ NEC 8800 │ │ Panasonic KX 1093 │ │ Star Micronic Compatible │ │ Toshiba P 321SL / P 341SL │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ Once you have selected a printer, you select a port: ┌─ Port ──┐ │ │ │ LPT1 │ │ LPT2 │ │ LPT3 │ │ PRN │ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ └─────────┘ Unless you know what your hardware is configured as, choose PRN as the printer port. DEEPREPT will remember your printer and port selections by writing them to the DEEPREPT.CFG file so that your most recent choice will become the default printer the next time you run DEEPREPT. "Set Key Range" allows you to do filtering at the index key: ┌─────────────────────── Key Range Selection ─────────────────────────┐ │ Key Name │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ +FileName │ │ +StorageFile │ │ +DiskID │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Name Beginning Ending │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ FileName [No Value] [No Value] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ F10-Continue Enter-Edit Tab-Switch F2-Reset Range Value F3-Reset Ranges Press <Tab> to move the selector bar to the bottom half of the screen once a key has been selected. Press <Enter> to edit the beginning and ending values for the index. For example, you might enter AMERICA.DOC for the beginning value and FRANCE.DOC for the ending value then press <F10> to continue. This would have the effect of filtering out any index values that fall outside these two values. You probably have better control by entering search criteria. "View Last Report" will do just that in the event you have printed a report to the screen. This concludes our tour of the Main Menu and its various options. We strongly suggest that you load some of the "canned" report definitions we have provided in this package. Print them, edit them, revise them and see what happens to the final output of the report. This is likely your quickest way to learning how to use DEEPREPT. Report Types ------------- A tabular report is a report with each record occupying one line of the report, and each selected field in a separate column. There are page headers, footers, column totals, etc. as defined in the report definition. Comma-delimited ASCII files are text files where, again, each record occupies one line and each field takes only as much space as it needs and is separated from the next field (column) by a comma. In this kind of report, the names (or strings) are surrounded by double quotes, like "this". This kind of report, when saved to disk as a text file, is the kind of file that can be read by other computer programs, such as Lotus, Quattro Pro, Reflex, dBase, FoxPro, Paradox, PC-File and many others. You use this type of report to "export" your data to another program (which imports it). For example, suppose you defined the fields for a comma-delimited ASCII report as: FileName FileDate FileSize The report that would be sent to diskette would export your data from the DEEPLOOK database as this: "MYFILE.DOC","02/11/93",12234 "YOURFILE.DOC","04/01/93",6712 Here each file name is surrounded by double quotes and followed by a comma, each file date is surrounded by double quotes and followed by a comma, and each file size is presented as it is because it is a numeric value and does not get surrounded by quotes. Since it is the last field for each record in this report, it is not followed by a comma. Fixed-length ASCII file reports place the field information in strict columnar format, but without the quotes or the commas. In the example just above, the results would be in the file as follows: MYFILE.DOC 02/11/93 12234 YOURFILE.DOC 04/01/93 6712 Here each file name starts in column #1, each date starts in column #15 and each size starts in column 25. In this case, the size of 6712 is flushed right in the field space to allow for accurate sorting on that column if such is desired. Pictures -------- The @STR formula (see below) gives you a lot of ways to present numbers in a report by passing the following picture masks and the numerical field to the @STR formula. These same pictures can be used in defining computed fields. Dates are handled separately. See "Working with Dates" below. Picture Result Explanation -------------- -------------- --------------------- "XXXXXXXXXX" Any character "!!!!!!!!!!" Any character Force alpha to UPPER case "LLLLLLLLLL" Any character Force alpha to LOWER case "xxxxxxxxxx" Any character Force alpha to MIXED case (proper) "9999999999" Numbers and spaces only "##########" Numbers, spaces, minus and period "B" Boolean only True or false "Y" Yes or No only Y or N / y or n "aaaaaaaaaa" Alpha only "AAAAAAAAAA" Alpha only, force upper case "llllllllll" Alpha only, force lower case "EEEEEEEEEEE" scientific notation 1.234567E+17 "KKKK" hexadecimal numbers 07FE "c999.99" dollar sign is fixed $ 12.50 "$999.99" dollar sign floats $12.50 "999.99CC" French francs, 123,45 F fixed (Decimal = ,) "$###,###.##" ',' is discretionary, $1,234.56 '$' floats Working with Dates ------------------ In the DEEPLOOK system, dates are numbers (loosely a "Julian" date - the serial number of days from a given point in time). In order to have a date appear in a report as a date, the date field(s) will have to be converted. You can get a standard date format, 03/17/93, by using the formula @DATESTR(field). You can format a date into a host of other date formats by using the @STR(field, "picture") formula. (See section on formulas just below.) Here are the pictures available for working with dates: Picture Result ------------ ------------------- "mm/dd/yy" 01/02/00 "MM/dd/yy" 1/02/00 "mm/dd/yyyy" 01/02/1900 "mm-dd-yyyy" 01-02-1900 "dd/mm/yyyy" 02/01/1900 "DD/mm/yyyy" 2/01/1900 "dd-nnn-yyyy" 02-Jan-1900 "dd-NNN-yyyy" 02-JAN-1900 "www dd nnn yyyy" Tue 02 Jan 1900 "WWW NNN dd yyyy" TUE JAN 02 1900 The following special characters are meaningful in date picture masks: Char Marks location of or is replaced by --------- ------------------------------------ "m", "M" month (date fields only) "d", "D" day (date) "y" year (date) "n", "N" month name (date) "w", "W" day of week name (date) "/" '/' or SlashChar (date; semi-literal) Working with Times ------------------ Picture Result ---------------- -------------- "hh:mm:ss" 13:02:00 "hh:mm" 13:02 "hh:mm te" 01:02 pm "hh:mmt" 01:02p Note that string representations of time are always assumed to be in military format unless a 't' appears in the picture mask. An 'e' (em) in the mask should always be accompanied by a corresponding 't' (time). The following special characters are meaningful in time picture masks: Char Marks location of or is replaced by -------------- --------------------------------------------------- "h", "H" hours (time fields only) "m", "M" minutes (time) "s", "S" seconds (time) ":" ":" or ColonChar (date; semi-literal) "e" "m" or "M" (time; case depends on UpCaseTime) "t" "p", "P", "a", "A" (time; ditto ) Computed Field Types --------------------- String - a "string" is a string of characters, usually alphabetic, but can include numbers, punctuation, etc. Strings are interpreted literally and CANNOT be used in calculations (such as totals, etc.) without converting them to numerical. The DEEPREPT @NUM function will convert a string to a number. 8997 is a number. 8,997 is a string using @STR to convert 8997 to a string an insert the comma. Boolean - a Boolean is an on or off type. It can be True or False. It can be Yes or No. There are no other acceptable values for a Boolean. Integer - An integer is a number without the possibility of a decimal point. Integers CAN be used in calculations, such as totals, etc. Real - A real type is a number WITH the availability of decimals. Date - A date is a numerical type that can be used in calculations. The date of a file can be subtracted from Today to determine how many days old the file is. Time - Time is also a numerical type. Operators ---------- * is multiplication (integers and reals) - is subtraction (integers and reals) / is division (reals) DIV is division of integers + is addition (integers, reals and strings) NOT is logical negation AND is logical AND OR is the inclusive or XOR is the exclusive or IN returns true if operand is IN a set, otherwise returns false = is equal to <> is not equal to < is less than > is greater than <= is less than OR equal to >= is greater than OR equal to Some examples: FileSize = 10000 Select the record only if the FileSize is exactly 10000 otherwise reject the record FileSize >= 10000 Select the record if FileSize is greater than 9999 otherwise reject the record FileType = "Storage" AND FileSize > 10000 Select the record if BOTH condtions are true otherwise reject the record FileType = "Storage" NOT FileSize > 10000 Select the record only if FileType is "Storage" and the FileSize is NOT greater than 10000 otherwise reject the record FileType = "Storage" OR FileType = "Regular" Select the record if EITHER FileType is true FileType = "Storage" XOR FileSize > 10000 Select the record if only ONE condition is true Formulas in DEEPREPT --------------------- @ABS(X) Return the absolute value of X. @AVE(A, B [,C..N] ) Return the average of two or more parameters. @CURRTIME Return the current time. @DATE(S) Convert the date string S to a numeric date. @DATESTR(D) Convert the numeric date D to a formatted date string. @DAY(D) Return the day of the month in the date D. @DEC(X [,N] ) Decrement X by one or second parameter if given. @FALSE Return boolean false result. @HOUR(T) Return the hour in the time T. @IF(Condition, Result1, Result2) Return Result1 if Condition is true or Result2 if Condition is false. @INC(X [,N] ) Increment X by one or second parameter if given. @INSTR(N, S1, S2) Search in S1 for the sub string S2 starting at position N. @LEFTPAD(S, N [,C] ) Pad beginning of string S so that it is N in length with default character or optional third parameter C. @LEFTSTR(S, N) Return the first N characters of the string S. @LENSTR(S) Return the length of the string S. @LOCASE(S1 [,S2..SN] ) Convert one or more strings to lower case and concatinate (join) them. @MAX(A, B [,C..N] ) Return the maximum of two or more parameters. @MIN(A, B [,C..N] ) Return the minimum of two or more parameters. @MINUTE(T) Return the number of minutes in the Time T. @MIDSTR(S, P, N) Copy part of the string S starting at position P for N characters. @MONTH(D) Return the month of the year in the date D. @NUM(S) Convert the unformatted string S to a number. @PAD(S, X [, C] ) Pad end of string S so that it is N in length with default character or optional third parameter C. @RIGHTSTR(S, N) Return the right N characters of the string S. @SECOND(T) Return the number of seconds in the time T. @STR(X, P) Convert X to a formatted string using P as the picture mask. @TIME(S) Convert the time string S to a numeric time. @TIMESTR(T) Convert the numeric time T to a formatted time string. @TODAY Return the current numeric date. @TRUE Return boolean true result. @UPCASE(S1 [,S2..SN]) Convert one or more strings to upper case and concatinate (join) them. @YEAR(D) Return the year in the date D. FileList: ---------- Here is a list of all the files that should accompany the DEEPLOOK package. If any of these files are missing please notify us at once. These are the executable programs: DEEPLOOK.EXE DEEPEDIT.EXE DEEPREPT.EXE These files support DEEPREPT.EXE DEEPREPT.OVR DEEPREPT.CFG DEEPREPT.DAT DEEPREPT.IX QUERY .DAT QUERY .IX These are the documentation (ASCII) files: DEEPLOOK.DOC QIKSTART.DOC REGISTER.DOC APPENDIX A: Registering your shareware version of DEEPLOOK ---------------------------------------------------------- DEEPLOOK is a shareware product. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. Shareware is NOT free software. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a shareware program and continue using it, you are OBLIGATED to register the software with the author. With shareware you are able to try the software on your computer. After deciding that DEEPLOOK is a software product that you will use, you pay for it. If you decide that DEEPLOOK is not for you, you remove it from your hard disk drive and stop using it. Generally, shareware software prices are BELOW comparable commercial products because there is usually less overhead and distribution costs. The lower price is NOT an indicator of inferior quality. Registration is also an incentive to encourage software authors to continue producing quality professional software at a reasonable price. The DEEPLOOK programs are the complete system. It is neither "watered-down" nor crippled in any way. It is NOT an "evaluation" copy. What you have received is the complete functional system. It is fully professional software. When you register you become eligible for a number of things. First, is notification of any major upgrades and/or improvements in the product that may be produced in the future. Second, you will be our customer. While we are always interested in how users react to our software and their suggestions for improvements, we incline a much more sympathetic ear to the voices of our customers. Registration is $7.00 per copy that you are using. You, and your conscience are strongly urged to register by sending $7.00, checks payable to: John Abele 114 Woodlawn Ave. Willow Grove, PA. 19090 Please note that you are registering DEEPLOOK (we have lots of shareware products out there) and tell us where you obtained your copy.