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Text File | 1991-12-29 | 18.6 KB | 442 lines

*************************************************************************** ** CHARITY.ZIP ** (C) Copyright 1990, Sub Rosa Publishing Inc. ** A demonstration application provided to VP-Info users. ** This program may be copied freely. If it is used in commercial code, ** please credit the source, Sub Rosa Publishing Inc. ** ** This suite of programs provides an actual example of a complete ** application, written in VP-Info, the data base language published ** by Sub Rosa Pulishing Inc. ** ** This is a demonstration application. Some techniques are ** used primarily to enrich the variety of examples used, even if they ** would usually not all be used in a single application. ** ** The entire application is compatible with all Sub Rosa Publishing ** editions of VP-Info. ** ** Sid Bursten and Bernie Melman ** June, 1990 *************************************************************************** Programmers may find it helpful to study an actual application, complete with most of the features available to Info users. Although many additional features could easily be added, this example is designed to showcase techniques as simply as possible while providing a useful skeleton for real organizations to use. CHARITY.ZIP should be un-zipped in a hard-disk directory of its own. It assumes that a charitable organization has a cadre of solicitors who canvass the public for pledges of support for the cause. Once pledges are received, the charity has to log funds as they are received from the donors, keeping information on how many dollars are collected on pledges in both the donor and solicitor data files. The application has three data files with the following structures: Data file: DONATE.DBF Field Name Type Width Dec 1 DONOR C 6 2 SOLICITOR C 6 3 DATE C 6 4 AMOUNT N 8 2 5 HOWPAID C 1 ** Record Length ** 28 CHARITY.DOC Page 2 Data file: DONOR.DBF Field Name Type Width Dec 1 DONOR C 6 2 FNAME C 15 3 NAME C 15 4 ADDRESS C 30 5 CITY C 18 6 STATE C 2 7 ZIP C 9 8 PLEDGE N 8 2 9 PAID N 8 2 10 SOLICITOR C 6 ** Record Length ** 118 Data file: SOLICIT.DBF Field Name Type Width Dec 1 SOLICITOR C 6 2 FNAME C 15 3 NAME C 15 4 ADDRESS C 30 5 CITY C 18 6 STATE C 2 7 ZIP C 9 8 PLEDGE N 8 2 9 PAID N 8 2 ** Record Length ** 112 Execution begins with DONMENU, which is built around the MENU( function. By selection an option numbered 0 through 9, the user selects a free-standing program, a subroutine, a procedure, a report form or exit from the program or from Info altogether. The menu screen and selection is set up with the following commands: WINDOW 1,2,23,77 double ;draw border and force all display inside SET date to 'yymmdd' ;default to years first; allows date sort SET talk off ;suppress messages like NO FIND SET text on ;include display fields in GET TABLE for READ SET trim off ;do not trim & macros in TEXT display SET execution off ;don't re-execute ON FIELD on exit SELECT 1 ERASE @ 1,3 SAY date(full) @ 3,3 SAY cen(:company,74) ;display company name on menu @ 5,3 say cen('Main Menu',74) WINDOW 8,25,22,77 blank ;create invisible window to position text CHARITY.DOC Page 3 TEXT 0. Enter Conversational Mode 1. Enter/Edit Donations 2. Enter/Edit Donors 3. Enter/Edit Solicitors 4. Post Donations 5. Report Donations 6. Report Solicitors 7. Print Labels 8. Reindex All Files 9. Exit to the Operating System ENDTEXT WINDOW ;window no longer needed SET width to 80 ;restore line width for later text displays CURSOR 10,23 ;position cursor for MENU( function CLEAR keyboard ;empty type-ahead buffer ANS=menu(9,38) ;9 options, with bar 38 characters wide Note that a bordered window is created to display the menu, along with the current date, the company or organization name and the menu title. Then an invisible window is created into which the TEXT block is positioned. Using WINDOW with the BLANK option is much easier than attempting to center text in the program itself. Once the window is no longer needed, it is canceled, the cursor is correctly placed and the keyboard buffer is emptied to eliminate characters that may have been inadvertently left over from an earlier program. Finally, the user enters his choice from the options given. Choice zero cancels execution and puts the user into Conversational Info, while option 9 exits Info and returns to DOS. Data Entry with TEXT Option 1 chains to the program ENTRY, which in turn chains back to DONMENU when complete. ENTRY edits and adds records in the DONATE data file, which contains one record for each payment made. The user enters the code number of the donor, which the program uses to retrieve the donor's name and address, and the code number of the solicitor; the name of the solicitor is then retrieved from the SOLICIT data file. Both donors and solicitors are assigned unique code numbers by the computer in options 2 and 3, which enters and edits records of these individuals. The code number consists of the first three characters of the last name, the first initial, and a two-digit serial number that starts at 01 and goes up to 99 as people are added with similar names. This method makes it easy to find code numbers, yet assures a large number of unique code numbers. CHARITY.DOC Page 3 The subroutine DONEDIT is used to add donor records to DONOR.DBF. An input screen is retrieved from a library (DONATE.LIB) and is activated with READ. All of the functions normally available in EDIT are obtained by checking the value of KEY, a system variable containing the number of the key used to exit READ. The TEXT stored as library volume .1: The prompt box at the top is similar to that provided by EDIT with SET MENU ON. Note that double carats (^^) are needed to print a single carat on the screen, since carat has a special meaning to TEXT. .. donor,!!!-!-99 .. solicitor,!!!-!-99 .. state,!! .. zip,!!!!!!!!! ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │REC: prev <PgUp> next <PgDn> Delete current record ^^U │ │FILE: top ^^<Home> bottom ^^<End> DELETE: char <Del> to end of field ^^Y │ │APPEND MODE: begin ^^<PgDn> exit <PgUp> EXIT: with save <End> no save ^^Q │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Enter or edit donors and pledges Name (first/last)... %fname %name Code Number......... #donor Address............. @address City and State...... %city %state Zip Code............ @zip Pledge Amount....... @pledge Paid to date....... #paid Solicited by........ @solicitor &fname#2 &name#2 This sample uses all four macro symbols. Inputs are indicated by @ and %, while display-only fields are indicated by # and &. The @ and # symbols are used for fixed-position fields, while % and & are used for floating-position fields. This TEXT requires SET TEXT ON and SET TRIM OFF, both of which are in DONMENU. FNAME and NAME, and CITY and STATE, use the floating symbols since we only want to ensure the fields have a space between them no matter how long they are. Four of the fields require specific format pictures, which are given at the top on lines starting with two periods. Here are the commands that create the code number inside the DO WHILE structure whenever a new record is created: CHARITY.DOC Page 4 recnum=# ;store current record number finder=!(left(mname,3)+left(mfname,1)) ;build alpha part of code finder=replace(finder,' ','*') ;fill in blanks in code with asterisks FIND &finder ;these 6 lines are equivalent to the LAST command, IF #>0 ; although LAST is substantially faster. Essentially, LIMIT 4 ; all we have to do is find if a record exists with GOTO bottom ; the same 1st 4 letters of the code, and find out LIMIT ; what the last serial number is so we can increment ENDIF ; it. The previous 6 lines in Level 1 code can be replaced by the single line LAST &finder ;find last matching code in file in VP-Info versions which support the LAST command. IF #=0 finder=finder+'01' ELSE num=val(right(donor,2)) ;get number of last matching record IF num<99 ;only allow numbers up to 99 finder=finder+right(str(101+num,3),2) ;increment with leading zero ELSE finder='******' ;overflow if already 99 records with same letters ENDIF ENDIF GOTO recnum ;go back to original record and fill in name and code REPLACE fname with mfname,name with mname,donor with finder This TEXT has an associated ON FIELD structure, which among other things does lookups into the DONOR and SOLICIT data files. Here's the section that does it: IF solicitor<>solicitor#2 FIND#2 &solicitor#1 ;align file when solicitor code filled in IF recno(2)=0 :field=field(solicitor) @ 23,0 say cen('No solicitor found with this code number.',80) ELSE :field=field(fname) @ 23,0 ENDIF ENDIF The reason the FIND is inside an IF is that it would waste time and effort to align the files when they are already aligned. CHARITY.DOC Page 5 Posting Totals to a Data File One of the most useful functions of a relational database system is the ability to accumulate totals from fields in one data file into another data file. In this application we want to add up all the pledges and receipts for each donor and each solicitor. The first step is to zero out the totalling fields in the respective files. Then an index is set to establish the relation and the POST command invoked. In this application, we've added a complication: limiting the records to be posted to donations made within a specified period. The following commands do the posting, depending on whether beginning and/or ending dates are specified: DO CASE CASE finish<'999999' .and. start>' ' POST on solicitor from donate fields paid with amount for date>=start .and. date<=finish POST#2 on donor from donate fields paid with amount for date>=start .and. date<=finish CASE finish<'999999' POST on solicitor from donate fields paid with amount for date<=finish POST#2 on donor from donate fields paid with amount for date<=finish CASE start>' ' POST on solicitor from donate fields paid with amount for date>=start POST#2 on donor from donate fields paid with amount for date>=start OTHERWISE POST on solicitor from donate fields paid with amount POST#2 on donor from donate fields paid with amount ENDCASE An unusual feature of the POST command is the ability (with SET ADD ON) to add records to the target data file automatically if no record is found to accumulate totals to for unknown or incorrect records in the source file. This assures complete posting, since no amounts are "lost." CHARITY.DOC Page 6 Reporting The menu offers two report options. The simpler one merely lists all the solicitors in code-number order, with the amounts posted from the DONOR and DONATE data files. The list of donations, however, has two additional features: A. The report uses two additional related files, so the names of both the donor and solicitor can be shown B. The same date feature mentioned for posting is used, again in an ON CASE structure, to optimize the report depending on whether beginning and/or ending dates are specified Printing Labels There are a number of complexities to printing labels, particularly 2 or more across. Among these is how to handle records with one or more missing pieces of data. For example, many small-town residents have only the town name as an address; merely printing name, address and city on three separate lines would leave a blank line in this case. The subroutine DONLABEL uses a 3x3 matrix to organize the data for up to three labels at once, and a second 3x3 matrix is used to print the labels. The matrixes are created in DONMENU as follows: DIM char 32 label[3,3] ;matrix for 3-across labels DIM char 34 labelout[3,3] ;actual output matrix for 3-across labels Since Info adds one space between horizontal elements of a matrix, LABELOUT has 35 characters between the start of one label and the start of the next . . . 3.5 inches as normal printer pitch. LABEL is about a quarter of an inch narrower; this increases the margin between labels to about a third of an inch without changing the position of the labels themselves. DONLABEL is fully commented, and is used to print labels for both SOLICIT and DONOR data files. CHARITY.DOC Page 7 Maintaining Indexes Every application requires not only a set of index files, but an easy way of creating and correcting those index files. The indexes used in this application are maintained with the following module: SET talk on ;show progress of indexing...? lines show steps to do ? "USE donate" USE donate ? "INDEX on donor+date to donatdon" INDEX on donor+date to donatdon ? "INDEX on solicitor+date to donatsol" INDEX on solicitor+date to donatsol ? "INDEX on date+donor to donatdat" INDEX on date+donor to donatdat ? "USE donor" USE donor ? "INDEX on !(name)+left(fname,1) to don_name" INDEX on !(name)+left(fname,1) to don_name ? "INDEX on donor to don_code" INDEX on donor to don_code ? "USE solicit" USE solicit ? "INDEX on !(name)+left(fname,1) to sol_name" INDEX on !(name)+left(fname,1) to sol_name ? "INDEX on solicitor to sol_code" INDEX on solicitor to sol_code SET talk off Compiling the Application This application has only two separate programs, although one consists of several files. The following program is used to compile the programs in this application, and immediately execute the menu program COMP entry COMP donmenu CHAIN donmenu Summary If this were created for a real customer, instead of as a demonstration, a number of additional features would probably be added. CHARITY.DOC Page 8 For example, the three data entry programs -- ENTRY, DONEDIT, and SOLEDIT -- should probably allow users to change the current index, find records based on the current index, and switch between BROWSE and EDIT as shown in the demonstration program EDBROW included on the Info distribution disk. Since ENTRY and DONEDIT require the user to enter records by donor and solicitor code numbers, it would also be useful to give users a way to BROWSE those data files to check the code numbers. There are several additional reports that would be useful, including the ability to limit the report to specific solicitors and/or donors, or groups of them. Rather than extend the list of reports on the main menu, creation of a separate program with its own menu of reports would be preferred. Charities have to produce receipts to donors, donor cards for collectors, solicitation cards for solicitors, and solicitation letters for the next campaign. All of these functions can easily be done in one program using TEXT for output processing to the printer. You are invited to run this application, and make these and other improvements as a way to improve your programming ability in Info. By the time you have one complete application under your belt, you're a genuine Info expert! Good luck.