home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
Text File | 1986-09-08 | 288.7 KB | 4,888 lines
WAMPUM User's Guide Copyright (c) Ward Mundy, 1986. WAMPUM is licensed for use and distribution within the general public so long as no charge is made for the software other than the actual cost of the media. Comments and suggestions regarding the software are welcome. If you would like notification of major updates and future product releases, please send $20 to the author at the address below: Ward Mundy 4160 Club Drive Atlanta, GA 30319 WAMPUM User's Guide Copyright (c) Ward Mundy, 1986. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 What is WAMPUM Anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Summary of Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.3 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4.1 Loading the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4.1.1 Where to Put It . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4.1.2 How to Run It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4.2 Maneuvering on the Main Menu . . . . . . . . . 3 1.5 Quitting WAMPUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.6 Using the Cursor & Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 End-User Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1 A - ADDing New Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 E - EDITing Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3 D - DISPLAYing Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.4 M - MARKing a Record for Deletion . . . . . . . . . 9 2.5 U - UNDELETing a Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.6 P - PRINTing Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.7 X - REBUILD/FileFix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.8 S - SELECT Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.8.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.8.2 Record Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.8.3 Listing File Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.8.4 Changing Current Data Entry Menu . . . . . . . 21 2.8.5 Picking the Lead Index . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.8.6 Setting Browse Mode ON . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.8.7 Listing the File Structure . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.9 R - REPORTS Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.10 L - LABELS Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.11 T - FORM LETTER Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.12 W - WAMPUM Preformatted Output . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.13 Printer Selection Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.13.1 Printed Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.13.2 Output All Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.13.3 Output Records Marked for Deletion . . . . . . 26 2.14 On-Line HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 3 Developer Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3.1 Creating A New Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3.1.1 Overview of Application Development Strategy . 28 3.1.2 Create A New SubDirectory . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.1.3 Building a New File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3.1.4 Selecting the New File . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.1.5 Indexing the New File . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.1.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.1.5.2 Creating New Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.1.5.3 Selecting Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.1.6 Printer Configuration (.MEM file) . . . . . . 33 3.1.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.1.6.2 Selecting an Existing Printer Table . . . 34 3.1.6.3 Creating a New Printer Table . . . . . . . 35 3.1.7 Menu Heading for New Application . . . . . . . 36 3.1.8 Relating the New File . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.1.9 Storing the New Configuration (WAMPUM.MEM) . . 37 3.1.10 Building Reports, Labels, and Form Letters . . 37 3.1.10.1 REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.1.10.1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.1.10.1.2 Creating A New Report Format . . . . 38 3.1.10.1.3 Modifying Existing Report Formats . 43 3.1.10.1.4 Outputting MEMO fields in Reports . 43 3.1.10.2 LABELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 3.1.10.2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 3.1.10.2.2 Creating A New Label Format . . . . 45 3.1.10.2.3 Modifying An Existing Label Format . 46 3.1.10.3 FORM LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3.1.10.3.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3.1.10.3.2 Creating a New Form Letter File . . 47 3.1.10.3.3 Building Data in Form Letter File . 47 3.1.10.3.4 WAMPUM Field Data Expressions . . . 49 3.1.11 Building Function Key Macros (KEYS.DBF) . . . 50 3.1.12 Building Edit Checks (EDIT.DBF) . . . . . . . 52 3.1.13 Building Data Entry Menus (MENUS.DBF) . . . . 57 3.1.14 Building an Audit Trail File (AUDIT.DBF) . . . 59 3.1.15 Preformatted Output (WAMPUM.DBF) . . . . . . . 60 3.1.15.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.1.15.2 Building the WAMPUM File . . . . . . . . 61 3.1.15.3 Adding/Editing the WAMPUM File . . . . . 61 3.1.16 Resetting the Developer Password . . . . . . . 62 3.1.17 Making a Backup of the User Application . . . 62 3.1.18 Writing the Documentation . . . . . . . . . . 63 3.2 ! - RUNning an External Program . . . . . . . . . . 63 3.3 Z - ZOOMing or RELATing a Supplemental File . . . . 63 3.4 C - Copy Utilities for Importing & Exporting Data . 64 3.5 Deleting & Undeleting Groups of Records . . . . . . 67 3.6 Reserved Variables & Special Functions . . . . . . . 67 3.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.6.2 LASTUPDT field in data bases . . . . . . . . . 68 3.6.3 LASTTIME field in data bases . . . . . . . . . 68 3.6.4 DUPKEY("FIELDNAME") prevents duplicate keys . 68 3.6.5 FULLDATE(DATE()) outputs May 27, 1986 format . 68 3.6.6 DTOS(DATE()) outputs 19860527 string . . . . . 68 3.6.7 WEEKDAY(DATE()) rolls weekend over to Mon. . . 69 3.6.8 DATE() outputs today's date as 05/27/86 . . . 69 3.6.9 DTOC(DATE()) outputs date as 05/27/86 string . 69 3.6.10 MEMOTRAN(fieldname) outputs MEMO fields . . . 69 3.6.11 EMPTY(fieldname) tests for empty fields . . . 69 3.7 PATH considerations with WAMPUM . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.8 WAMPUM System Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.9 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 1 Overview 1.1 What is WAMPUM Anyway? Ward's Automated Menu Package Using Microcomputers (WAMPUM) Ward's Automated Menu Package Using Microcomputers (WAMPUM) is a full-featured, menu-driven implementation of the dBASE III programming language. It is both an application development tool and an end-user data base management system with one significant difference: it's free. Subject to the system requirements outlined below and the caveats which are displayed when the software is run, you may use or transfer this software without charge of any kind other than the actual cost of the media. You do not have to own dBASE III to use this version of WAMPUM. Yet ___ WAMPUM ___ you can perform virtually all of the functions supported by dBASE III within the simple menu system which is WAMPUM. WAMPUM Special thanks to Nantucket, Inc., the developer of Clipper, _______ the premier dBASE III compiler. Without Clipper, there would be _______ no WAMPUM. Its flexibility and many enhancements over WAMPUM Ashton-Tate's dBASE interpreters made development of WAMPUM a WAMPUM true labor of love. We also express our appreciation to Nantucket for authorizing the distribution of their REPORT.EXE and LABEL.EXE programs to end-users free of charge. These two programs simulate the dBASE III commands of CREATE REPORT and CREATE LABEL and make WAMPUM a complete stand-alone application WAMPUM development system without reliance upon any dBASE interpreter. 1.2 Summary of Features As noted, WAMPUM provides much of the functionality of dBASE WAMPUM III through its simple menu interface. Some of the features included in WAMPUM are outlined below. For a more detailed look WAMPUM at individual features, consult that section of the User's Guide. Key features include: * Creation and use of dBASE III-compatible data bases * Field types include: Char, Numeric, Date, Logical, Memo * Creation and use of up to 5 B-Tree Indexes per .DBF file * Add, Edit, Delete, & Undelete Records in any .DBF file * Display, List and Print Records from any .DBF file * 10 Data Entry Screen Formats tailored to any .DBF file * Creation and use of dBASE III-compatible reports & labels * Creation and use of WAMPUM "mail merge" form letters * Relation of second data base by key for any output format * Full-featured copy utilities to import & export any data * Creation of printer templates to support up to 10 fonts * Library of preformatted output forms with sort & select * Library of edit-checks tailored to any .DBF file system * Library of macros tailored to any WAMPUM application * Calculated fields using standard dBASE expressions * File and index packing to restore damaged data bases * Automated Selection Assist for complex Boolean searches * Boolean searches of dBASE III-compatible MEMO fields * Audit Trail / Transaction Logging for multi-user tasks - 1 - 1.3 System Requirements WAMPUM may be used on any IBM PC-compatible computer running WAMPUM DOS 2.0 or higher with a hard disk. For performance reasons, an 80286 processor is desirable. Minimum memory requirement is 320K above and beyond the memory requirements of DOS and any memory- resident programs in use. Minimum memory is 420K to link to REPORT and LABEL programs from within WAMPUM. Without much in the WAMPUM way of memory-resident software, WAMPUM typically needs 512K to WAMPUM operate satisfactorily after loading DOS. WAMPUM will run on WAMPUM either a monochrome or color display. In the case of certain compatibles such as Compaq, WAMPUM should be run in forced WAMPUM monochrome mode by issuing the command WAMPUM MONO. Because WAMPUM creates a number of work files from time to WAMPUM time, and because WAMPUM typically works with numerous files open WAMPUM at the same time, you will need to make sure that when your computer is started, a file named CONFIG.SYS exists in the root directory of the boot disk. This file must contain the following entries with the minimum values shown: FILES=20 FILES=20 BUFFERS=24 BUFFERS=24 Failure to include the above commands will result in very unpredictable behavior of WAMPUM which could destroy data bases WAMPUM and indexes in use at the time of a very likely system crash! 1.4 Getting Started 1.4.1 Loading the Program 1.4.1.1 Where to Put It WAMPUM is an executable program with the name WAMPUM.EXE. WAMPUM It should be copied into a directory on your hard disk which is included in the PATH command whenever you start up your system. This will assure that WAMPUM can be run from any subdirectory on WAMPUM your hard disk. If you are not familiar with the path command, consult your DOS manual for more details. Simply stated, the PATH command tells DOS which directories (other than the current one) should be searched whenever you ask the computer to run a program. In building systems, typically we set aside a directory called \UTIL to store public domain software. This directory is included in the path command when the computer is started. If you have such a directory and it is in your PATH, then copy WAMPUM into this directory. WAMPUM 1.4.1.2 How to Run It WAMPUM is designed to support two, very different audiences. WAMPUM The first group is end-users, and the second is application developers. This design is implemented by providing two different menus for the two groups. The end-user menu is designed - 2 - to let a user do the normal things that are done with a database: adding, editing, and deleting records; running reports and labels; selecting the primary index for input and output of data; and entering record selection criteria to narrow down which records are produced in listings and reports. Provision is also made to allow the end-user to rebuild a damaged data base or index typically occasioned by a power failure. The end-user mode is initiated by typing WAMPUM and pressing the <ENTER> key at the WAMPUM DOS prompt. WAMPUM's developer mode contains all of the options outlined WAMPUM above plus a number of additional options designed to allow a person to develop a data base application for others to use. You ___ do NOT have to be a programmer to become a good WAMPUM developer! _________________________________________________________________ WAMPUM _________________________________________________________________ The developer's mode allows the creation of new data files and indexes as well as reports, labels, and printer formats. It also provides access to the data files used to develop edit checks, data entry menus, macros, preformatted output, and form letters. Finally it allows for customization of applications through the storing of a configuration identifying the files, indexes, printer, and name of each application. The developer mode is initiated by typing WAMPUM VOODOO and pressing the <ENTER> key at WAMPUM VOODOO the DOS prompt. As previously noted, if you are using WAMPUM on a compatible WAMPUM such as the COMPAQ which makes DOS think it has a color card even when using a monochrome display, then you may want to force WAMPUM into monochrome mode by starting it with WAMPUM MONO or WAMPUM WAMPUM MONO WAMPUM VOODOO MONO. WAMPUM VOODOO MONO 1.4.2 Maneuvering on the Main Menu Once you have started WAMPUM by executing one of the WAMPUM commands outlined above, you will see the WAMPUM logo and then WAMPUM the Main System Menu. Note that just below the menu is a one- line sentence of HELP regarding the highlighted option. You move between the options with the UP and DOWN cursor keys. The HOME __ ____ ____ key will take you to the first option on the menu, and the END ___ key will move you to the last option. Execute a choice on the Main System Menu by pressing the <ENTER> key when the choice desired is highlighted or by typing _______ the LETTER corresponding to the choice you wish to run. Exit from WAMPUM to DOS and end the program by pressing the WAMPUM <ESC> key while the Main System Menu is displayed. _____ Context-sensitive HELP on WAMPUM is always available by WAMPUM pressing the F1 function key on any screen. 1.5 Quitting WAMPUM As indicated, the <ESC> key is used to exit from WAMPUM to _____ WAMPUM _____ DOS from the Main System Menu. - 3 - 1.6 Using the Cursor & Function Keys A number of keys have special functions within the WAMPUM WAMPUM System. Oftentimes, these keys are not the same as what you may have used in previous dBASE III applications. Please scan through the summaries below before you attempt to either use or ______ build a WAMPUM application. Throughout this manual, you will see WAMPUM references to multiple key combinations such as CTRL-W or ______ ALT-F10. Whenever you see a hyphenated key combination such as _______ these, it means hold down the first key, then tap the second key, _________________________________________________ then release both keys. For example, CTRL-W means hold down the ______________________ ______ CTRL key, then tap the W key (case does not matter), then release both keys. ALT-F10 means hold down the ALT key, then tap the F10 _______ function key, then release both keys. We use the word "TAP" advisedly. Most PC's have a "keyboard buffer" which remembers keystrokes which may not yet have been displayed. Every key on the PC acts like repearing keys on a selectric typewriter. Thus, TAP means touch and release promptly! <ESC> is the all-purpose key which is used to get you out of <ESC> trouble. From ANY screen, you can always press the ESCape key to exit without preserving what you already were doing. From the Main Menu, pressing ESC will terminate WAMPUM and return you to WAMPUM the computer's operating system level. Ctrl-W is WAMPUM's SAVE key. Pressing CTRL-W typically Ctrl-W WAMPUM tells the computer to SAVE what is displayed on the screen and move on to the next step. If you are a previous dBASE III user, then CTRL-W is equivalent to dBASE III's CTRL-End key. Ctrl-Home moves the user to the first field on a data entry Ctrl-Home screen. Ctrl-End moves the user to the last field on a data entry Ctrl-End screen. <Enter> or Down Cursor completes an entry in a field and <Enter> or Down Cursor moves the user to the next field, if any, on the screen. Up Cursor moves the user to the previous field, if any, on Up Cursor the screen. PgDn signifies that data entry for this screen of data has PgDn been completed and that the user wishes to SAVE the data and continue. PgUp signifies that data entry for this screen of data has PgUp been completed and that the user wishes to SAVE the data and continue backwards through the data base (except when ADDing new records to the data base). Ctrl-Left Cursor moves the cursor to the beginning of the Ctrl-Left Cursor current data entry field. Ctrl-Right Cursor moves the cursor to the end of the current Ctrl-Right Cursor data entry field. - 4 - Ctrl-Y deletes the contents of the current field from the Ctrl-Y cursor position to the end of the field. Ins toggles the computer between insert mode and strike-over Ins mode. The word <INSERT> appears at the top of the screen when INSERT mode is active. Del deletes the character currently under the cursor. Del F1 function key is the all-purpose HELP key. It retrieves a F1 function key screenload of helpful hints which are keyed to your position in the WAMPUM system. WAMPUM F2-F10 function keys are macros tailorable by the developer F2-F10 function keys to hold any character string desired. The same is true for the SHIFT, ALT, and CONTROL key combinations with the ten function keys. In short, 39 keyboard macros can be designed for each WAMPUM application. WAMPUM 2 End-User Functions 2.1 A - ADDing New Records To add new records to any data base, that file must first be selected. Look at the bottom of the WAMPUM Main Menu to make WAMPUM sure that the file you want to use is already selected. If not, it can be selected using the F - File Select option in developer mode only. If the file you wish to work with is selected, then you should also consider whether there are indexes which you want automatically updated as you ADD new records to the file. If so, then these, too, must be selected before you ADD new records. You can determine which indexes are in use by looking at the bottom of the Main System Menu screen. New indexes can be created and/or opened using the I - Index Sel/Create option in developer mode only. Once you are working with the correct file and indexes, then ADDing records is as simple as highlighting the A - Add a New Record option and pressing <ENTER>. Or you may simply type an A while the Main System Menu is displayed. The screen will clear and WAMPUM will display a data entry WAMPUM screen with all of the fields in the current file. It will indicate the new record number of this entry at the top of the form. Type in the data you wish to enter for each field using the UP and DOWN cursor keys to move from field to field. - 5 - If a file has a substantial number of fields, then all of the fields may not fit on one data entry screen. In this case, the word *MORE* will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. When you complete entry of data on the first screen, then a second screen with the remaining fields will appear. Saving a new entry to the file can be accomplished in several ways. Pressing <ENTER> while the cursor is positioned in the last field of the last data entry screen will save the record. Completely filling the last field with text also will save the record. Pressing CTRL-W will save the new record without displaying the remaining data entry screens if the record requires more than one screen for data entry. Pressing <PgDn> in the last data entry screen of a record will also SAVE the record. Aborting a new entry can be accomplished by pressing the <ESC>ape key at any time before any of the SAVE methods outlined above occur. <PgUp> also aborts data entry in ADD mode only. ________________ WAMPUM supports updating of Memo fields in a slightly WAMPUM different way than dBASE III. If you wish to display or edit a memo field, then first move the cursor to that field. It will be displayed on the screen with the field name followed by *MEMO*. Note that memo fields in WAMPUM appear to be logicial fields WAMPUM which can accept True, False, Yes, or No as entries. If you wish to edit the memo field, simply set the logical field to True or Yes by entering a T or Y. When you complete entry of data for this record and execute a SAVE using any of the methods outlined above, the Memo editor will display any memo field marked True and allow you to update it as desired. You then can either SAVE the updated Memo text by pressing Ctrl-W or ABORT the update and leave the Memo text as it was by pressing <ESC>ape. After you ADD a new entry to the file, WAMPUM will display another blank data entry screen thereby allowing you to add another entry. If you do not wish to add another entry, simply press the <ESC>ape key to exit to the Main System Menu. 2.2 E - EDITing Records To edit records in any data base, that file must first be selected and cannot be empty. Look at the bottom of the WAMPUM WAMPUM Main Menu to make sure that the file you want to use is already selected. If not, it can be selected using the F - File Select option in developer mode only. If the file you wish to work with is selected, then you should also consider whether there are indexes which you want automatically updated as you EDIT records in the file. If so, then these, too, must be selected before you EDIT any records. You can determine which indexes are in use by looking at the bottom of the Main System Menu screen. New indexes can be created and/or opened using the I - Index Sel/Create option in I - Index Sel/Create developer mode only. - 6 - Once you are working with the correct file and indexes, then EDITing records is as simple as highlighting the E - Edit Record E - Edit Record option and pressing <ENTER>. Or you may simply type an E while the Main System Menu is displayed. If you are not using indexes in conjunction with the file being edited, then you will be prompted for the record number of the record you wish to edit. Simply type in the number desired and press the <ENTER> key. If you are using one or more indexes in conjunction with the file being edited, then the first index displayed at the bottom _____ of the Main System Menu is considered the LEAD INDEX and will be used to retrieve records. If this is not the index you wish to use for record retrieval, see the section on Select Utilities. When editing with an index, you will be prompted to enter a value for the field which is currently the LEAD INDEX. You may enter all or part of a key, and WAMPUM will search for a match on WAMPUM the portion of the key entered. Note that capitalization is critical in finding matches. If a LASTNAME field in your data base contains an entry of SMITH and you enter Smith as the key, then WAMPUM will not find the SMITH you are looking for. WAMPUM Once you have entered either a record number or the key of the record to find, WAMPUM will search for the first match. WAMPUM Assuming your application allows duplicate keys, there may be more than one match on a particular key, e.g. there may be a number of Smith's in your data base. If the first data entry screen displayed is not the Smith desired, then <PgDn> through the records until the correct record is retrieved. If you are using a data base with too many fields to fit on one screen, then you may have to <PgDn> several times just to move to the next record. There currently is no key which can be pressed to SKIP to the next record without first displaying all of the edit screens for the current record. If you skip past the record desired, you can also back up through the file in the order of the current key by pressing the <PgUp> key at any time. Once the record is displayed which you desire to EDIT, move to the fields to be edited using the UP and DOWN cursor keys. You may type over the existing data. Or you may delete the existing data by pressing CTRL-Y and then enter the new data. Or you may INSERT new data into a field by positioning the cursor where you want the insert to begin. Then press the <INS>ert key. With multi-screen records, you can move forward to the next screen by pressing <PgDn>. You cannot move backward within a record by pressing <PgUp>. <PgUp> will save the record and move you to the previous record in the data base. - 7 - As was true with ADD mode, you can edit Memo fields by marking them True or Yes and then SAVing the record. Similarly, you SAVE edited records in the same way that you do in ADD mode except that <PgUp> also executes a SAVE in EDIT mode and moves you back one record. CTRL-W saves the current record and prompts you for the next record to find. <PgDn> saves the current record and then displays the next record in the file for editing. You can abort any EDIT by pressing <ESC>ape before any of the SAVE actions outlined above occur. If you attempt to find a record which does not exist in the data base, WAMPUM will beep at you and prompt for another record WAMPUM to find. When you have searched for all the records desired, press <ESC>ape to exit to the Main System Menu. 2.3 D - DISPLAYing Records To display records in any data base, that file must first be selected and cannot be empty. Look at the bottom of the WAMPUM WAMPUM Main Menu to make sure that the file you want to use is already selected. If not, it can be selected using the F - File Select F - File Select option in developer mode only. If the file you wish to work with is selected, then you should also consider whether there is an index which you want to use for record retrieval. If so, then this index must be selected as the lead index before you DISPLAY any records. Once you are working with the correct file and index, then DISPLAYing records is as simple as highlighting the D - Display Record option and pressing <ENTER>. Or you may simply type a D while the Main System Menu is displayed. If you are not using indexes in conjunction with the file being displayed, then you will be prompted for the record number of the record you wish to display. Simply type in the number desired and press the <ENTER> key. If you are using an index in conjunction with the file being displayed, then the first index displayed at the bottom of the _____ Main System Menu is considered the LEAD INDEX and will be used to retrieve records. If this is not the index you wish to use for record retrieval, see the section on Select Utilities. When displaying with an index, you will be prompted to enter a value for the field which is currently the LEAD INDEX. You may enter all or part of a key, and WAMPUM will search for a match on WAMPUM the portion of the key entered. Note that capitalization is critical in finding matches. If a LASTNAME field in your data base contains an entry of SMITH and you enter Smith as the key, then WAMPUM will not find the SMITH you are looking for. WAMPUM - 8 - Once you have entered either a record number or the key of the record to find, WAMPUM will search for the first match. WAMPUM Assuming your application allows duplicate keys, there may be more than one match on a particular key, e.g. there may be a number of Smith's in your data base. If the first data entry screen displayed is not the Smith desired, then <PgDn> through the records until the correct record is retrieved. If you are using a data base with too many fields to fit on one screen, then each time you press <PgDn>, WAMPUM will skip to WAMPUM the next record. It will NOT display the subsequent fields of the current record as is the case in EDIT mode. If you wish to look at the subsequent fields of the current record, then press the <ENTER> key rather than <PgDn>. In addition, if there are MEMO fields in the data base with which you are working, these fields will show T if there is an entry in the field. Otherwise, the field will be marked F. To display the first screen of information in any MEMO field, just press <RETURN> rather than <PgDn> on the last screen of the display of the standard fields. If you need to look at the entire contents of of a MEMO field rather than just the first screen, then you must use Edit mode. If you skip past the record desired, you can also back up through the file in the order of the current key by pressing the <PgUp> key at any time. You can abort any DISPLAY by pressing <ESC>ape key. If you attempt to find a record which does not exist in the data base, WAMPUM will beep at you and prompt for another record WAMPUM to find. When you have displayed all the records desired, press <ESC>ape to exit to the Main System Menu. 2.4 M - MARKing a Record for Deletion To mark records as deleted in any data base, that file must first be selected and cannot be empty. Look at the bottom of the WAMPUM Main Menu to make sure that the file you want to use WAMPUM is already selected. If not, it can be selected using the F - F - File Select option in developer mode only. File Select If the file you wish to work with is selected, then you should also consider whether there is an index which you want to use for record retrieval. If so, then this index must be selected as the lead index before you attempt to DELETE any records. Once you are working with the correct file and index, then marking records DELETED is as simple as highlighting the M - Mark Record *DEL* option and pressing <ENTER>. Or you may simply type an M while the Main System Menu is deleteed. - 9 - If you are not using indexes in conjunction with the file, then you will be prompted for the record number of the record you wish to mark deleted. Simply type in the number desired and press the <ENTER> key. If you are using an index in conjunction with the file, then the first index displayed at the bottom of the Main System Menu _____ is considered the LEAD INDEX and will be used to retrieve records. If this is not the index you wish to use for record retrieval, see the section on Select Utilities. When using an index, you will be prompted to enter a value for the field which is currently the LEAD INDEX. You may enter all or part of a key, and WAMPUM will search for a match on the WAMPUM portion of the key entered. Note that capitalization is critical in finding matches. If a LASTNAME field in your data base contains an entry of SMITH and you enter Smith as the key, then WAMPUM will not find the SMITH you are looking for. WAMPUM Once you have entered either a record number or the key of the record to find, WAMPUM will search for the first match. WAMPUM Assuming your application allows duplicate keys, there may be more than one match on a particular key, e.g. there may be a number of Smith's in your data base. If the first entry displayed is not the Smith desired, then <PgDn> through the records until the correct record is retrieved. If you are using a data base with too many fields to fit on one screen, note that WAMPUM will only display the first screen WAMPUM of data for each record while in DELETE mode. If you skip past the record desired, you can also back up through the file in the order of the current key by pressing the <PgUp> key at any time. Once you find the record you wish to mark DELETED, then answer the DELETE prompt by entering a T for True or Y for Yes, and the record will be marked deleted. You can abort any search by pressing <ESC>ape key. If you attempt to find a record which does not exist in the data base, WAMPUM will beep at you and prompt for another record WAMPUM to find. When you have deleted all the records desired, press <ESC>ape to exit to the Main System Menu. NOTE: WAMPUM uses the same conventions as dBASE III insofar WAMPUM as deleted records are concerned. Deleted records are not really ______________________________ deleted. They are simply marked with an asterisk (*) in the _______ first record position which signifies that they will be deleted _______________ the next time the file is rebuilt using the X - REBUILD/FileFix X - REBUILD/FileFix option. At any time before you rebuild the file, any record marked as deleted can be restored using U - UN*DEL* records. The U - UN*DEL* primary significance of marking records for deletion is that they will not ordinarily print out when reports, labels, or form letters are produced. Do NOT mark records as DELETED as a means Do NOT mark records as DELETED as a means - 10 - of maintaining a historical data base! The first time a power of maintaining a historical data base! failure occurs, you may be forced to rebuild a file or index which automatically and permanently deletes ALL records marked for deletion. A better approach is to add a field to your data base which can be used to mark records as inactive or closed. Sometimes it is desirable to be able to mark a group of records as deleted in one pass rather than having to call up each record and mark it for deletion individually. If you start WAMPUM with the developer's password, you may do this IF all of WAMPUM the following conditions are met. (1) The file must be indexed on a character field and that field must be the current (first) index. (2) Record selection criteria must have been specified using S - Select Utilities. It is a very good idea ______________________ to get a listing of records meeting the criteria _______________________________________________________________ BEFORE actually marking the records *DELETED*! ____________________________________________________________ (3) Pick the M - Mark Records *DEL* option and when prompted for the value to find, type an asterisk and press <ENTER>. (4) You will be warned one last time that the selected group of records are about to be marked *DELETED*. Type Y to proceed. 2.5 U - UNDELETing a Record To undelete records marked as deleted in any data base, that file must first be selected and cannot be empty. Look at the bottom of the WAMPUM Main Menu to make sure that the file you WAMPUM want to use is already selected. If not, it can be selected using the F - File Select option in developer mode only. F - File Select If the file you wish to work with is selected, then you should also consider whether there is an index which you want to use for record retrieval. If so, then this index must be selected as the lead index before you attempt to UNDELETE any records. Once you are working with the correct file and index, then marking records UNDELETED is as simple as highlighting the U - U - UN*DEL* Records option and pressing <ENTER>. Or you may simply UN*DEL* type a U while the Main System Menu is deleteed. If you are not using indexes in conjunction with the file, then you will be prompted for the record number of the record you wish to undelete. Simply type in the number desired and press the <ENTER> key. - 11 - If you are using an index in conjunction with the file, then the first index displayed at the bottom of the Main System Menu _____ is considered the LEAD INDEX and will be used to retrieve records. If this is not the index you wish to use for record retrieval, see the section on Select Utilities. When using an index, you will be prompted to enter a value for the field which is currently the LEAD INDEX. You may enter all or part of a key, and WAMPUM will search for a match on the WAMPUM portion of the key entered. Note that capitalization is critical in finding matches. If a LASTNAME field in your data base contains an entry of SMITH and you enter Smith as the key, then WAMPUM will not find the SMITH you are looking for. WAMPUM Once you have entered either a record number or the key of the record to find, WAMPUM will search for the first match. WAMPUM Assuming your application allows duplicate keys, there may be more than one match on a particular key, e.g. there may be a number of Smith's in your data base. If the first entry displayed is not the Smith desired, then <PgDn> through the records until the correct record is retrieved. If you are using a data base with too many fields to fit on one screen, note that WAMPUM will only display the first screen WAMPUM of data for each record while in UNDELETE mode. If you skip past the record desired, you can also back up through the file in the order of the current key by pressing the <PgUp> key at any time. Once you find the record you wish to UNDELETE, then answer the restore prompt by entering a T for True or Y for Yes, and the record will be restored to the data base as an active record. You can abort any search by pressing <ESC>ape key. If you attempt to find a record which does not exist in the data base, WAMPUM will beep at you and prompt for another record WAMPUM to find. When you have undeleted all the records desired, press <ESC>ape to exit to the Main System Menu. NOTE: WAMPUM uses the same conventions as dBASE III insofar WAMPUM as deleted records are concerned. Deleted records are not really deleted. They are simply marked with an asterisk (*) in the first record position which signifies that they will be deleted _______________ the next time the file is rebuilt using the X - REBUILD/FileFix X - REBUILD/FileFix option. At any time before you rebuild the file, any record marked as deleted can be restored using U - UN*DEL* records. The U - UN*DEL* down side of this is that once the X option has been run on a file, you can no longer UNDELETE records marked for deletion since they have been permanently deleted from the data base. - 12 - Sometimes it is desirable to be able to undelete a group of records in one pass rather than having to call up each record and restore it individually. If you start WAMPUM with the developer's WAMPUM password, you may do this IF all of the following conditions are met. (1) The file must be indexed on a character field and that field must be the current (first) index. (2) Record selection criteria must have been specified using S - Select Utilities. It is a very good idea ______________________ to get a listing of records meeting the criteria _______________________________________________________________ BEFORE actually restoring the records! ____________________________________________________ (3) Pick the U - UN*DEL* Records option and when prompted for the value to find, type an asterisk and press <ENTER>. (4) You will be warned one last time that the selected group of records are about to be restored. Type Y to proceed. 2.6 P - PRINTing Records To print records in any data base, that file must first be selected and cannot be empty. Look at the bottom of the WAMPUM WAMPUM Main Menu to make sure that the file you want to use is already selected. If not, it can be selected using the F - File Select F - File Select option in developer mode only. Also make certain that WAMPUM is configured to match the WAMPUM printer you currently are using. This can be changed by selecting the # - PRINTER Config option in developer mode only. # - PRINTER Config If the file you wish to work with is selected, then you should also consider whether there is an index which you want to use for record retrieval. If so, then this index must be selected as the lead index before you PRINT any records. Once you are working with the correct file and index, then PRINTing records is as simple as highlighting the P - Print P - Print Record(s) option and pressing <ENTER>. Or you may simply type a P Record(s) while the Main System Menu is displayed. If you are not using indexes in conjunction with the file, then you will be prompted for the record number of the record you wish to retrieve. Simply type in the number desired and press the <ENTER> key. If you are using an index in conjunction with the file, then the first index displayed at the bottom of the Main System Menu _____ is considered the LEAD INDEX and will be used to retrieve records. If this is not the index you wish to use for record retrieval, see the section on Select Utilities. - 13 - When printing records with index retrieval, you will be prompted to enter a value for the field which is currently the LEAD INDEX. You may enter all or part of a key, and WAMPUM will WAMPUM search for a match on the portion of the key entered. Note that capitalization is critical in finding matches. If a LASTNAME field in your data base contains an entry of SMITH and you enter Smith as the key, then WAMPUM will not find the SMITH you are WAMPUM looking for. Once you have entered either a record number or the key of the record to find, WAMPUM will search for the first match. WAMPUM Assuming your application allows duplicate keys, there may be more than one match on a particular key, e.g. there may be a number of Smith's in your data base. If the screen displayed is not the Smith desired, then <PgDn> through the records until the correct record is retrieved. If you are using a data base with too many fields to fit on one screen, then only as many fields as will fit on a single screen will be displayed. To get a print out of the record displayed, answer the Print Record? prompt by typing a T or Y. _____________ Make certain that your printer is turned ON and is ON LINE. If your database contains MEMO fields, the contents these fields is printed after the standard fields are completed in PRINT mode. If you skip past the record desired, you can also back up through the file in the order of the current key by pressing the <PgUp> key at any time. You can abort a PRINT records session by pressing the <ESC>ape key. If you attempt to find a record which does not exist in the data base, WAMPUM will beep at you and prompt for another record WAMPUM to find. When you have printed all the records desired, press <ESC>ape to exit to the Main System Menu. 2.7 X - REBUILD/FileFix Computers are very temperamental when it comes to electricity. Power fluctuations will cause all sorts of undesired results when working with any data base. WAMPUM provides the X- REBUILD/FileFix option as a tool to assist in X- REBUILD/FileFix rebuilding data bases and indexes which typically have been corrupted by power problems. If you are having to use this option frequently, then you should seriously consider an uninterruptible power supply if you value your data! To rebuild any file and its associated indexes, make certain that they have been selected and are displayed at the bottom of the Main System Menu. Then select the REBUILD/FileFix option by REBUILD/FileFix typing an X or highlighting the option and pressing <ENTER>. X - 14 - You will be warned that the file and its indexes, if any, are about to be rebuilt. You can <ESC>ape out of the option, or press <ENTER> to proceed. As noted previously, this option automatically and _____________________________ permanently DELETES any records marked for deletion. Make ___________________________________________________ certain that you have UNDELETED any records you wish to preserve before executing the X option! ______ 2.8 S - SELECT Utilities 2.8.1 Overview The Select Utilities option in WAMPUM provides end-user WAMPUM access to the two most critical elements in extracting data from a data base: record selection and sorting. Sorting in WAMPUM is ________________ _______ WAMPUM ________________ _______ handled through the use of indexes. Thus, the Select Utilities option also provides the means for setting the primary index for record retrieval purposes. Four other dBASE III functions are provided through the Select Utilities option: LIST FILE CONTENTS, to generate quick __________________ report listings with up to 9 fields; CHANGE DATA ENTRY MENUS, _______________________ which allows a user to select from up to 10 different data entry menus; and BROWSE MODE, to scan through a group of records; and ___________ LIST STRUCTURE, which displays or prints a listing of the field ______________ structure of the data base file in use. No User's Guide can do justice to the topic of Boolean logic which is record selection in both WAMPUM and dBASE III. There WAMPUM are numerous books including a number of dBASE III primers which cover record selection in much more detail than what is addressed here. Many are available without charge through your public library. For anyone to get the most out of WAMPUM, you must WAMPUM master record selection since it is the critical element in identifying which records should and should not be extracted in reports, labels, and form letters. 2.8.2 Record Selection Criteria Record Selection, which is the dBASE implementation of Boolean logic, is the process by which you tell the computer which records should and should not be extracted in producing reports, labels, and form letters. With the exception of logical fields, the syntax for record selection typically is FIELDNAME relational operator VALUE. The ___________________________________ syntax for logical fields is simpler. Assuming a logical field exists in your data base called MARRIED, if you want to find all the records in which the MARRIED field is True, the Boolean expression is simply the field name itself: MARRIED. If you want _______ to find all those in which the MARRIED field is False, the correct expression is .NOT. MARRIED. Any record selection _____________ expression can be linked to another expression with one of two - 15 - connectors: .AND. or .OR. The other cardinal rule is that ______ ____ expressions on both sides of the relational operator must be of the same type. Thus, if the field is a character field then the value must be a character string. If the field is a date field, then the value must be a date. Finally, unlike dBASE III, memo fields can be searched for matches using record selection and ___ should be treated as if they were character fields, i.e. enclose the search values in quotes just as you would a charcter string! Whenever you run a report, label, or form letter, WAMPUM WAMPUM always checks to see if Record Selection Criteria are in effect. If so, it scans the data base for records whose field entries are TRUE when evaluated against the complete Record Selection ____ ________ Criteria then in effect. WAMPUM currently supports eight relational operators: WAMPUM OPERATOR MEANING ________ _______ = Equals; matches; begins with. <> Not equals. > Greater than; more than. >= Greater than or equal; at least. < Less than. <= Less than or equal; at most. $ Is contained in. .NOT. $ Is not contained in. The best way to master record selection is by reviewing some examples and finding one that closely matches what you want to do. For this purpose, let us assume that you are working with a data base with the following file structure: FIELD NAME FIELD TYPE FIELD LEN FIELD DEC __________ __________ _________ _________ LASTNAME C 20 0 ACCTNO N 5 0 ENTRYDT D 8 0 MARRIED L 1 0 COMMENTS M 10 0 Now let us assume that there are three records in the file with the following values: FIELD NAME RECORD #1 RECORD #2 RECORD #3 __________ _________ _________ _________ LASTNAME Mundy Johns Johnston ACCTNO 12345 1234 123 ENTRYDT 10/01/85 10/31/85 11/01/85 MARRIED .T. .F. .F. COMMENTS None None None What follows are a number of examples showing the correct record selection syntax, what the expression means in plain English, and which records would be selected by the expression. - 16 - Criteria: LAST NAME = Johns ________ _________________ English: Find all entries where the last name is Johns. _______ Selected: No records. ________ Comments: Not only will no records be selected but WAMPUM will ________ WAMPUM ________ display a System Error forcing termination of the program by typing Q. FIELD NAMES are words of art which must be spelled exactly as they appear in the data base structure. While LAST NAME is fine for English, WAMPUM doesn't know LAST NAME from the MOON. The correct field name is LASTNAME with no spaces! __ Since LASTNAME is a character field, the value also must be a character string which means it must be enclosed in quotation marks. Either error would have triggered a System Error. Currently, there is no way to check for correct syntax before you actually run a report, label, or form letter. Then it's too late! Criteria: LASTNAME="Johns" _________ ________________ English: Find all entries where the LASTNAME begins with Johns. ________ Selected: Records 2 and 3. _________ Comments: Note that EQUALS is not pure equivalency in WAMPUM, but _________ WAMPUM _________ more accurately means "begins with." If you want exact equivalence, fill out the field with enough spaces to assure that the match will force equivalence, e.g. LASTNAME="Johns " would select only Record 2. Criteria: LASTNAME="Johns" .AND. ACCTNO=123 ________ _________________________________ English: Find all entries where LASTNAME begins with Johns AND ________ the account number is 123. Selected: Record 3. _________ Comments: For every rule, there is an exception. Equals means _________ exactly equals with numeric fields. Here the account number is numeric while the LASTNAME field is not. Note that BOTH expressions must be true for a record to qualify since the expressions are joined with .AND. Note also that the character string value must be in quotes to match the character field LASTNAME while the numeric value is NOT in quotes to match the numeric field ACCTNO. Criteria: LASTNAME="Mundy" .AND. LASTNAME="Johns" ________ _______________________________________ English: Find all entries where LASTNAME is Mundy and Johns. ________ Selected: No records. ________ Comments: Pure English will sometimes get you into trouble. ________ A common beginner's mistake is to mix up .AND. and .OR. Remember: .AND. means BOTH expressions must be True. .OR. means if EITHER is True. Here, no one has a LASTNAME of Mundy AND Johns. All entries have a LASTNAME of Mundy OR Johns. Criteria: MARRIED .OR. LASTNAME="Johns " ________ _______________________________ English: Find all entries where person is married or LASTNAME ________ is equal to Johns. Selected: Records 1 and 2. _________ - 17 - Comments: When expressions are joined by .OR. then if either ________ expression is true, the record qualifies. Thus, record 1 qualified because the MARRIED field is True and record 2 qualified because of the LASTNAME match. Criteria: .NOT. MARRIED .AND. ENTRYDT>=CTOD("10/31/86") _______________________________________________________ English: Find all the unmarried people with an entry date of at _______ least October 31, 1986. Selected: Records 2 and 3. ________ Comments: The connecter is .AND. so both expressions must be ________ true. Since the MARRIED field is false in both record 2 and 3 and since the ENTRYDT is at least 10/31/86, they both would be output. Note that the VALUE type must match the field type with the DATE field. There is no direct way to enter a date in dBASE. Thus, you must enter the character string "10/31/86" and then convert it to a DATE with the character-to-date function: CTOD(). Criteria: ENTRYDT>=CTOD("10/01/86").AND.ENTRYDT<=CTOD("10/31/86") ________ _______________________________________________________ English: Find all of the October, 1986 entries. _______ Selected: Records 1 and 2. ________ Comments: Here we are using a range of dates to select a month's ________ worth of entries. Note that spacing between text is optional. Both expressions must be true for a match. DATE fields must have DATE values. CTOD() does it. Criteria: "This is a test"$COMMENTS ________ _________________ English: Find every record in which the text "This is a test" _______ appears in the COMMENTS memo field. Selected: Don't know. See below. ________ Comments: The $ operator is one of Boolean logic's most powerful ________ tools since it automatically searches TEXT STRINGS for a match anywhere in the string. It can be especially helpful for use with fields in which a word may appear at any place in a lengthy string of text. For purposes of searches, MEMO fields are treated by WAMPUM as text WAMPUM strings. Thus, you can search ANY memo field with the logic outlined above. To negate the expression, i.e. "This is a test" is NOT contained in the MEMO field, the correct syntax is .NOT."This is a test"$COMMENTS. ______________________________ In this case, we didn't specify the contents of the MEMO field in developing the example. Thus, there is no way to tell if the text was found or not. For those experiencing problems in mastering dBASE Boolean syntax but who have mastered Boolean selection theory, WAMPUM ______________________________________________ WAMPUM ______________________________________________ provides a helping hand: SELECT ASSIST. By entering an asterisk SELECT ASSIST (*) as the first character in the Record Selection field or whenever you pick the LIST FILE CONTENTS option when no selection criteria are in effect, SELECT ASSIST springs in to action. SELECT ASSIST SELECT ASSIST is a menu-driven record selection tool similar SELECT ASSIST to that found in many data base system including dBASE III Plus. It permits a user to enter up to 10 record selection criteria - 18 - using a 4-step menu process. As indicated earlier, it cannot replace the human brain in figuring out which records you want to work with, but it can help you master dBASE selection syntax. FIELDNAME SELECTION FIELDNAME SELECTION Once SELECT ASSIST is started, it will display a screen with SELECT ASSIST the name of the first field in the active data base. Step 1 is to identify the field involved in making your selection of records. If you don't remember the field names in the data base, simply press the <Dn> and <Up> cursor keys to "thumb through" the field names. When you find the one you want, press <ENTER>. If you already know the field name and there are a lot of them in your database, you may find it more convenient just to type several of the beginning characters of the field name. SELECT ASSIST will begin searching for a matching field name as SELECT ASSIST soon as you type a letter between A and Z. If it finds no match, it will beep and redisplay the first field name in the data base. Since several fields obviously can have the same beginning letters, you may have to type several letters of the field name for SELECT ASSIST to find the field you're looking for. Once the SELECT ASSIST field name appears that you want, press <ENTER> to continue. It should be noted that once you have pressed <ENTER>, it is ____________________________________________________________ too late to change your mind about any previous selection you _____________________________________________________________ have made. If you have made a mistake, your only option is to ______________________________________________________________ start over by pressing <ESC>ape to exit. HINT: Be sure of your _______________________________________________________________ choice before you press the <ENTER> key! If you do ESCape from ________________________________________ SELECT ASSIST, you also will need to ESCape from the LIST FIELDS screen if you picked LIST FILE CONTENTS. Otherwise, your list will include data on all records in your data base. RELATIONAL OPERATOR SELECTION RELATIONAL OPERATOR SELECTION After selecting a field name, you then must choose a RELATIONAL OPERATOR telling WAMPUM what sort of comparison you WAMPUM wish to make against this field. The default is EQUALS. You may "thumb through" the choices by pressing the <Dn> or <Up> cursor keys. Depending upon the field type of the field name specified, the relational operator selections will vary. Display the operator desired, then press <ENTER> to proceed. VALUE SPECIFICATION VALUE SPECIFICATION Once you have specified the relational operator, you next must tell SELECT ASSIST what VALUE for this field you want to SELECT ASSIST find. Again, depending upon the field type, your options in specifying a value may be limited. For example, if the field is a date field, the VALUE must also be a date. With a logical field, there is no value specification. Character fields require the entry of text without surrounding quotation marks. Press the _______ <ENTER> key once you have specified the value desired. - 19 - CONNECTOR SELECTION CONNECTOR SELECTION Connector selection allows you to indicate how this selection should be linked to the next selection, if any. The choices are listed by using the <Dn> and <Up> cursor keys. You may choose AND, OR, or NO CONNECTOR. If you choose NO CONNEC- AND OR NO CONNECTOR TOR, SELECT ASSIST assumes you are finished. Specifying either of the other choices by pressing <ENTER> takes you to the next line to enter a second selection criteria beginning with another field name. Once you have entered all of the selection criteria desired, press the <PgDn> key in the CONNECTOR SELECTION field to tell SELECT ASSIST you are finished. You may also specify NO CONNEC- TOR and press <ENTER> which has the same effect. If you accidentally press <ENTER> to move to the next line with a connector of AND or OR, you may still end processing of SELECT ASSIST by pressing the <PgDn> key in the FIELD NAME position. In this case, SELECT ASSIST assumes you wanted to use only those selection criteria on the lines above the current line. 2.8.3 Listing File Contents Many times there is a need to produce a "quick and dirty" report which lists certain fields of information on a certain group of records in the data base. The List File Contents option __________________ in conjunction with a previously specified Record Selection ________________ Criteria satisfies this need by simulating the dBASE LIST _________ command. If the List File Contents option is marked True, WAMPUM ___________________ first will display the SELECT ASSISTANT previously described if no record selection criteria are in effect. After specifying record selection criteria, WAMPUM then will display a screen WAMPUM asking the user to identify the fields to be listed. The user should type a number between 1 and 9 beside each field which should be listed. No number can be used twice! If a MEMO field is to be included in the listing, it should be the field with either the highest or lowest number to assure that it prints in either the far right column or the far left column of the listing. Pressing <PgDn> moves the user to a screen which prompts for (1) whether to print the listing, (2) whether to output all records (i.e., override record selection criteria then in effect), and (3) whether to output records marked for deletion. When these prompts are answered, WAMPUM will produce WAMPUM the list with field headings either on the screen or on the printer. If the total width of the fields specified for the listing exceeds the screen width or current printer width, the listing will be wrapped to the next line. At the end of the listing will be a summary of the record selection criteria then in effect. - 20 - 2.8.4 Changing Current Data Entry Menu In addition to its standard data entry menu, WAMPUM provides WAMPUM the capacity for creating up to 9 customized data entry menus to match different data entry stages for any given application. The number of menus available to the end-user are specified by the developer in creating an application. You may change data entry menus at any time by following these simple steps. Access the S - Select Utilities screen from S - Select Utilities the Main System Menu. Change the Change Current Menu field to T ____________________ and press <PgDn>. A listing of the available menus will be displayed. Simply type the number corresponding to the menu you want to use. You then will be returned to the Main System Menu. Until you change menus again, this new data entry menu will appear whenever you Add, Edit, or Display Records. 2.8.5 Picking the Lead Index Files can only be accessed or output by one index at a time even though WAMPUM automatically updates up to 5 indexes as you WAMPUM add and modify entries in the file. The LEAD INDEX is always the FIRST index displayed at the bottom of the WAMPUM Main System Menu. If you want to retrieve WAMPUM records in some order other than what the current LEAD INDEX would provide, then you can change the LEAD INDEX. Similarly, all output from WAMPUM including REPORTS, LABELS, WAMPUM and FORM LETTERS is produced in the order of the LEAD INDEX. If you want the output ordered differently, then you must change the LEAD INDEX before generating the report, labels, or form letters ______ unless you are using the W - WAMPUM PreFormat option. To change the LEAD INDEX, select the S - Select Utilities option from the Main System Menu by typing an S or highlighting the option and pressing the <ENTER> key. Enter any selection criteria desired then press <ENTER> to move to the field which asks Change Lead Index. Change the value of the field from False _________________ to True by typing either a T or Y. Assuming you have more than one index in use, a list of available indexes then will be displayed. Just enter the number of the one which you want to designate as the LEAD INDEX. Always remember to check the LEAD INDEX before producing output from your file to assure that it is set as you desire. 2.8.6 Setting Browse Mode ON WAMPUM implements dBASE III's powerful BROWSE command in a WAMPUM slightly different way. By setting BROWSE Mode ON by specifying T or Y to the prompt in the Select Utilities screen, WAMPUM uses a two-step process for EDITing, DISPLAYing, DELETing, and UNDELETing records. - 21 - The user first will be prompted for the key field value to find. Then, instead of the usual data entry display, the user first will be presented with a table of the first twenty records in key order beginning with the first matching key value. WAMPUM WAMPUM displays as many fields from the data base for each record as will fit on a single line of the screen. Within this display, the user can move UP and DOWN through the records with the UP and DOWN cursor keys. The user can request the next twenty records beginning with the last record currently displayed by pressing the <PgDn> key. Browse also permits the user to move UP a single record by pressing <PgUp>. If the record is found for which you are searching, then simply highlight that option and press the <ENTER> key. This then highlight triggers the usual WAMPUM data entry screen. If no record is WAMPUM found for which you desire to move to the full data entry screen, then two choices are available. Pressing <ESC> will ABORT the BROWSE session and return you to the Main System Menu. Pressing the <SPACE BAR> or any other key not previously mentioned will allow you to enter a new record key value and commence another search. BROWSE mode is particularly useful in situations in which there may be multiple entries with a similar key value, i.e. a number of entries with a LASTNAME of Smith. BROWSE permits you to examine the partial contents of 20 records at a time in order to identify the exact record with which to work. Note that you cannot actually change any data while in the BROWSE mode. You must move to the actual data entry screen to do this. If a record has been marked for deletion, that entry will show an asterisk (*) as the first character of the line. Otherwise, the first character position is always blank. Once the full data entry mode has been triggered by pressing the <ENTER> key, the user still has the ability to move through the data base with either <PgDn> or <PgUp>. At this juncture, it is necessary to return to the Main System Menu before the BROWSE mode is reinitiated. 2.8.7 Listing the File Structure Particularly in developing reports, labels, and form letters, it is helpful to have a listing of the structure of the data base file in use. The last option on the Select Utilities screen permits a user to request this listing. If the prompt is answered with Y or T, then WAMPUM will ask whether you want the WAMPUM listing printed as opposed to displayed. Typing T or Y at the Printed? option will provide a printed listing. Pressing <ESC> will abort the listing entirely. Pressing <PgDn> or <ENTER> will display the file structure on the screen. - 22 - 2.9 R - REPORTS Generation The R - Reports option allows you to run existing dBASE III report formats and create new ones. Creation of new reports is covered in the Developer's section of this User's Guide. Before selecting the Reports option, you already should have used the Select Utilities option to enter Record Selection Criteria and to specify the Lead Index for report output. If you did not do so, simply press <ESC>ape to return to the Main Menu. When you select the Reports option, a listing of report forms in the default directory will be displayed. You then are prompted to enter the name of the report form you wish to run. Type in the file name EXACTLY as it appears in the directory listing. Do NOT include the .FRM file extension. There also is a field which allows you to specify the PRINTER FONT to be used if the report is to be printed. If a report is to be printed on regular 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper using 10 pitch type, then NO font number needs to be entered. If your printer supports smaller fonts thereby enabling production of wider reports or reports turned sideways, enter a number corresponding to the font desired. See the # - Printer Config section of the Developer's section of this User's Guide for more information. Once you have entered a font or pressed the <ENTER> key, the Printer Selection Screen will appear. It permits you to specify whether to Print or Display the Report, whether to override the Record Selection Criteria and output ALL records, and whether to output records marked for deletion which typically are not output. See the Printer Selection Screen section of this User's Guide for more information on these options. 2.10 L - LABELS Production The L - Labels option allows you to run existing dBASE III label formats and create new ones. Creation of new labels is covered in the Developer's section of this User's Guide. Before selecting the Labels option, you already should have used the Select Utilities option to enter Record Selection Criteria and to specify the Lead Index for label output. If you did not do so, simply press <ESC>ape to return to the Main Menu. When you select the Labels option, a listing of label forms in the default directory will be displayed. You then are prompted to enter the name of the label form you wish to run. Type in the file name EXACTLY as it appears in the directory listing. Do NOT include the .LBL file extension. There also is a field which allows you to specify the PRINTER FONT to be used if the labels are to be printed. If the labels are to be printed using standard 10 pitch type, then NO - 23 - font number needs to be entered. See the # - Printer Config section of the Developer's section of this User's Guide for more information. Once you have entered a font or pressed the <ENTER> key, the Printer Selection Screen will appear. It permits you to specify whether to Print or Display the Labels, whether to override the Record Selection Criteria and output ALL records, and whether to output labels for records marked for deletion. These typically are not output. See the Printer Selection Screen section of this User's Guide for more information on these options. 2.11 T - FORM LETTER Generation The T - Form Letters option allows you to run existing WAMPUM form letters and create new ones. Creation of new form WAMPUM letters is covered in the Developer's section of this User's Guide. Before selecting the Form Letters option, you already should have used the Select Utilities option to enter Record Selection Criteria and to specify the Lead Index for form letter output. If you did not do so, simply press <ESC>ape to return to the Main Menu. When you select the Form Letters option, a listing of form letter files in the default directory will be displayed. Note that a form letter file is a standard .DBF file except that its file name begins with T-. You then are prompted to enter the name of the form letter form you wish to run. Type in the file name EXACTLY as it appears in the directory listing. Do NOT include the .DBF file extension. There also is a field which allows you to specify the PRINTER FONT to be used if the form letters are to be printed. If the form letters are to be printed using standard 10 pitch type, then NO font number needs to be entered. See the # - Printer Config section of the Developer's section of this User's Guide for more information. Once you have entered a font or pressed the <ENTER> key, the Printer Selection Screen will appear. It permits you to specify whether to Print or Display the Form Letters, whether to override the Record Selection Criteria and output ALL records, and whether to output form letters for records marked for deletion. These typically are not output. See the Printer Selection Screen section of this User's Guide for more information on these options. - 24 - 2.12 W - WAMPUM Preformatted Output The WAMPUM Preformatted Output option allows you to run up WAMPUM to 80 predefined Reports, Labels, and Form Letters each with predefined selection criteria, sort order, and even a related file for table lookup if desired. This is perhaps WAMPUM's most WAMPUM powerful feature and is NOT available in dBASE III at all. Before this option is available, the WAMPUM master file must be created and appropriate entries must be made for the pre- defined output desired. This is covered in the Developer's section of this User's Guide. Assuming that this already has been done, then all that is necessary to run WAMPUM Preformatted Output is to select the W WAMPUM option from the Main System Menu. A two-column listing of reports, labels, and form letters available for automatic production then will be displayed. Following the description of each item will be a single letter (R, L, or T) indicating whether the output is a Report, Label, or Form Letter. Mark the reports, labels, and form letters you wish to produce with a T or Y in the logical field provided to indicate which should be run. You will notice at the bottom of the screen a range of dates is specified. The default range of dates is the beginning and ending of the current month unless today's date is less than the 6th of the month. In this case, the default is the beginning and ending dates of last month. Most folks produce monthly reports for a prior month at the beginning of the next month so WAMPUM WAMPUM saves you a little typing. The range of dates can be changed by you to any dates desired although the first date should always be less than or equal to the second date. The range of dates are automatically used for any preformatted reports, labels, or form letters in which the developer wanted the end-user to have the flexibility to select the time period for the report at the time it was produced. For instance, using the data base example outlined earlier to show how to select records, let us suppose that the developer had predefined a report which would output certain information about new entries covering a period of entry dates. If that report were run as a WAMPUM Preformatted Report, you then could specify the range of entry dates at run time rather than the developer constantly having to update the master record. This also frees you from having to master Boolean logic overnight! The only rule to remember is that the DATE RANGE specified applies to ALL output produced during a single run. Thus, if you had two preformatted reports for which you wanted different date ranges on output, then you would have to run one report with one date range. Then select the WAMPUM Preformatted option again, change the date range, and run the other report. - 25 - Once you have entered your choices, the Printer Selection Screen will appear. It permits you to specify whether to Print or Display the output, whether to override the Record Selection Criteria and output ALL records, and whether to generate output for records marked for deletion. These typically are not output. See the Printer Selection Screen section of this User's Guide for more information on these options. 2.13 Printer Selection Screen 2.13.1 Printed Output Whenever you run a Report, Label, Form Letter, or WAMPUM WAMPUM Preformatted Output, you will see the Printer Selection Screen which lets you choose whether to PRINT or DISPLAY the information. If you want the OUTPUT printed, type a T or Y at the prompt. 2.13.2 Output All Records If record selection criteria are in effect, you also will be asked whether you want to override those criteria and OUTPUT information on ALL records in the data base. If you DO want to OVERRIDE the record selection criteria in effect, then change the default entry to T or Y. 2.13.3 Output Records Marked for Deletion You also will be asked whether to output information on records marked for DELETION. The default is No. If you want DELETED records included in your output, change the entry to T or Y. 2.14 On-Line HELP The best way to learn WAMPUM is to read this User's Guide WAMPUM cover to cover. Most folks won't do that so WAMPUM provides much WAMPUM of what is contained in the User's Guide in HELP screens keyed to where you are in the program. To access the HELP screens, press the F1 function key at any time. Depending upon where you are in WAMPUM, a screen of HELP WAMPUM will be displayed. Simply press the <ENTER> key to return to where you were. Every choice from the WAMPUM Main System Menu has an WAMPUM intermediate screen which gives you a chance to change your mind. It is on this second screen after picking any option that - 26 - the most detailed HELP is available. Once you have read the HELP message and returned to where you were, you can return to the Main System Menu simply by pressing the <ESC>ape key. In short, you can get HELP on any WAMPUM topic without WAMPUM actually having to complete execution of that particular function. - 27 - 3 Developer Functions 3.1 Creating A New Application 3.1.1 Overview of Application Development Strategy As with any application development, the best advice in starting a new project is TURN OFF THE COMPUTER and use your head TURN OFF THE COMPUTER for a while to figure out what you want to do. What data input will you need to capture to get the output desired? Once you know what you want, then some familiarity with WAMPUM's structure will help. WAMPUM is designed to be stored in WAMPUM WAMPUM a directory from which it can be run regardless of the active default directory on your hard disk. This means it should be in a directory supported by the current DOS PATH. The philosophy behind WAMPUM is that separate applications WAMPUM should be built and stored in separate subdirectories which are NOT in the DOS PATH. The reason for this is that WAMPUM accesses ___ WAMPUM ___ files on the hard disk using the same PATH command that DOS uses. If you build an application in a directory which is part of the PATH, then its supporting files may unintentionally spill over into other WAMPUM applications as you begin building them. WAMPUM Each WAMPUM application typically will include a main file, WAMPUM perhaps a related file, several indexes, and numerous reports, labels, and forms. In addition, each time you run WAMPUM in a WAMPUM new directory, it automatically builds some supporting files for that application. These include EDIT.DBF (which is used to store EDIT.DBF the edit checks for a particular application), KEYS.DBF (which is KEYS.DBF used to store any keyboard macros for a particular application), MENUS.DBF (which is used to store up to 9 data entry screen MENUS.DBF formats) and, if requested, WAMPUM.DBF (which is used to build a WAMPUM.DBF library of canned reports, labels, and form letters which can be run without users having to master Boolean logic and sorting rules). For the same reason stressed above, you should not run WAMPUM in a directory which is part of the DOS PATH for it will WAMPUM build these supplemental files which may then inadvertently spill over into other applications located elsewhere on the hard disk! You may be wondering why anyone would want a DOS PATH if it causes all these problems. The answer is that the DOS PATH gives WAMPUM the capability to share data stored in other directories WAMPUM without having to have a duplicate copy in the current directory. For example, the printer configuration files can be stored in the same directory as WAMPUM yet they may be used from any directory. WAMPUM Similarly, in certain situations with very large data bases which must be shared by several applications, it may be desirable to move the shared data base into a directory which is part of the DOS PATH so that it can be used in multiple applications without having to duplicate the data. These are considerations you would want to think through while the computer is turned OFF! - 28 - What follows in the subsequent sections is the STEP-by-STEP process of building a new WAMPUM application. In order to WAMPUM simplify the presentation, it helps to use a sample application. We will assume that the application to be built is based upon the data base outlined previously. The structure of that file is repeated here for the sake of clarity: FIELD NAME FIELD TYPE FIELD LEN FIELD DEC __________ __________ _________ _________ LASTNAME C 20 0 ACCTNO N 5 0 ENTRYDT D 8 0 MARRIED L 1 0 COMMENTS M 10 0 3.1.2 Create A New SubDirectory The first step in building a new WAMPUM application is to WAMPUM create a new subdirectory on the hard disk to house the information. You must be at the DOS prompt to perform these steps. We recommend you name the subdirectory using a single word of up to 8 characters in length with no embedded spaces or punctuation. To keep things simple, let's name it SAMPLE here. If you want to follow along, type the following commands. Press the <ENTER> key after typing each command. PROMPT $P$G PROMPT $P$G CD \ CD \ MD SAMPLE MD SAMPLE CD \SAMPLE CD \SAMPLE The commands above (1) change the DOS prompt to assure that you'll know the subdirectory in which you are working, (2) move you to the "root" (top) directory, (3) make a new directory named "SAMPLE", and (4) move you to the new "SAMPLE" directory. If you are working on the C: drive, the prompt on your screen after issuing the above commands should be C:\SAMPLE>. C:\SAMPLE> You now are ready to start up WAMPUM. Since you are WAMPUM building a new application, you will want to use DEVELOPER MODE. Unless you need to force WAMPUM into monochrome mode, type the WAMPUM following command and press the <ENTER> key: WAMPUM VOODOO WAMPUM VOODOO If you have a Compaq or some other clone that reports a color card when you are using a monochrome display, then type: WAMPUM VOODOO MONO WAMPUM VOODOO MONO - 29 - 3.1.3 Building a New File The first piece of the new application to build is the main data file. This may contain up to 400 fields, although you will forfeit dBASE III compatibility when you create more than 128. Select the B - Build New File option from the Main System B - Build New File Menu by typing a B or highlight the option and press <ENTER>. You then will be prompted to enter a file name for your new data base file. The file name must comply with DOS requirements for file names, i.e. up to 8 characters, no spaces, and no punctuation. Think of a file name that bears some relationship to the application. It makes things easier. For our sample, let's use ACCOUNTS. Type in the file name and press <ENTER>. Note that you do NOT enter the file extension which WAMPUM assigns as .DBF. WAMPUM You then will be prompted to enter four pieces of information for each new field in your data base: a FIELD NAME, a FIELD TYPE, a FIELD LENGTH, and FIELD DECIMALS, if any. In determining the order of the fields in the data base being created, keep in mind that BROWSE mode, which was discussed previously under the Select Utilities option, displays a single line of fields for about 20 records at a time. If your users will be using BROWSE mode, then you should select the most important fields in the data base as the first fields in the file. This will assure that they are displayed when the user sets BROWSE mode ON. The actual number of fields which will fit on a single line of the screen is determined by two factors: the length of the field names used and the maximum length of the field data. Adding these lengths together plus a space between each field, WAMPUM will display as many fields as will fit within WAMPUM 79 characters. The first character position of each line is reserved to display whether a record has been marked DELETED. Field names should bear some resemblance to the piece of Field names data which will be stored in the field. dBASE III supports 10 character field names, and WAMPUM can use them, too. However, WAMPUM applications are much more straight-forward if field names are limited to 8 characters or less since this length matches the DOS filename length restriction. WAMPUM imposes this 8 character WAMPUM limit with its file creation utility. Field types and lengths supported by WAMPUM include: Field types and lengths WAMPUM Field Type Abbrev Min.Len. Max.Len. Comments ________________________________________________________________ Character C 1 254 Any text string Numeric N 1 10 Numeric for math Date D 8 8 Any date info Logical L 1 1 True/False info Memo M 10 10 Free-form WP text - 30 - Field decimals will always be 0 except for numeric fields in Field decimals which you want to use real numbers. Remember that with such fields, the TOTAL length is the maximim number of integer positions, plus 1 for the decimal, plus the number of decimal positions. Thus, if the largest value to be entered in a numeric field is 999.99, the field length is 6 and decimals is 2. Enter the information for the fields outlined in our sample. After entering all of the fields, a new blank record will appear. Press the <ESC>ape key to indicate that you are finished. 3.1.4 Selecting the New File Once the data base structure has been created, you are ready to tell WAMPUM which file you will be working with. From the WAMPUM Main System Menu select the F - File Select option to place the F - File Select file in use. When you pick this option, you will be prompted for the name of the file to use. If you forget the name of the file, just press the <ENTER> key and a list of .DBF files in the current directory will be displayed. Press <ENTER> to return to the file name prompt. Type ACCOUNTS as the name of the new file and press ACCOUNTS <ENTER> to redisplay the Main System Menu. The bottom of the Main System Menu now should show the file in use with a notation: FILE: ACCOUNTS. FILE: ACCOUNTS 3.1.5 Indexing the New File 3.1.5.1 Overview WAMPUM indexes serve two functions in run-time applications. WAMPUM First, they provide a quick means of retrieving records for edit, display, or printing. Typical retrieval times even with large data bases are less than one second. Indexes also serve as the sorting tool for all output: reports, labels, and form letters. Thus, in building a new application, you need to take both of these considerations into account. You will need indexes to retrieve your data quickly for updating. And you may need other indexes to assure that reports, labels, and form letters are produced in the proper sorted order. The primary advantage in using indexes rather than a sort for output is that no physical sorting of the data base ever _________________________________________ takes place since the indexes are constantly updated as new ___________ records are added and old ones are modified. This saves an enormous amount of time in producing reports. WAMPUM supports up to FIVE indexes for any application. It WAMPUM should be noted that while these indexes function much like the indexes in dBASE III, they are not compatible. Thus, if you are ___ - 31 - moving dBASE III applications over to use with WAMPUM, the data WAMPUM base, reports, and labels are compatible, but the indexes are not. These can be rebuilt easily using the guidelines which follow. WAMPUM indexes have a file extension of .NTX. WAMPUM Select the I - Index select/create option from the Main I - Index select/create System Menu. Notice that this option provides a developer with a means both to create new indexes and to use existing ones. Both avenues are addressed in the next sections of this Guide. 3.1.5.2 Creating New Indexes New indexes can be created in one of two ways depending upon the type of index desired. WAMPUM can create an index of any character, numeric, or date field as it exists in the data base. Or you can create a special index made up of a combination of fields in the data base using dBASE string manipulation functions. For example, if your data base had fields for both a first name and a last name, you might want a single index which sorted the data base on last name and then first name within the last name. The simpler index which is simply a single field index is created by entering a single asterisk (*) in the space provided for the index name. If you wish to create more than one index, enter a single * in the space provided for Index 1, Index 2, etc. When you have entered as many asterisks as desired, press <PgDn> to continue. The screen will then clear, and a list of all the fields in your data base will appear. Mark the name of the field you want to index with the letter T or Y. Mark only ONE field on the screen True. Then <PgDn> to continue. If you indicated that you wished to create more than one index by putting an * in more than one of the Index spaces, then you will get another screen with the same field list. Mark the second field you want to index with a T or Y, and <PgDn> again. Continue this process until up to 5 indexes have been created. In our example, you probably would want to index two fields: the LASTNAME field and the ACCTNO field. So you should place a single * in the first two Index spaces provided and <PgDn>. In some circumstances, a more complex index may be desired. If you know what you are doing (i.e. you really are a dBASE III programmer), you can build any type of index to achieve any type of sorting desired. To build a more complex index, enter two asterisks (**) beside each Index entry provided and <PgDn>. You then will be prompted to name the new index and then to enter the index expression. This expression can be ANY legal dBASE III string expression. Note one quirk with Clipper's indexes insofar _________ as TRIMmed fields are concerned. If you are trimming spaces off character strings, they must be added as real spaces at the end of the expression. Otherwise, the resultant index will be nothing but a null string. For example, if you wanted to index - 32 - on lastname then comma space first name, the correct syntax is TRIM(LASTNAME)+", "+FIRSTMI+SPACE(20). The SPACE(20) _____________________________________ expression assumes the LASTNAME field is 20 characters in length. 3.1.5.3 Selecting Indexes Once you have built new indexes, they automatically are selected for use in the same order they were built. You can change both the LEAD INDEX and the active indexes at any time by picking the I - Index select/create option and entering the I - Index select/create number of the lead index or the names of the indexes you desire to use. One caution is in order. Remember that indexes are only UPDATED with ADD or EDIT if those indexes are in use at the time the file is changed! You can ascertain which indexes are in use by looking at the INDX listing which appears below the Main System Menu. If you built the indexes recommended in the last section, the last line of your screen should read as follows: FILE: ACCOUNTS INDX: LASTNAME,ACCTNO FILE: ACCOUNTS INDX: LASTNAME,ACCTNO 3.1.6 Printer Configuration (.MEM file) 3.1.6.1 Overview In order to create high-quality output in reports, labels, and form letters, you will need to configure an application for a specific printer. WAMPUM is packaged with several printer WAMPUM configuration tables which already have been built to support a number of popular printers. If you're a lucky person, your work has already been done. If not, read the section on constructing a new printer table below. WAMPUM is designed to allow a developer to imbed printer WAMPUM codes in reports, labels, and form letters to control the actual printing of text. In addition, the end-user can specify the starting printer font to be used to output any report, label, or form letter. Finally, WAMPUM preformatted output includes the option of specifying the initialization printer string used whenever output is generated. What is a WAMPUM printer table? It is a standard dBASE III WAMPUM memory variable file (.MEM file extension) with special codes that tell your printer to print in a certain mode. The following field names are reserved by WAMPUM and should not be used as field names in your data bases. These fields can be used in ___ creating report forms, labels, and form letters to vary the type styles within those output documents. FONTINIT FONT1 FONT4 FONT7 FONTINIT FONT1 FONT4 FONT7 FONTRESET FONT2 FONT5 FONT8 FONTRESET FONT2 FONT5 FONT8 FONT0 FONT3 FONT6 FONT9 FONT0 FONT3 FONT6 FONT9 - 33 - Note that the FONTINIT sequence always gets sent to the ______ FONTINIT ______ printer before anything is printed. The FONTRESET sequence FONTRESET always gets sent after anything is printed. If these fields are empty, then obviously nothing gets sent. The default font for all output is FONT0. This always gets FONT0 sent after the FONTINIT sequence unless you specify some other FONTINIT number when the output is generated. Listed below is the definition logic used to develop the font codes for the HP Laserjet printers. It is similar to what was used for the Epson printers, except all output is in portrait mode with Epson. In general terms, FONT9 is reserved for very FONT9 small print to accomodate reports wider than 132 columns. FONT8 FONT8 is reserved to accomodate reports from 81 to 132 columns wide. FONT0 10 pitch Courier, portrait mode FONT0 FONT1 10 pitch standard, portrait mode FONT1 FONT2 10 pitch bold, portrait mode FONT2 FONT3 10 pitch italics, portrait mode FONT3 FONT4 Proportional, big bold, portrait mode FONT4 FONT5 Proportional, baby print, portrait mode FONT5 FONT6 Standard, baby print, portrait mode FONT6 FONT7 10 pitch with codes suitable for LABELS FONT7 FONT8 10 pitch, standard, landscape mode FONT8 FONT9 Standard, baby print, landscape mode FONT9 Obviously, use of these font codes can be developed as your application demands. There may be instances in which you need underscoring. This can be accomplished using one font to turn on automatic underscore and another to turn it off if your printer supports it. 3.1.6.2 Selecting an Existing Printer Table To select an existing printer table for use, choose the option labeled # - PRINTER Config on the Main System Menu. A # - PRINTER Config listing of all .MEM files in the current directory will be displayed. Enter the name of the printer table you wish to use without the .MEM file extension. Note that you may use a table which is stored in another directory so long as that directory is part of the DOS PATH command. Once you have selected a printer, the Main System Menu will reappear and the last line on the screen should now show the printer and FONT in use. Assuming you selected the HPLASERA font, the last line of your screen should look like this: FILE: ACCOUNTS INDX:LASTNAME,ACCTNO PRT: HPLASERA/0 FILE: ACCOUNTS INDX:LASTNAME,ACCTNO PRT: HPLASERA/0 - 34 - 3.1.6.3 Creating a New Printer Table If there is no printer table already available for your non- standard printer, then you will need to build one. It's easy! First, select the # - PRINTER config option on the Main Menu. # - PRINTER config When WAMPUM prompts for the name of the printer table to WAMPUM use, type an asterisk (*) and press <ENTER>. You then will get a data entry screen in which to type the special codes for your printer. You will need your printer manual to figure these out! ______________________________________________________ First, decide what you want each of the printer fonts to do. You also must determine what sort of initialization sequence, if any, you want to initiate whenever anything is printed. And, you will want to decide whether to reset your printer after the printing is completed. Almost every printer has some code sequence which resets the printer to its default settings just as if the printer had been switched off and on. This is a good idea! It always assures that your printer is configured in a standard way for the next job. It's an equally good idea to execute this reset as part of the printer initiali- zation sequence. Most printer codes start with an <ESC>ape code which has the ASCII value of 27. In a lot of printer manuals, it is referred to as CHR$(27) which is the way <ESC> is written in BASIC. Any time you see a code written as above which cannot be typed using the standard typewriter keyboard, you can enter it in WAMPUM just WAMPUM as you would in LOTUS 1-2-3 or Symphony, i.e. \027 (a backslash \027 followed by a three-digit number representing the ASCII code of ______ the character desired: zero, two, seven). For example, if your printer manual says that ESCAPE E or CHR$(27)+E is the escape sequence to reset your printer, then enter the following: \027E. \027E Particularly with laser printers, it may be desirable in some situations to force some carriage returns at the beginning of a job. This is especially true to line up mailing labels. To accomodate this, WAMPUM permits the developer to insert carriage WAMPUM return codes in the font setups using the tilde (~). One tilde means one return. Two tildes means two returns, etc. Make certain that ALL tildes follow the complete escape sequence you desire to generate for each font code since characters following a tilde are ignored. Use this process to build the printer table for your printer, and you're all set. Press the <PgDn> key when you have entered all of the codes desired. Note that you also can edit an existing printer table by entering an * as if you were creating a new printer table. When WAMPUM prompts for the name of the new printer table, simply WAMPUM enter the name of the old table. When the data entry screen appears, you will see that codes such as \027 have been converted by WAMPUM into the actual ASCII character. In the case of the WAMPUM <ESC> code, this is an arrow pointing to the left. These codes can be deleted or edited as desired. - 35 - A final word of warning. Do NOT press the <ESC> key to _____________________________ enter an escape code! This key allows you to ABORT updating a ____________________ printer table. To enter an escape code as part of a printer string, you must type \027. 3.1.7 Menu Heading for New Application Whenever you first start WAMPUM, a heading appears above the WAMPUM Main System Menu. This heading says WAMPUM version *.* etc. For your end-users, you probably will want to change it to reflect what application is being run within the WAMPUM system, e.g. WAMPUM Automated Widget Collection System or whatever. To change the heading, pick the H - Heading Change option on H - Heading Change the Main System Menu. When the prompt appears, you can delete the existing heading by pressing CTRL-Y. Then type in your new heading and press <ENTER>. You do not have to center your heading. WAMPUM will automatically do this when the system is WAMPUM restarted. Whenever you change the heading, WAMPUM automatically stores WAMPUM the current settings of the system into the WAMPUM configuration WAMPUM file in the current directory. The filename is WAMPUM.MEM. It will always ask whether to turn on the audit trail/transaction logging feature of WAMPUM. Type an N at this prompt for now. WAMPUM 3.1.8 Relating the New File For purposes of report, label, and form letter output, you may relate a secondary data base to an identical field in the primary data base if the following conditions are met. The secondary data base must be in the default directory or in the path specified by the DOS PATH command. The secondary data base must be indexed on a field identical in size, type, and field name with a field in the primary data base. Note that the matching field in the primary data base need not be indexed. Whenever a report, label, or form letter is run while a related file and index are set, the developer may access data in any of the fields of the matching related file record by specifying the field names with the following syntax: ALIAS->fieldname where ________________ ALIAS is the name of the related file and FIELDNAME is the name of the field to be output from the related file. A secondary file may be related in one of two ways. The first is to select the Z - Zoom/Relate File option on the Main Z - Zoom/Relate File System Menu and enter the name of the file and index to be related. This relation stays in effect until changed provided you save it as part of the configuration. Once a file has been related successfully, the file name display on the last line of the Main System Menu screen should look like the following: FILE: ACCOUNTS/R FILE: ACCOUNTS/R - 36 - Any reports. labels, or form letters produced after relating the secondary file may access the fields in the related file also. The second method of relating a file and index is as part of developing the WAMPUM PreFormatted Output file. This is discussed in a subsequent section of the User's Guide. It provides additional flexibility since it permits the developer to relate different secondary files and indexes to different reports, labels, and form letters. WAMPUM Preformatted Output does not rely upon the relation established using the Z option. ___ Z ___ 3.1.9 Storing the New Configuration (WAMPUM.MEM) The configuration of a given application is stored in a configuration file called WAMPUM.MEM when either of the following events occurs. First, whenever the Menu Heading is changed using the H option on the Main System Menu, the application configu- H ration will be updated unless the developer pressed <ESC> after selecting this option. Second, the configuration can be updated at any time by selecting G - CONFIG Update from the Main System G - CONFIG Update Menu. Whenever either event occurs, the system will ask whether to enable the audit trail file. See section 3.1.14 for a description of this function. For now, leave it false. Once the application is reconfigured, then WAMPUM remembers WAMPUM the new configuration the next time WAMPUM is run whether it is WAMPUM run in Developer or End-User mode. This permits a developer to completely customize a WAMPUM application and then turn it over WAMPUM to end-users without the end-user having to master all of the concepts involved in building an application from the ground up. 3.1.10 Building Reports, Labels, and Form Letters 3.1.10.1 REPORTS 3.1.10.1.1 Overview WAMPUM Reports are designed using the Clipper REPORT ________ WAMPUM ________ Generator, which Nantucket generously has allowed us to distribute without charge. Before you can create new report forms or revise old ones, you need to make sure the program REPORT.EXE is located in a directory supported by your DOS PATH command. This will assure that WAMPUM can access the report WAMPUM generator whenever you want to design or redesign a report form. As indicated previously, WAMPUM requires a minimum of 420K memory WAMPUM to access the report writer from within WAMPUM. WAMPUM Before designing a report, you will always want to print out a listing of the file structure with which you will be working. Pick the S - Select Utilities option and specify T or Y for the S - Select Utilities List File Structure option. Then type Y when asked whether to print the structure listing. - 37 - The Clipper Report Generator is virtually a clone of the _______ dBASE III report writer which is accessed in dBASE with the command CREATE REPORT filename or MODIFY REPORT filename. Thus, CREATE REPORT filename MODIFY REPORT filename anyone who is generally familiar with the dBASE III method of designing report forms will have no problem doing the same with WAMPUM. WAMPUM A report form is a file which contains instructions telling WAMPUM which pieces of information you want to extract from a WAMPUM data base. Note that we said "which pieces of information" meaning which fields rather than which records. This is an important distinction since neither WAMPUM reports nor dBASE WAMPUM reports control which records print on a report. That is controlled with record selection using the S - Select Utilities S - Select Utilities option in WAMPUM. You might more accurately refer to report WAMPUM forms as a formatting template through which you "pour" information from a data base. All WAMPUM reports must have a DOS-standard file name with WAMPUM no file extension. As is true with dBASE, WAMPUM supplies the WAMPUM file extension of .FRM with all report forms. The R - REPORTS Menu option on the WAMPUM Main System Menu R - REPORTS Menu WAMPUM provides three capabilities to the user. First, you can run any existing report form whether created with the Clipper Report _______ Generator or with the dBASE III or dBASE III Plus report writer. Second, you can create new report forms using the Clipper Report _______ Generator. Finally, you can revise existing report forms using the Clipper Report Generator. The reports need not have been _______ created originally with the Clipper Report Generator. _______ How to run reports is explained in the end-user section of this User's Guide. The following two sections address how to create new report forms and revise old ones. 3.1.10.1.2 Creating A New Report Format After printing a listing of the file structure with which you will be working, the next step in creating a new report form is to select the R - Reports Menu option from the WAMPUM Main R - Reports Menu WAMPUM System Menu. When prompted for the name of the report form to run, type an asterisk (*) and press the <PgDn> key. Then enter the name you wish to assign to this new report form. Do not enter a file extension since WAMPUM automatically assigns .FRM as WAMPUM the file extension in keeping with the dBASE naming convention. WAMPUM then will run the Clipper Report Generator assuming you _______ WAMPUM _______ have sufficient memory to support it and assuming WAMPUM can find WAMPUM REPORT.EXE in the DOS PATH. As is true with the dBASE III report writer, the Clipper _______ Report Generator divides a report into three parts: - 38 - 1. Page Heading & Format Settings 1. Page Heading & Format Settings 2. Break Level Controls 2. Break Level Controls 3. Report Column Contents & Headings 3. Report Column Contents & Headings The Page Heading & Format Settings screen allows you to Page Heading & Format Settings specify the title of your report as well as the dimensions of the paper on which the report will be printed or displayed. You also indicate whether the report should be single or double-spaced. For the Page Heading, just type in whatever title you want to appear at the top of your report when it prints out. Do NOT center the title since WAMPUM will do this for you automatically. WAMPUM If you want a multi-line heading, just type it the way it should appear at the top of each page of the report. Once you have entered a Page Heading, press the <ENTER> key to move to the Format Settings fields. There are five of these: 1. Enter page width . . . . . . 80 1. Enter page width . . . . . . 80 2. Enter left margin . . . . . . 8 2. Enter left margin . . . . . . 8 3. Enter right margin . . . . . 0 3. Enter right margin . . . . . 0 4. Enter no. lines per page . . 58 4. Enter no. lines per page . . 58 5. Double spaced report? . . . . N 5. Double spaced report? . . . . N Shown beside each of the above entries is the default value which will be used unless you change them. You should be aware as well that a minor bug in the Clipper Report Generator causes _______ it to reset these values to the defaults every time a report is __________ revised or edited. Thus, if you change them, you will have to change them again every time you edit the report form. For normal printers, the default settings usually are fine except you may wish to narrow the left margin to about 2 just to provide more report space for information. For those using a laser printer, you will need to adjust the settings or your reports will run off the bottom of the page since most lasers force a 1/2 inch margin at the top and bottom of a page. With standard 10 pitch, portrait mode reports, the appropriate settings are 80, 2, 0, 56, and N or Y depending upon whether you want the report single or double-spaced. If you are printing sideways (landscape mode) with FONT8 (10 pitch) or with FONT9 (16 pitch), then the settings should be as follows: FONT8: 105, 2, 0, 40, and N or Y FONT8: 105, 2, 0, 40, and N or Y FONT9: 160, 2, 0, 40, and N or Y FONT9: 160, 2, 0, 40, and N or Y Once you have entered the Page Heading and report settings, press the <PgDn> key to display the second screen of the Clipper _______ report generator. This screen is used principally to break reports into sections based upon a change in the value of some key field in the data base. For beginners, just press <PgDn> to skip this screen. For experts, you should recall that your - 39 - report will not break properly on the field specified in Group/Subtotal on unless that same field is the primary index in Group/Subtotal on use when the report is run. Similarly, if you specify a subgroup field name, this must be a subfield in the primary index as well. An example may clear the air a little. Suppose you are producing a report of beauty contestants, and you want the report paginated by state and subdivided within the state by the city of residence of each contestant. To produce such a report, you first would need to build a special index (**), give the index a name such as STATCITY, and specify the fields to be indexed as STATE+CITY. Whenever the report is run, that index must be the primary index. Then, in the report form, specify Group/subtotal on: STATE, Summary report only? Group/subtotal on: STATE Summary report only? N, Eject after subtotal? Y, Group/subtotal heading: Contestant N Eject after subtotal? Y Group/subtotal heading: Contestant state is , Subgroup/subsubtotal on CITY, Subgroup heading: state is Subgroup/subsubtotal on CITY Subgroup heading: Contestant city is . What happens if you forget to set the Contestant city is primary index to STATCITY? When the report is run, WAMPUM WAMPUM assumes you know what you are doing. So, as the report sifts through your data base, it will do just what you told it. Whenever, the city of the contestant changes, the report will print a subheading of Contestant city is Los Angeles or whatever, Contestant city is Los Angeles and when the state changes, the report will issue a page break and print a new page heading and group heading at the top of the next page saying Contestant state is Utah or whatever. However, Contestant state is Utah since you forgot to put the proper index in effect, the actual records in the data base will not be in STATE then CITY order. Thus, you may get a page with one contestant from California, then a page with one from Utah, then another page with one from California, etc. In short, you probably will get about a 200 page report rather than the 5 page report expected. As noted earlier, if you are a beginning report writer, skip this screen in the report writer until you own your own paper company. The meat of the coconut in creating report forms is the Field Contents screen. This is the screen on which you tell the report generator which piece of information you want printed on the actual report. For example, we want to print the beauty contestant's name, her hometown, state, birthday, and, of course, measurements. Each piece of information is specified on a separate Field Contents screen (unless you are an expert). When ________ you finish specifying one field of information to be output, you simply <PgDn> to get another screen. This process continues until you have specified all of the pieces of information to be printed in the various columns of your report. Note that each screen asks for five pieces of information: 1. CONTENTS 1. CONTENTS 2. # decimal places 0 2. # decimal places 0 3. Totals? N 3. Totals? N 4. HEADER 4. HEADER 5. WIDTH 5. WIDTH For purposes of our example, let's assume the finished report should output something like the following: - 40 - CONTESTANT'S NAME HOMETOWN STATE BIRTHDAY MEASUREMENTS CONTESTANT'S NAME HOMETOWN STATE BIRTHDAY MEASUREMENTS ----------------- ---------- ----- -------- ------------ ----------------- ---------- ----- -------- ------------ Betty Boop Podunck CA 09/27/68 38-22-36 Betty Boop Podunck CA 09/27/68 38-22-36 Dolly Partin Nashville TN 09/27/45 48-28-38 Dolly Partin Nashville TN 09/27/45 48-28-38 CONTENTS is asking for the legal field name of the field to CONTENTS print in the current column of the report. For experts, CONTENTS may also contain any legal dBASE expression. Columns of a report are built from left to right across the screen or page when a report is produced. Since we want the contestant's name in the first column, we would specify FULLNAME as the field to print FULLNAME assuming this was the name assigned to this field in our data base. You can press the DOWN CURSOR or <ENTER> key to move down to the # decimal places field; however, the DOWN CURSOR is safer # decimal places since another little bug sometimes assumes you're finished building your report when you press <ENTER>. Unless you have specified a numeric expression for the ___________________ CONTENTS, both the # decimal places field and the Totals? field # decimal places Totals? should be left alone. If you are outputting numeric data, then the # decimal places field allows you to specify how many decimal # decimal places positions should be printed for this column of the report. Enter a number and press the DOWN CURSOR. Totals? allows you to Totals? specify whether you want the numeric expression totaled (and subtotaled) at breaks in the report and at the end of the report. Note again that you cannot TOTAL anything except a numeric expression. If you just want a COUNT of records, this is covered below separately. Then, DOWN CURSOR to the HEADER field. HEADER is asking for the column heading to display for this HEADER column of the report. This is free-form text of your choosing. It should convey to the reader of the report what the contents of this column of the report actually are. The only precaution here is that the header typically should not be much wider in length than the maximum field width being displayed in this column. Otherwise, you are just wasting space across the report since the WIDTH must be the wider of the field maximum width and the header width. In the example above, type CONTESTANT'S NAME on the first CONTESTANT'S NAME header line, then press the DOWN CURSOR and type ---------------- ---------------- on the next line to simulate an underscore. Use the DOWN CURSOR to move down to the WIDTH field. WIDTH WIDTH is asking for the column width of this column of the WIDTH report. As noted above, this width should be the greater of the field maximum width or the longest line of the column headers. Note that the Clipper Report Generator loves the number 10. This _______ is the default, and bug #3 is that when you edit a previous report, the report generator sometimes forgets the width you previously specified. You may have to reenter it. Once you have entered the width desired, press <PgDn> and a second Field Contents Screen will appear. Fill this one in for the next column of your report, then <PgDn> again. Continue this process until you have completed all of the fields which you want - 41 - output in the report. Then <PgDn> to another blank Field Contents Screen. Press the <ESC> key to tell the report writer you are finished. You will be asked whether you are finished. Typing a Y saves the report form to disk. Typing an N returns you to the top of the current Field Contents Screen. Pressing <ESC> aborts the report creation process and does NOT save the report. What happens if you want to change something before you have first saved the report? Simply press <PgUp> to move back through the screens you have already entered. Then <PgDn> to return to your current place. Suppose you want to count the number of records output in the report. This is perhaps the weakest link in both the dBASE report writer and the Clipper clone. The easiest method for _______ doing this is to include a final Field Contents Screen with the following specifications. For the CONTENTS, type the number 1. For DECIMALS, leave it at 0. For TOTALS, type Y. For the HEADER, type TOTAL and a second row of -----. For width, type 5. This will tell WAMPUM to count the records as the report is WAMPUM produced and print a total at the bottom. It will also uglify your report by producing a column of 1's along the right margin of your report. Suppose you want to do some date calculations. In the above example, suppose we want to compute the beauty contestant's age. For the CONTENTS field, specify (DATE()-BIRTHDAY)/365. Leave the (DATE()-BIRTHDAY)/365 decimals at 0, and totals as N. For HEADER, insert AGE on the AGE first line and --- on the second. For WIDTH, type 3. This tells --- WAMPUM to perform the following calculation each time a record WAMPUM qualifies for the report and output the answer in this column. Subtract the contestant's birthdate from today's date. This yields a number. Divide this number by 365 to get the AGE in years of the contestant. Note the parentheses around the subtraction. In algebra, multiplication and division take precedence over addition and subtraction. This means that WAMPUM WAMPUM would ordinarily attempt to perform the division before the subtraction. Since you cannot divide a DATE field by a number, this would send WAMPUM in the OZONE level when the report was WAMPUM run. The parentheses tells WAMPUM to carry out the calculations in parentheses first before performing the division. Since dBASE and WAMPUM can add and subtract dates, this will yield a numeric WAMPUM value which then can be divided by 365. Suppose you want to output the contents of a MEMO field in a report. A minor "bug" in the Clipper compiler caused WAMPUM _______ reports with a MEMO field to format strangely. This now has been fixed through the addition of a new function: MEMOTRAN(). To output a MEMO field, enter the following expression for the field contents: MEMOTRAN(fieldname) where fieldname is the actual name _________ MEMOTRAN(fieldname) _________ of the MEMO field in your data base. You may specify a column width of any length desired and WAMPUM will format the output WAMPUM accordingly. Again, special thanks to Nantucket for providing this "fix" at no expense to anyone. - 42 - The final thing to be careful of in creating reports is to make sure the total field widths specified for your report do not exceed the PAGE WIDTH specified when you set up the report. A little math in advance will solve this problem. Remember that WAMPUM always leaves a single space between columns of the WAMPUM report. This is in addition to the field widths you specify! 3.1.10.1.3 Modifying Existing Report Formats To modify an existing report, select the R - Report Menu R - Report Menu option from the Main System Menu. Look at the listing of reports which displays and write down the name of the one to be modified. Then type an asterisk (*) as if you were creating a new report. Press <PgDn>. When WAMPUM prompts for the name of your new report, enter the OLD name and press <ENTER>. The discussion above with respect to creating a new report applies as well to modifying an existing one. As noted, be careful to check the defaults and make certain the Clipper Report Generator did _______ not reimpose its defaults rather than the values you specified. You then can SAVE or ABORT saving the revised report just as was done in creating a new one. 3.1.10.1.4 Outputting MEMO fields in Reports MEMO fields may be formatted as columns in a report just like a character string except for the syntax of the CONTENTS expression. With character fields, you typically specify the actual name of the field to be output. With a MEMO field, use the following syntax where COMMENTS is the actual field name ________ given to the MEMO field you wish to output in the report: MEMOTRAN(COMMENTS) ________ MEMOTRAN(COMMENTS) ________ MEMOTRAN is a Clipper function which fixes a bug in the _______ Clipper report writing software. Using the above syntax will _______ permit a MEMO field to be produced in a report column of virtually any width desired. Simply specify a field width of your choice and the MEMOTRAN function will assure that the text in the MEMO field is word-wrapped to fit in the specified width. 3.1.10.2 LABELS 3.1.10.2.1 Overview WAMPUM Labels are designed using the Clipper LABEL ________ WAMPUM ________ Generator, which Nantucket generously has allowed us to distribute without charge. WAMPUM requires 420K to access the WAMPUM label generator program from the Main System Menu. Before you can create new label forms or revise old ones, you need to make sure the program LABEL.EXE is located in a directory supported by your - 43 - DOS PATH command. This will assure that WAMPUM can access the WAMPUM label generator whenever you want to design or redesign a label form. You should also be aware that beginning with DOS 3.0, a DOS program named LABEL.COM is provided to rename volume labels. Make certain that your DOS PATH checks the subdirectory containing Clipper's LABEL.EXE program before checking the DOS _______ subdirectory containing LABEL.COM. Otherwise, WAMPUM will WAMPUM execute the wrong program when you attempt to create or revise label forms. Before designing a label, you will always want to print out a listing of the file structure with which you will be working. Pick the S - Select Utilities option and specify T or Y for the S - Select Utilities List File Structure option. Then type Y when asked whether to print the structure listing. The Clipper Label Generator is virtually a clone of the _______ dBASE III label writer which is accessed in dBASE with the command CREATE LABEL filename or MODIFY LABEL filename. Thus, CREATE LABEL filename MODIFY LABEL filename anyone who is generally familiar with the dBASE III method of designing label forms will have no problem doing the same with WAMPUM. WAMPUM A label form is a file which contains instructions telling WAMPUM which pieces of information you want to extract from a WAMPUM data base and place on labels. Note that we said "which pieces of information" meaning which fields rather than which records. This is an important distinction since neither WAMPUM labels nor WAMPUM dBASE labels control which records print on a label. That is controlled with record selection using the S - Select Utilities S - Select Utilities in WAMPUM. You might more accurately refer to label forms as a WAMPUM formatting template through which you "pour" information from a data base. All WAMPUM labels must have a DOS-standard file name with no WAMPUM file extension. As is true with dBASE, WAMPUM supplies the file WAMPUM extension of .LBL with all label forms. The L - LABELS for Mail option on the WAMPUM Main System L - LABELS for Mail WAMPUM Menu provides three capabilities to the user. First, you can run any existing label form whether created with the Clipper Label _______ Generator or with the dBASE III or dBASE III Plus label maker. Second, you can create new label forms using the Clipper Label _______ Generator. Finally, you can revise existing label forms using the Clipper Label Generator. The labels need not have been _______ created originally with the Clipper Label Generator. _______ How to run labels is explained in the end-user section of this User's Guide. The following two sections address how to create new label forms and revise old ones. - 44 - 3.1.10.2.2 Creating A New Label Format After printing a listing of the file structure with which you will be working, the next step in creating a new label form is to select the L - Labels for Mail option from the WAMPUM Main L - Labels for Mail WAMPUM System Menu. When prompted for the name of the label form to run, type an asterisk (*) and press the <PgDn> key. Then enter the name you wish to assign to this new label form. Do not enter a file extension since WAMPUM automatically assigns .LBL as the WAMPUM file extension in keeping with the dBASE naming convention. WAMPUM then will run the Clipper Label Generator assuming you _______ WAMPUM _______ have sufficient memory to support it and assuming WAMPUM can find WAMPUM LABEL.EXE in the DOS PATH before finding DOS's LABEL.COM program. ______ As is true with the dBASE III label writer, the Clipper _______ Label Generator divides a label form into two parts: 1. Label Settings 1. Label Settings 2. Label Contents 2. Label Contents There are six items of information which can be set to specify how the labels should be produced. These include the following with their default settings: 1. Width of Label 35 1. Width of Label 35 2. Height of Label 5 2. Height of Label 5 3. Left Margin 0 3. Left Margin 0 4. Lines Between Labels 1 4. Lines Between Labels 1 5. Spaces Between Labels 0 5. Spaces Between Labels 0 6. No. of Labels Across 1 6. No. of Labels Across 1 Width of Label refers to the maximum width of any text entry Width of Label on any label produced. Height of Label means the maximum number Height of Label of lines per label. Left Margin is the starting column position Left Margin for the left-most label. Lines Between Labels specifies the Lines Between Labels number of blank lines between each completed label. Spaces Spaces Between Labels is the number of blank columns horizontally Between Labels between labels when two or more are produced across the page or screen. Number of Labels Across allows you to specify how many Number of Labels Across columns of labels will be printed across the page (up to 5). The main consideration to keep in mind in producing labels is the following. There is no pagination control for labels. All label forms assume an unending supply of continuous-form label stock in your printer. If you are using a laser printer, then printer codes will have to be used to set top of form and page length to match the label format desired with one exception. WAMPUM knows the format for 33-UP LABELS (11 labels per page with WAMPUM 3 across) if you use the following settings for the label form and specify FONT7 with the HPLASERA printer table: - 45 - 1. Width of Label 24 1. Width of Label 24 2. Height of Label 4 2. Height of Label 4 3. Left Margin 0 3. Left Margin 0 4. Lines Between Labels 2 4. Lines Between Labels 2 5. Spaces Between Labels 4 5. Spaces Between Labels 4 6. No. of Labels Across 3 6. No. of Labels Across 3 Once you have entered the label settings desired, press <PgDn> to move to the Label Contents Screen. In this screen, you enter field names to be produced on the labels much as was done on the Field Contents Screen with Report Forms. Then press <ESC> when you have completed filling out the field expressions which should appear on each line of the label. You will be prompted to answer whether to save the new label format. A sample of field expressions appears next for a typical mailing label. All of the names in BOLD are assumed to be the actual field names: BOLD 1 TRIM(FIRSTNAME) + " " + TRIM(LASTNAME) FIRSTNAME LASTNAME 2 ADDRESS1 ADDRESS1 3 ADDRESS2 ADDRESS2 4 TRIM(CITY) + ", " + TRIM(STATE) + " " + ZIPCODE CITY STATE ZIPCODE 3.1.10.2.3 Modifying An Existing Label Format To modify an existing label format, select the L - Labels L - Labels for Mail option from the Main System Menu. Look at the listing for Mail of labels which displays and write down the name of the one to be modified. Then type an asterisk (*) as if you were creating a new label form. Press <PgDn>. When WAMPUM prompts for the name WAMPUM of your new label, enter the OLD name and press <ENTER>. The discussion above with respect to creating a new label applies as well to modifying an existing one. As noted, be careful to check the defaults and make certain the Clipper Label Generator did not _______ reimpose its defaults rather than the values you specified. You then can SAVE or ABORT saving the revised label form just as was done in creating a new one. Note, you will always have to reset the label settings since the Clipper Label Generator always _______ overrides previous settings. 3.1.10.3 FORM LETTERS 3.1.10.3.1 Overview One of the most critical limitations of dBASE III has been its lack of a convenient "mail merge" interface which would allow selected data to be extracted from a data base and inserted into form letters. WAMPUM now provides this missing link through its WAMPUM built-in Form Letter generator. Actually, a WAMPUM form letter is nothing more than a WAMPUM standard dBASE III data base with a single field designated as LINE1. In executing a form letter merge through either the T - T - - 46 - Form Letter Menu or via W - Wampum Preformatted Output, WAMPUM Form Letter Menu W - Wampum Preformatted Output WAMPUM simply extracts data from your data base and merges it with the text contained in the form letter data base file you specify. WAMPUM automatically handles word wrapping as part of the WAMPUM merge process. In addition, the Form Letter Generator includes powerful programming functions which allow you to test the contents of fields in a data base and branch to various paragraphs of the form letter depending upon the contents of the data base. The current version of WAMPUM assumes that you will WAMPUM be outputting your form letters on 8-1/2 x 11 paper using 10 pitch type. Future enhancements may permit these to be adjusted. The following sections describe how to create an empty form letter as well as how to construct the form letter data base once the file has been created. The end-user section of this Guide describes the process of merging data into a form letter file. 3.1.10.3.2 Creating a New Form Letter File To create a new form letter, select T - Form Letter Menu T - Form Letter Menu from the Main System Menu. When prompted for the name of the form letter to run, type an asterisk (*) and press <PgDn>. You then will be prompted to name the new form letter. This name must start with T- and then up to a 6 character name. WAMPUM T- WAMPUM will add the .DBF file extension and build the form letter file. 3.1.10.3.3 Building Data in Form Letter File To actually build the form letter, use F - File Select to F - File Select select the form letter file with which you want to work, just as you would select any other data base file to use. Before actually entering data for the form letter, some explanation of how form letters are constructed and how they are output will assist in your design. When WAMPUM generates form letters, it reads the form letter WAMPUM file to get the text for the form letter. All leading and trailing spaces in each record are stripped off when WAMPUM WAMPUM builds the text to print. WAMPUM then reads the next record in the form letter file and appends it with a single leading space to what was in the previous record. For example, each field in a form letter record may contain up to 136 characters. Suppose the the following two records were in the file: Hello there, Hello there, Cutie! Cutie! When this form letter was printed, the text would read: Hello there, Cutie! Hello there, Cutie! - 47 - Note that there would be no indentation from the left margin, and all other spaces would be trimmed except the one space added between the two records. How do you get spaces when you really want them? This is done by inserting CHR(255) on the left margin of a record. Then it can be followed by as many spaces as desired. To insert this character, hold down the ALT key and type 255 with the numeric keypad. WAMPUM Form Letters also may contain markers which tell WAMPUM WAMPUM to extract or evaluate information in the primary data base when the form letter is merged. The main rule to remember insofar as field data expressions are concerned is that you may have only one such expression in each record of a form letter ___ file. A FIELD DATA EXPRESSION always begins and ends with //. In FIELD DATA EXPRESSION // its simplest form, an expression such as //LASTNAME// would tell //LASTNAME// WAMPUM to extract the contents of the LASTNAME field in the WAMPUM current record and insert it into the form letter at this place. The beginning and ending //'s must be part of the same record. With some Field Data Expressions, you may block off a section of text in the form letter which will be affected by the evaluation of the expression itself. For instance, if a particular field is blank in the data base, WAMPUM form letters may contain a code telling WAMPUM to omit all of the text which has been blocked off. TEXT MARKERS consist of @@ at the TEXT MARKERS @@ beginning and ending of the affected text. Note that these markers may not extend beyond a single record. Thus, you cannot ___ have one pair of @'s in record 5 and the other pair in record 6. An example of the syntax would be the following. Suppose you want to thank people for contributing to your reelection campaign. In the data base is a field CONTRIBDT which will be CONTRIBDT empty if no contribution has been received. The record entry in the form letter might say: @@Thanks for being such a great supporter!//*CONTRIBDT//@@ @@Thanks for being such a great supporter!//*CONTRIBDT//@@ This entry means if CONTRIBDT is not blank, then print the text: Thanks for being such a great supporter! Otherwise, leave this sentence out of the form letter entirely. The following section describes all FIELD DATA EXPRESSIONS implemented as of version 2.2 of WAMPUM. WAMPUM Another difference in WAMPUM Form Letters and standard text WAMPUM is that WAMPUM needs to know when you really do want to end a WAMPUM paragraph. This is referred to as a hard carriage return with many word processing packages. WAMPUM interprets a blank record WAMPUM in the form letter file or a record beginning with a tilde (~) as a hard carriage return. Note that if you want a hard return in a form letter and a blank line between paragraphs, you will need to - 48 - insert two blank records in the form letter file or two records ___ beginning with a tilde. All text following a tilde is ignored if it is the first character on the line. Finally, remember that WAMPUM form letters are built on the WAMPUM fly when you actually run the form letter program. Make certain that you end all form letter files with at least one blank record and preferably two. This will assure that the form letter buffer is purged before the next form letter is produced. 3.1.10.3.4 WAMPUM Field Data Expressions What follows is a listing of the syntax for various FIELD DATA EXPRESSIONS together with an example of each expression. The best way to get a feel for using WAMPUM Form Letters is to build a few. It provides more power and flexibility in this area than any commercial product on the market. Like any programming language, however, it takes a little getting used to. //LASTNAME// Allows imbedding a character, numeric, or date //LASTNAME// field within a form letter record. It would output Jones if Jones were in the LASTNAME field. _____ Note: if a date field, it outputs the date in the format May 21, 1986 if entry is 05/21/86. @@Thanks //LASTNAME//.@@ Allows imbedding a CHARACTER FIELD with @@Thanks //LASTNAME//.@@ a string of text which will print only if the field is not blank. It would output Thanks Jones. _____________ if Jones were in the LASTNAME field. @@Filed.//*FILINGDT//@@ Tests whether a particular character, @@Filed.//*FILINGDT//@@ numeric, or date field is not blank or whether a logical field is True. In either case, if True the output would be Filed. Otherwise, nothing ______ would be printed. @@Not filed.//#FILINGDT//@@ Just the opposite of the above. @@Not filed.//#FILINGDT//@@ If the character, numeric, or date field is empty or if the logical field is False, the expresion is printed. Otherwise, nothing would be printed. @@A new baby!//?PREGNANT//@@ Similar to above. Used only with @@A new baby!//?PREGNANT//@@ a logical field. If logical field is True, the expression is printed. @@So you're 30.//!AGE=30//@@ Allows any dBASE III expression as @@So you're 30.//!AGE=30//@@ the test for whether the text should be printed. If the test is True, the text is printed. Make certain that both sides of the expression are of the same data type. This example would print So you're 30! if the AGE numeric field = 30. _____________ // AGE=30// This is the syntax for a GOTO using the WAMPUM // AGE=30// form letter generator. Note the SPACE at the beginning of the expression which means, IF the - 49 - expression is True, SKIP to the next record beginning with a SPACE character. If you want to skip past a required carriage return record, make certain that the record begins with a tilde and not with a SPACE since blank records are assumed to be those containing all spaces. //+SAMPLE.DOC// With lengthy pieces of text with no embedded //+SAMPLE.DOC// data, it is often easier to type them into a plain ASCII document using a text editor. You then can merge them into a WAMPUM form letter with the syntax shown which says read in the SAMPLE.DOC ______________________ text file at this point in the form letter. Note _________________________________________________________ that this command should appear in a record by itself with no other text. //=DTOC(DATE())// There may be times when you just want to //=DTOC(DATE())// reformat some data directly out of the data base. The = operand allows this to be done with any ___ = ___ dBASE expression so long as it evaluates to a ____________________________ STRING EXPRESSION when it is processed. ________________________________ 3.1.11 Building Function Key Macros (KEYS.DBF) As an aid in data entry intensive applications, WAMPUM WAMPUM provides the capability to define up to 39 keyboard macros which may be invoked by the end-user simply by pressing a function key. As is true with WAMPUM applications generally, these keyboard WAMPUM macros are application specific. This simply means that a set of keyboard macros may be defined for each application in each new directory created on the hard disk. The name of the file which stores the macros is KEYS.DBF which is a standard dBASE III data base file. It is created automatically whenever WAMPUM is first run in a new subdirectory. WAMPUM To build the table of macro definitions, follow the steps below. First, select the KEYS.DBF file as the file with which you want to work by picking the F - File Select option on the Main F - File Select Menu. Enter the file name KEYS when prompted to do so. When the Main Menu reappears, the bottom line of the screen should say: FILE: KEYS FILE: KEYS Next, you will want to figure out what keystrokes you want to store under which function keys. The following function keys are available for use: F2 - F10 F2 - F10 Shift F1 - Shift F10 Shift F1 - Shift F10 Ctrl F1 - Ctrl F10 Ctrl F1 - Ctrl F10 Alt F1 - Alt F10 Alt F1 - Alt F10 You will note that this is all function key combinations except for F1 which is reserved by WAMPUM as the HELP key. WAMPUM - 50 - Record numbers in the KEYS file match the function keys by key number. See the table below: Function Keys Record Numbers Function Keys Record Numbers -------------------- -------------- F2 - F10 Rec # 2 - 10 F2 - F10 Rec # 2 - 10 Shift F1 - Shift F10 Rec # 11 - 20 Shift F1 - Shift F10 Rec # 11 - 20 Ctrl F1 - Ctrl F10 Rec # 21 - 30 Ctrl F1 - Ctrl F10 Rec # 21 - 30 Alt F1 - Alt F10 Rec # 31 - 40 Alt F1 - Alt F10 Rec # 31 - 40 Thus, whatever keystrokes are entered in record 5 of the KEYS file will automatically be assigned to function key F5. Those in record 40 will be assigned to function key ALT-F10. Any record in the KEYS.DBF file which is blank will be ignored. There are two cardinal rules to remember in entering data in the records of the KEYS file. (1) Record 1 of the KEYS file is ________________________________ always ignored since it corresponds to the HELP function key, F1. _________________________________________________________________ (2) Every entry in the KEYS file must equate to a CHARACTER ____________________________________________________________ STRING when evaluated by WAMPUM. _______________________________ WAMPUM _______________________________ The first rule is only logical. Since F1 is reserved for HELP, the corresponding record in the KEYS file is ignored. Whatever is entered in this record won't matter because it is ignored. Note that you will have to ADD a first record which automatically will be record 1. Simply press <ENTER> to save it and create record 2 which can be used. The second rule is critical because if it is violated you will get run-time errors the next time WAMPUM is started. If WAMPUM this happens, simply type I to ignore each error (which means that function key will not be set), then edit the records causing the problems following the steps outlined above. Translated into dBASE III lingo, each record in the KEYS file must be a character string. If it is simply character data, you meet this requirement by enclosing the data in double or single quotes. If you have single quotes in the string, then enclose the string in double quotes and vice versa. You can also use dBASE III functions and special WAMPUM WAMPUM functions to create macros so long as the expression evaluates to a string. Here are a few examples to get you started: DTOC(DATE()) would store today's date as a macro in the DTOC(DATE()) following format: 10/10/86. FULLDATE(DATE()) would store today's date as a macro in the FULLDATE(DATE()) following format: October 10, 1986. DTOC(DATE()+30) would store today's date + 30 days. DTOC(DATE()+30) CDOW(DATE()) would store the day of the week in a macro in CDOW(DATE()) the following format: Tuesday. - 51 - STR(YEAR(DATE()),4) would store the year as a string in the STR(YEAR(DATE()),4) following format: 1986. WEEKDAY(DATE()+30) would store the date 30 days from today WEEKDAY(DATE()+30) rolled over to Monday if it hits on weekend in format: 10/10/86. Again, the important thing to remember is that character text must be enclosed in quotes, and data other than character data must be converted into a string using one of the dBASE III or WAMPUM conversion functions. WAMPUM Finally, these keyboard macros will not take effect until the next time WAMPUM is run from DOS. They will be loaded on WAMPUM each subsequent running of the program unless changed. Developers should be careful not to store a file named KEYS.DBF in the DOS PATH unless you intend to invoke the macros contained therein whenever an application starts and a file named KEYS.DBF cannot be found in the default directory. 3.1.12 Building Edit Checks (EDIT.DBF) As an aid in data entry accuracy, WAMPUM provides the WAMPUM capacity to design custom edit checks for each WAMPUM application. As was true with keyboard macros, a set of edit checks may be defined for each application in each new directory created on the hard disk. The name of the file which stores the edit checks is EDIT.DBF which is a standard dBASE III data base file. It is created automatically whenever WAMPUM is first run in a new WAMPUM subdirectory. To build the table of edit checks, follow the steps below. First, select the EDIT.DBF file as the file with which you want to work by picking the F - File Select option on the Main F - File Select Menu. Enter the file name EDIT when prompted to do so. When the Main Menu reappears, the bottom line of the screen should say: FILE: EDIT FILE: EDIT Next, you will want to figure out what edit checks you want to develop for the particular application. For some applications, you may want to assure that a data entry field is never left blank. For others, you may want to assure that a duplicate key is never entered. Finally, you may want to assure that an entry is contained in a table of valid entries. None of these checks are possible in dBASE III without substantial custom programming. WAMPUM provides this capability with a few minutes work. The EDIT file structure consists of two fields: EDITTEST and ERRMSG. The theory behind WAMPUM edit checks is a simple one. WAMPUM Once you "turn on" the edit checks for use against a particular file, WAMPUM automatically tests newly added records as well as WAMPUM updated existing records to make certain that they do NOT violate - 52 - any of the error conditions (EDITTESTs) you have specified in the EDIT file. The checks are only run when new records are added to a data base or existing records are changed. For each error condition identified, WAMPUM will display an error message WAMPUM (ERRMSG) and then permit the end-user to fix the problems. The end-user cannot SAVE the record with errors without correcting them. The end-user may <ESC>ape from a data entry screen without invoking WAMPUM's edit checking. WAMPUM Since developers typically work with several files in creating a new application, there are some instances in which you would not want the EDIT CHECKS to occur. Most importantly, when the primary data base is not being used, you would not want to invoke a series of edit checks designed to check primary data base information. This is handled in a simple way. WAMPUM WAMPUM always reads the EDITTEST field entry in the first record of the EDIT.DBF to ascertain the name of the file to be checked. If this entry does not match IN UPPER CASE the name of the current file in use, the edit checks are turned off. Stated somewhat differently, the EDITTEST field of Record 1 of EDIT.DBF is _____________________________________________ reserved to hold the UPPER CASE name of the data base to be edit ________________________________________________________________ checked. Thus, in the case of our example, the entry in Record 1 ________ of EDIT.DBF should say ACCOUNTS. If you forget to enter the name ACCOUNTS of the data base file to be checked in record 1, then obviously the edit checks specified will never be invoked! There are three other things to keep in mind in developing your edit checks. First, edit checks must be dBASE III or WAMPUM WAMPUM expressions which can be evaluated as True or False. Second, if the expression in EDITTEST is true, the error message in ERRMSG is triggered. In other words, you are building expressions which identify when an error condition occurs rather than the other way around. Third, and most importantly, if you wish to evaluate data entered in a particular field, you do NOT use the fieldname ____________________________ to test for an error. Instead you use the field's sequential _____________________________________________________________ number in the data base in conjunction with an array name _________________________________________________________ FLDDATA[]. The next paragraph will clear up any confusion you _________ are momentarily experiencing. Since you need to know a field's position in the file structure in order to develop edit checks, your first step should be to print out the file structure of the file which will be checked. Pick the S - Select Utilities option after making S - Select Utilities certain that the correct file is in use. Change the List File List File Structure option to T or Y, then answer Y when prompted for Structure whether the structure should be printed. This will give you the list of fields in the data base. Note that the left column shows the field's NUMBER in the structure. Let us assume that the LASTNAME field is field number 1. An appropriate edit check to assure that the LASTNAME field was not left blank would read as follows: EMPTY(FLDDATA[1]) or in standard dBASE III parlance, you EMPTY(FLDDATA[1]) could say FLDDATA[1]=SPACE(20) assuming the field's width was 20 FLDDATA[1]=SPACE(20) characters. One of the above entries should be entered as the EDITTEST entry in the EDIT file. The ERRMSG field entry might say something like this: The LASTNAME field cannot be left The LASTNAME field cannot be left BLANK. Whenever the EDITTEST record evaluates to TRUE, meaning BLANK. - 53 - FLDDATA[1] is blank, then the ERRMSG would be displayed. The ___ important thing to remember is to use FLDDATA[1] and not LASTNAME _________________________________________________________________ in identifying the field to be checked! Note that you also can _______________________________________ check one field against another in the same data entry screen. For example, assume there were two fields in the data base as follows: 1 TRANSCODE Character 8 2 TRANSDATE Date 8 Let's also assume that the format of the TRANSCODE entries is of the form: 86-12345 where 86 identifies the year of the trans- action. One edit check you probably would want to perform in a situation such as this is to make sure the first two digits of the TRANSCODE matched the year in the TRANSDATE field. Here is one possible way to handle that: SUBSTR(FLDDATA[1],1,2)<>SUBSTR(DTOC(FLDDATA[2]),7,2) SUBSTR(FLDDATA[1],1,2)<>SUBSTR(DTOC(FLDDATA[2]),7,2) Note in the example that the relationship must be coded so that when it is TRUE, the error message displays. Thus, we want to code it in such a way that when the first two characters of the ____________________________________ TRANSCODE do not match the year in the TRANSDATE, the expression ________________________________________________________________ is True and hence the error message is given. Note also that the ____________________________________________ expressions on both sides of the relational operator must be of the same type. In this case, both are character strings. Finally, it should be noted that these EDIT CHECKS will not take effect until the next time WAMPUM is run with the WAMPUM appropriate file in use. They will be loaded on each subsequent running of the program unless changed. Developers should be careful not to store a file named EDIT.DBF in the DOS PATH unless you intend to invoke the edit checks contained therein whenever an application is run and a file named EDIT.DBF cannot be found in the default directory. Beginning with version 2.7 of WAMPUM, several enhancements WAMPUM were added to the EDIT checking module. WAMPUM now supports both WAMPUM calculated fields through the EDIT process as well as "table lookup" to make certain that a field value appears in a given table of values. Creating Calculated Fields Creating Calculated Fields To automatically calculate the value for a field, that field must be one of the fields in the active data base. Typically, you would NOT want it to display on a data entry menu since its value will be changed automatically regardless of what the user enters. This calculation capacity may be used to compute both dates and numeric values and where necessary can also compute values for character and logical fields. To automatically calculate the value for a field, follow these steps: - 54 - (1) In the EDITTEST field, the first character must be the equals sign (=). This is followed by whatever selection criteria will be used to determine when the calculation IS performed. If you want it done whenever a record is added or changed, then the EDITTEST field should look like the following: =.T. =.T. WAMPUM keeps track of what mode it is in by setting a variable WAMPUM HELPCODE to the number corresponding to the option picked from the Main System Menu, e.g. A - Add is 1, E - Edit is 2, etc. You may find it helpful to be able to perform calculated field transactions only when the user is in Edit mode or Add mode. If you only wanted a field calculated when a new record was added, use the following syntax in the EDITTEST field: =HELPCODE=1 =HELPCODE=1 (2) In the ERRMSG field, two codes must be inserted and they are separated by a comma. The first is the field number corresponding to the field to be calculated. Then insert a comma. Then enter any legal dBASE expression to handle the calculation desired. A simple example may help. Assume that the data base contains a FILINGDT field as #1, a DAYSPEND field as #14, and a CLOSEDT field as #20. Until a closing date entry has been made, we want the computer to recompute the days pending from the filing date whenever a new record is added or changed. The field entries should look like the following: EDITTEST: =EMPTY(FLDDATA[20]) =EMPTY(FLDDATA[20]) ERRMSG: 14,DATE()-FLDDATA[1] 14,DATE()-FLDDATA[1] Using "Table-Lookup" for Editing Using "Table-Lookup" for Editing "Table lookup" for Editing means the ability of a data base system to refer to a table of values in order to determine whether a value entered by a user is acceptable. Within WAMPUM, WAMPUM table-lookup is implemented using standard dBASE data bases for the tables. These data bases may be checked either sequentially or through a Clipper-index file (.NTX) as the developer desires. To perform "table lookup" as part of the edit checking process, the following rules must be met: (1) In the EDITTEST field, the first character must be a question mark (?) if a non-indexed dBASE file will be used as the table. Or two question marks (??) must be used if a dBASE file table will be checked using a Clipper index as the key. The question mark or marks are followed by whatever selection criteria the developer wants to specify to tell WAMPUM when the table lookup SHOULD be performed. See the examples above. - 55 - (2) In the ERRMSG field, three values must be inserted with a comma between the values. (a) The first code is the number of the field to be checked against the table. Then type a comma. (b) The second code is the dBASE file name of the table to be checked (without the .DBF extension). Then type a comma. (c) The third code is one of two values. With a non- indexed table lookup (?), the third code is the name of the field in the table lookup file to be compared. With an indexed table lookup (??), the third code is the name of the Clipper index file (without .NTX extension) to use for the lookup. An example may help remove some of the mystery. Assume your main data base has a field #8 for the user to enter the abbreviation of the STATE where the customer lives. You want to make sure this entry is, in fact, a state in the United States. Using WAMPUM, you build another data base with a file name of STATES WAMPUM and an index called ABBREV which holds the two character abbre- viation for each state in the United States. Your entries would look like the following in the EDIT record: EDITTEST: ??.T. ??.T. ERRMSG: 8,STATES,ABBREV 8,STATES,ABBREV Using "Table-Lookup" for Calculated Fields Using "Table-Lookup" for Calculated Fields Just as a table could be checked to verify data in your data bases, WAMPUM also permits table-lookup to actually calculate the WAMPUM contents of fields in your primary data base. The table may be accessed either sequentially or through a Clipper-index file _______ (.NTX) as the developer desires. To calculate a table follow these simple steps in adding an entry to the EDIT file: (1) In the EDITTEST field, the first character must be an exclamation point (!) if a non-indexed dBASE file will be used as the table. Or two exclamation points (!!) must be used if a dBASE file table will be referenced using a Clipper index as the _______ key. The exclamation point(s) are followed by whatever selection criteria the developer wants to specify to tell WAMPUM when the WAMPUM table lookup calculation SHOULD be performed. (2) In the ERRMSG field, five values must be inserted with a comma between the values. (a) The first code is the number of the field in the primary data base to be used to find a match in the table. Then type a comma. - 56 - (b) The second code is the dBASE file name of the table to be checked (without the .DBF extension). Then type a comma. (c) The third code is one of two values. With a non- indexed table lookup (!), the third code is the name of the field in the table lookup file to be compared. With an indexed table lookup (!!), the third code is the name of the Clipper index file (without .NTX extension) to use for the lookup. Then type a comma. (d) The fourth code is the number of the field in the primary data base to be calculated from the table. Then type a comma. (e) The fifth code is any legal dBASE expression which specifies the value to be calculated for the field referenced in (2)(d) above. This expression would include references to one or more fields in the table typically. By way of example, let us assume that a company maintains an ORDERS file with numerous pieces of information being captured about new orders. Among these are the part number (field #1) and the part cost (field #2). There also is a table of PARTS which contains the cost of each part (PARTCOST) in the company's inventory. The developer wants to look up the cost of the part specified in the ORDERS file and insert it automatically into the part cost field in the ORDERS file. The syntax to do this using a PARTS file indexed on part number would look like this: EDITTEST: !!.T. !!.T. ERRMSG: 1,PARTS,PARTNO,2,PARTCOST 1,PARTS,PARTNO,2,PARTCOST 3.1.13 Building Data Entry Menus (MENUS.DBF) Up to 9 customized data entry menus may be built for any given application. These typically correspond to different stages in the data entry process for a given data base. In addition to these 9 customized data entry menus, WAMPUM also WAMPUM provides a standard data entry screen which includes access to every field in the current data base. These data entry menus are numbered 0 to 9 with 0 being the default standard menu with access to all fields. In addition to specifying up to 9 custom menus, the developer may also restrict users without the developer password to a given range of menu numbers. Thus, some care must be exercised to group the restricted and non-restricted menus into contiguous numbers. A range of 1 to 5 is permissible, but you cannot allow access to menu 0 as well as menus numbered 2 to 6. - 57 - Information pertaining to the custom menus is stored in a standard dBASE file named MENUS which is created in the current default directory whenever WAMPUM is first invoked. Each record WAMPUM in the MENUS file corresponds to a custom menu with the same number. Thus, record 1 contains information about menu 1, and so on. To build one or more custom menus, first start up WAMPUM in WAMPUM Developer Mode by specifying the developer password after the word WAMPUM. Make certain that the File in Use at the bottom of WAMPUM the screen is the one for which you want to build the custom menus. If so, choose S - Select Utilities and change the List ____ S - Select Utilities ____ File Structure field entry to T. Then <PgDn> and print the file ______________ structure for reference. When the Main System Menu reappears, pick F - File Select F - File Select and enter the file name of MENUS. Press <ENTER> and WAMPUM will WAMPUM open the MENUS file. When the Main System Menu reappears, make sure the bottom line of the screen shows the file name MENUS. To ADD a new custom menu, pick A - Add Records from the Main A - Add Records System Menu. A blank record will appear with two fields: MENUNAME MENUNAME and FLDLIST. As the name suggests, MENUNAME is whatever name you FLDLIST want to assign to this custom menu, e.g. CASE OPENING MENU. Enter the title desired and press <ENTER> to move to the FLDLIST field. In FLDLIST, you specify the field numbers corresponding to the fields you want displayed on the data entry screen. The sequence used to specify the numbers does not matter since the ___ fields always are ordered according to their numeric position in the data base structure. The format for these field numbers is CRITICAL! ________ Rule 1: Each field number must be AT LEAST 3 characters in _____________ length with spaces to the left of the number to "pad" it to 3 characters. For example, field 1 would require that you type two spaces and then the number 1. 27 would require one leading space and then the number 27. Rule 2: Each field number must be preceded by at least one ______ space. Thus, field 106 would require a space then the number 106. Rule 3: As many fields may be specified as will fit within ______ the FLDLIST field observing the two rules above. For example, to create a data entry menu with fields 1, 7, 21, and 107, FLDLIST should look like the following without the quotation marks which _________________________________ have been included only to assist in showing the spaces: _______________________________________________________ " 1 7 21 107" 1 7 21 107 Once the FLDLIST field has been specified, press CTRL-W or <PgDn> to save the entry. A new blank record will appear. You may continue to add menus or <ESC> to exit to the Main System Menu. - 58 - Once the Main System Menu reappears, press <ESC>ape to exit to DOS. Then restart WAMPUM in Developer Mode again. When the WAMPUM Main System Menu appears, pick S - Select Utilities and mark the S - Select Utilities Change Current Menu field as T and <PgDn>. ____________________ In Developer Mode, three fields will appear below the list of available menus: (1) Number of current menu to use (2) Minimum menu number (3) Maximum menu number For now, press <ENTER> to skip through the current menu field. Then enter a value for the minimum menu number and the maximum which corresponds to the menus you have created and to which you want the users to have access. Remember that if the minimum number is 0, users will be able to access and change every field in the data base! Make certain that BOTH the minimum __________________________________ menu number and the maximum menu number do NOT exceed the value _______________________________________________________________ of the last record in the MENUS file. The minimum and maximum ____________________________________ menu numbers may be the same number so long as the rule above is not violated. Once you have entered these values <PgDn> if necessary to return to the Main System Menu. Now access the Menu Selection screen again by choosing S - Select Utilities, then mark Change ______ S - Select Utilities ______ Current Menu true, then <PgDn>. The correct range of menu ____________ choices should now be displayed. Now set the value for the current menu to use and <PgDn> to return to the Main System Menu. Now you may SAVE this new configuration by selecting the option G - Configuration Update then pressing <ENTER>. G - Configuration Update You now are ready to test the application. <ESC>ape to DOS and restart WAMPUM in user mode. Select the A - Add Records WAMPUM A - Add Records option and make certain that the correct menu displays. Press <ESC>ape. Now choose S - Select Utilities and mark Change ______ S - Select Utilities ______ Current Menu true and <PgDn>. The correct range of menus should ____________ appear, and you should only be able to enter a number in the range specified. If not, restart WAMPUM in Developer Mode and WAMPUM change the ranges following the steps outlined above. 3.1.14 Building an Audit Trail File (AUDIT.DBF) For a variety of reasons, it may be desirable to create an audit trail of all data added or changed in a data base. This can be done as a means of verifying the accuracy of data posted to the data base. Or it can be done in multi-user environments to provide update integrity to the master data base while many users share access to a copy of the data base from the previous day. In the latter instance, the audit trail serves as a transaction log of new entries to the master data base. These transaction logs can be built using numerous workstations. Then at the end of the day all of the new transactions can be posted - 59 - to the master data base using WAMPUM's Copy Utilities. Then the WAMPUM new master is distributed, and the process begins again. While it is not a true "multi-user" system, it offers many advantages until WAMPUM Multi-User arrives. WAMPUM Multi-User To invoke the AUDIT TRAIL/TRANSACTION LOGGING feature of WAMPUM, you must be using version 2.9 or later of the software. WAMPUM You must assure that some field in your data base has unique ____________________________________________________________ values and is indexed before implementing transaction logging. ______________________________________________________________ This index must be set as the PRIMARY INDEX before executing a ______________________________________________________________ configuration update. Then select the G - Config Update option ____________________ G - Config Update ____________________ and change the Enable Audit Trail? prompt to True. Thereafter, ___________________ WAMPUM will automatically create an AUDIT.DBF file in which it WAMPUM will post any changes to the current data base using the index which was the current index at the time of configuration update _______________________________________________________________ as the key field in the event later transaction log posting is desired. It is the developer's responsibility to assure that the AUDIT.DBF file is periodically purged since it will continue to grow indefinitely until the Enable Audit Trail prompt is turned __________________ back off by setting it false. Purging consists of deleting AUDIT.DBF and AUDIT.DBT from the current application directory with the following commands: CD \{current application directory} CD \{current application directory} DEL AUDIT.* DEL AUDIT.* Once these files are deleted, WAMPUM will recreate them the WAMPUM next time WAMPUM is run in this directory. See the section of WAMPUM the User's Guide which addresses the COPY UTILITIES for infor- mation on posting transactions to the master data base from an audit trail file. 3.1.15 Preformatted Output (WAMPUM.DBF) 3.1.15.1 Overview WAMPUM PreFormatted Output is the feature for which many WAMPUM dBASE users have clamored for years. It is nothing more than a tool by which a developer can "hard-code" ALL required components of a report, label, or form letter process in advance. Stated differently, it frees the end-user from having to specify which records should be printed and in what order every time a report is run. How is this magic performed? Very simply. For each new application you develop, WAMPUM will create a separate data base WAMPUM file, WAMPUM.DBF, which stores up to 80 preformatted reports, labels, and form letters. The end user then can call up a list of these preformatted output choices and mark the ones desired as True. These then are produced automatically with no further user intervention. - 60 - 3.1.15.2 Building the WAMPUM File The first step in developing WAMPUM Preformatted Output is WAMPUM to create the WAMPUM.DBF file to store the information. This is done by selecting W - WAMPUM PreFormatted Output from the Main W - WAMPUM PreFormatted Output System Menu. When WAMPUM asks whether to create the WAMPUM file, WAMPUM respond with either T or Y to create the empty data base. 3.1.15.3 Adding/Editing the WAMPUM File Building preformatted output is much like adding and editing data in any other .DBF file. First, pick the F - File Select F - File Select option from the Main System Menu, and enter WAMPUM as the name of WAMPUM the data base to use. When the Main System Menu returns, the bottom of the screen should show the file in use with the message: FILE: WAMPUM. FILE: WAMPUM To create a new entry in the file, select the A - ADD record A - ADD record option. To change an existing entry, select E - EDIT record. E - EDIT record When the data entry screen appears, you will be prompted for the following items of information concerning the report, label, or form letter you wish to preformat: DATAFILE - Enter the name of the primary data file which DATAFILE will be used in producing the output. Do NOT include the .DBF file extension. SORTINDX - If you want the output sorted in a particular SORTINDX order, then you may specify the sort index by entering the name of index file. Do NOT enter the .NTX file extension. If this field is left blank, the output will be produced in the actual order of the records in the primary data base. RPTLBLFRM - Enter either R, L, or F to tell WAMPUM whether RPTLBLFRM WAMPUM the output will be a report (.FRM file), label (.LBL file), or form letter (.DBF file). OUTFILE - Enter the name of the actual report form, label OUTFILE format, or form letter file. Do NOT include the file extension. FONT - Enter a number between 0 and 9 to identify which FONT FONT will be used in generating the output. See the section on Printer Configuration for more info. CRITERIA - Enter the selection criteria just as they would CRITERIA be entered in the Select Utilities option previously discussed. Note that there is one enhancement. If there is a particular range of dates you want to prompt for at execution time, then you can specify the field to which the date range will apply by surrounding that field with - 61 - //'s. For example, suppose you were generating a report which would show new job applications received for a certain period of time. If the field name storing the application date was APPLICDT, then the following syntax in the criteria would allow the user to enter a date range at run time for the application date: //APPLICDT//. //APPLICDT// DESCRIP - Enter a brief description for the output you just DESCRIP designed. This is what will appear on the menu when the user selects WAMPUM Preformatted Output. RELFILE1 - Enter the file name of the file to be related to RELFILE1 the primary data base when the output is run. See the section on Z - Zoom/Relate File for more info. Z - Zoom/Relate File RELINDX1 - Enter the file name of the index to be used in RELINDX1 relating the secondary file to a field in the primary file. See Z - Zoom/Relate File for info. Z - Zoom/Relate File Once all of the above entries have been made, a new record is stored in the WAMPUM.DBF file. When you have added all of the entries desired. Exit from WAMPUM by pressing <ESC> from the WAMPUM Main System Menu. Then restart WAMPUM and select the W option to WAMPUM W try out your new output. 3.1.16 Resetting the Developer Password Beginning with version 2.2, WAMPUM provides the capability WAMPUM to reset the developer password from VOODOO to some other password of your choice. This is done using the DOS ENVIRONMENT and the SET command. To reset the password, you should insert a line such as what appears below in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the root directory of the hard disk which will be used to boot the system. SET WAMPUM=MOVOODOO SET WAMPUM=MOVOODOO The value of the WAMPUM environment variable beginning with ______________ the THIRD character becomes the new developer password when the ____________________ ______ system is restarted. In the case outlined above, the password still would be VOODOO since the first and second characters are ignored. Note that this is anything but a secure system. What it will do is keep the casual or novice user from entering WAMPUM in WAMPUM developer mode accidentally. 3.1.17 Making a Backup of the User Application Once you have completed building a new application in its own subdirectory, this then can be saved using the BACKUP command for subsequent use by end-users. When the application is - 62 - completed, simply type the following command substituting the name of the SUBDIRECTORY in which you built the application for the word SUBDIR below. If you are using a drive other than Drive C, you would want to change the C: as well. C: BACKUP C:\SUBDIR\*.* A: BACKUP C:\SUBDIR\*.* A: This will make a copy of the application on a formatted floppy in Drive A. The end user then can take this floppy and restore it to the system on which it will be run with the command: RESTORE A: C:\*.* /S RESTORE A: C:\*.* /S The DOS Restore command automatically will construct the new subdirectory on their hard disk and then copy the application without any user knowledge of file copying. 3.1.18 Writing the Documentation Perhaps the most important step in building a new application is to write some documentation explaining what the system does and how to use it. For ease of use, the WAMPUM WAMPUM User's Guide has been paginated in such a way that the end-user section can be extracted and used as the first section of your completed documentation for any new application. Don't distribute new applications without documentation! It gives WAMPUM and yourself a bad name. WAMPUM 3.2 ! - RUNning an External Program Assuming you have sufficient memory, external programs can be run from within WAMPUM using the !- Run External Program WAMPUM !- Run External Program option on the Main System Menu. The following programs can be run: executable programs in either .EXE or .COM format and DOS batch files with .BAT file extension. In addition, you can exit to the DOS level temporarily by entering \COMMAND.COM as the file name to run. Note, this only works with DOS 3.0 and above. Similarly, directory paths may precede program names with DOS 3.0 or above. Any program within the DOS PATH may be run without specifying the directory path. 3.3 Z - ZOOMing or RELATing a Supplemental File WAMPUM provides the capability to link a secondary file for WAMPUM purposes of report, label, and form letter output. This can be done automatically within the WAMPUM Preformatted Output option, or it can be done manually using the Z - Zoom/Relate File option. Z - Zoom/Relate File There are many instances in which it is helpful to have a secondary file to provide "table lookup" of data which otherwise would have to be retyped in each record of a data base. For - 63 - example, if each customer has an ACCOUNT NUMBER, it would be silly to build an orders file which required the entry of the customer's name, address, and phone number every time an order was placed. Instead, the orders file could contain the customer number, and a secondary file could be used to "look up" the customer's name, address, and phone number whenever a report, label, or form letter was produced. There are four prerequisites for relating a secondary file with WAMPUM. (1) There must be an IDENTICAL field in both the WAMPUM main data base and the related file; (2) the key field in the related file must be indexed on that key; (3) the index file name must be identical to the name of the key field; and (4) both the related file and its index must either be in the default directory or must be accessible via the DOS PATH. To link a secondary file, pick the Z - Zoom/Relate File Z - Zoom/Relate File option on the Main System menu. Then enter the name of the secondary file and the index. When the Main System Menu reappears, the last line of the screen will show a relation is in effect with the following expression: FILE: ORDERS/R FILE: ORDERS/R Fields in the related file may then be accessed within report and label forms as well as within form letter files using the following syntax: ALIAS->FIELDNAME where ALIAS is the name of ALIAS->FIELDNAME the related file and FIELDNAME is the field name to be output. See the example below for further clarification of the process: CUSTOMER ORDER FILE (ORDERS.DBF) CUSTOMER FILE (ACCOUNTS.DBF) CUSTOMER ORDER FILE (ORDERS.DBF) CUSTOMER FILE (ACCOUNTS.DBF) -------------------------------- ---------------------------- -------------------------------- ---------------------------- ACCTNO ---- RELATED FIELD ---> ACCTNO (INDEXED) ACCTNO ---- RELATED FIELD ---> ACCTNO (INDEXED) ORDERDT CUSTNAME ORDERDT CUSTNAME ITEMS ADDRESS ITEMS ADDRESS PHONE PHONE As a FIELD CONTENTS entry in the report form, you could then specify ACCOUNTS->CUSTNAME once the ACCOUNTS file was related ACCOUNTS->CUSTNAME using the ACCTNO index. This would tell WAMPUM to output the WAMPUM actual customer name rather than the account number found in the orders file. 3.4 C - Copy Utilities for Importing & Exporting Data WAMPUM's C - Copy Utilities option provides a rich variety WAMPUM C - Copy Utilities of file importing and exporting tools permitting standard dBASE data bases to be transferred into or out of virtually all of the common file formats. In addition, a data base structure file can - 64 - be created which permits simple revision of a data base structure where additional fields become desirable after an application has been built. With the exception of the dBASE III structure and audit trail options, you can narrow down which records will be copied by first specifying selection criteria using the S - S - Select Utilities option. You will be prompted whether to Select Utilities override the selection. When the C - Copy Utilities option is selected, you C - Copy Utilities initially are prompted for three pieces of information: (1) whether you will be COPYing data TO or FROM another file from the file currently in use; (2) the file type of the other file; and (3) the file name of the other file. Copying TO Another File requires that the first prompt be Copying TO Another File answered with a T. Then a file type is specified. And then the file name of the receiving file is specified. If you specify a dBASE III type data base file as the receiving file, then one will be created if the file name specified does not already exist. If it exists, you will be asked whether to Abort, Overwrite, or Append to the existing external file. If you specify COPY TO a dBASE III Structure, WAMPUM will WAMPUM copy the structure of the current data base into a new .DBF file with four fields: Field_Name, Field_Type, Field_Len, and Field_Dec. Each record entry in the new file will match a field in the structure of the current data base. This file then can be added to, edited, records can be deleted, etc. Once revised, this file then can be used as the new file structure template for transferring the current data base into a new file structure. This is covered in detail below. If you COPY TO a Standard Data Format file, WAMPUM will WAMPUM create a new flat file consisting of all the selected data in the current data base in ASCII format. Each record will occupy one line in the new file with a carriage return/line feed at the end of the line. COPYing TO a Delimited Format file permits the user to identify what character should be used to surround each character field in the new data base. For example, BASIC expects character fields in a sequential file to be delimited with QUOTES. COPYing TO an Audit Trail file is never permissible. You may edit the AUDIT file just as you would edit any other file. Copying From Another File means that you will be IMPORTING Copying From Another File data from another file INTO the data base file currently in use. The only exception is the dBASE III Structure option covered below. To COPY FROM another file, enter F at the To/From prompt. If you COPY FROM another dBASE III data base, then the information in ALL records in that data base will be appended to the data already in the current data base. Only field data whose - 65 - field names and type match exactly those of the current data base will be copied. Existing records in the current data base will not be deleted. If you COPY FROM a Standard Data Format file, its records are appended to the information, if any, which already exists in the current data base. Note that the current dBASE III file structure should be created first to match the format of the SDF file. If you don't understand this, obtain a good dBASE III Primer before attempting to use this option or the next one. If you COPY FROM a Delimited file, its records are appended to the information, if any, which already exists in the current data base. Note that the current dBASE III file structure should be created first to match the format of the delimited file. COPYING FROM a dBASE III Structure is WAMPUM's way of WAMPUM allowing you to modify the structure of the current data base and move the file contents to a new dBASE III file. To modify a file's structure, follow the steps outlined above to create and revise a new dBASE III structure file. Once completed, place the original dBASE III data base file back in use with F - File F - File Select. Then pick the COPY FROM option and specify option 2, a Select dBASE III Structure. Enter the name of the structure file as the external file. You then will be prompted to enter a name for a new dBASE III data base file to be built using the new structure _______________________ and the data from the data base file currently in use. Enter a _____________________________________________________ name of your choice and press <ENTER>. Once completed, place the new file in use and check the data to assure that it copied what you intended before deleting the old data base! Once you are _________________________________ certain that it looks the way it should, you should reindex the file following the instructions in the I - Index Select/Create I - Index Select/Create section of this User's Guide. You then can delete the original data base preferably after making a backup copy to a floppy. COPYING FROM an Audit Trail file is WAMPUM's way of allowing WAMPUM posting from a transaction file. To use this option requires version 2.9 or later of WAMPUM. In addition, the developer must WAMPUM have set the AUDIT TRAIL flag True for this application when the G - Config Update option was run. And, the audit flag must be set G - Config Update to False before posting to the master data base begins. Assuming the above conditions have been met, a file will exist in the default directory named AUDIT.DBF. This should be entered as the external file name or simply enter the drive designator indicating the drive location of the AUDIT files, e.g. C: or A: with a floppy. For the transaction posting to work, the current file and lead index must match the file and lead index designated when the audit trail file was created. Otherwise, an error message will be given indicating what the required file and index must be. If no error condition is present, then WAMPUM will post WAMPUM all information in the audit file to the current data base and will notify the user when this has been completed. Remember that _____________ the values in the lead index must be unique or the AUDIT file _____________________________________________________________ will be posted to the first matching key found in the index. Note ___________________________________________________________ also that this function is accessible only to users with the developer password. - 66 - 3.5 Deleting & Undeleting Groups of Records WAMPUM provides a means of marking a group of records as WAMPUM DELETED as well as a means of restoring a group of records which already have been marked for deletion. To use this function, you must start WAMPUM with the Developer Password! You also must WAMPUM have specified Record Selection Criteria, and there must be a _________________________ primary index which evaluates to a character expression. If any of these three prerequisites is missing, WAMPUM ignores the WAMPUM attempt to delete or undelete a group of records just as if the function did not exist. Once the above prerequisites have been satisfied, you should first run a sample listing using the List File _____ _________ Contents option in the S - Select Utilities. This will assure _________ S - Select Utilities _________ that you are working with the group of records desired. Next, pick the function desired: either M - Mark Records M - Mark Records *DEL* or U - UN*DEL* Records. When WAMPUM prompts for the entry *DEL* U - UN*DEL* Records WAMPUM to find, type an asterisk (*) and press <ENTER>. If the prerequisites in the first paragraph have been met, WAMPUM will WAMPUM ask if you really want to DELETE or RESTORE the selected group of records. Type Y if you want to proceed, or press <ESC> to abort. This function provides a quick way to mark a large group of records deleted once the same group of records has been archived to a different file. When the X - Rebuild/FileFix option is then X - Rebuild/FileFix run, the group of records is deleted permanently and cannot be restored with the U - UN*DEL* Records function. U - UN*DEL* Records function Note that this function requires an active Record Selection ________________ Criteria expression to avoid the possibility of marking every ________ record in a file as deleted. If you really want to delete all records in a file, use the following Record Selection Criteria: _________________________ RECNO() >= 1 RECNO() >= 1 This expression specifies ALL RECORDS in the file for WAMPUM. WAMPUM 3.6 Reserved Variables & Special Functions 3.6.1 Overview In addition to a number of reserved functions provided in the standard implementation of the dBASE III programming language, WAMPUM adds all Clipper enhancements plus some new _______ WAMPUM _______ functions of its own. This section is designed to bring you up to speed on these new functions and some of the major dBASE III commands and functions. It is by no means an exhaustive treatment of all dBASE III commands and functions. Consult any of the dBASE III reference books in your local bookstore for more information on the dBASE III commands and functions. - 67 - 3.6.2 LASTUPDT field in data bases If LASTUPDT is included as a Date-type field in any data base, WAMPUM will automatically post the current date to this WAMPUM field whenever a record is ADDed or EDITed in that data base. This provides a convenient method of determining when records were last updated with no user control over the field contents. 3.6.3 LASTTIME field in data bases If LASTTIME is included as a Character-type field in any LASTTIME data base, WAMPUM will automatically post the current time to WAMPUM this field whenever a record is ADDed or EDITed in that data base. This provides a convenient method of determining when records were last updated with no user control over the field contents. 3.6.4 DUPKEY("FIELDNAME") prevents duplicate keys When building the EDIT.DBF edit checks, many users expressed a desire to be able to test whether the key field of the record being added to a data base already existed and, if so, to return an error. This is critical if you will be using the AUDIT TRAIL _____________________________________________________ function. The DUPKEY function of WAMPUM provides this capability. __________ WAMPUM __________ In order to use it, the following conditions must be met. First, the key field to be checked must be indexed. Second, that index must be the primary (first) index in use when the file is ADDed to or EDITed. Finally, the name of the key field must be specified in parentheses and quotation marks as an edit check in the EDIT.DBF file. The syntax is shown in the following example using PARTNO as the name of the indexed key field which is to be checked: DUPKEY("PARTNO") DUPKEY("PARTNO") 3.6.5 FULLDATE(DATE()) outputs May 27, 1986 format In producing reports and labels, you can reformat a date field into a standard date character string using the WAMPUM WAMPUM function FULLDATE(). The syntax is FULLDATE(FILINGDT) assuming FULLDATE(FILINGDT) FILINGDT was a date field in your data base. If the filing date were 10/20/85, FULLDATE(FILINGDT) would output October 20, 1985. 3.6.6 DTOS(DATE()) outputs 19860527 string Clipper provides a date-to-string conversion function with _______ the DTOS() command. The syntax is DTOS(FILINGDT). Assuming a DTOS(FILINGDT) filing date of 10/10/85, DTOS(FILINGDT) would output the string - 68 - "19851010". This function is particularly helpful in building indexes where a date field is converted to a string, but the developer wishes to preserve the proper ordering of dates. 3.6.7 WEEKDAY(DATE()) rolls weekend over to Mon. In some applications, it may be desirable to roll a date over to Monday if it hits on a weekend. WAMPUM's WEEKDAY() WAMPUM function does this. Assuming a filing date of 06/14/86 hits on a Saturday, the expression WEEKDAY(FILINGDT) would return a date WEEKDAY(FILINGDT) expression with a value of 06/16/86 which is the following Monday. Note that this function could be combined with a previous one to produce a standard text date:FULLDATE(WEEKDAY(FILINGDT)). FULLDATE(WEEKDAY(FILINGDT)) 3.6.8 DATE() outputs today's date as 05/27/86 WAMPUM supports the dBASE III function for today's date WAMPUM which is DATE() as well as the reserved word TODAY which also is DATE() TODAY today's date in date format. 3.6.9 DTOC(DATE()) outputs date as 05/27/86 string The standard dBASE III means of converting a date to a character string is supported. DTOC(DATE()) would convert DTOC(DATE()) today's date to a character string in the format 06/12/86. 3.6.10 MEMOTRAN(fieldname) outputs MEMO fields MEMOTRAN(FieldName) is a Clipper function designed to assure _______ MEMOTRAN(FieldName) _______ that MEMO fields are output correctly in reports. See the discussion in the Reports section of this User's Guide. 3.6.11 EMPTY(fieldname) tests for empty fields EMPTY(FieldName) returns a logical True if a character, EMPTY(FieldName) memo, or date field is empty, or if a numeric field is 0, or if a logical field is False. Otherwise, a logical False is returned. 3.7 PATH considerations with WAMPUM Whenever WAMPUM is started, part of its initialization WAMPUM process includes reading the DOS PATH which then becomes WAMPUM's WAMPUM PATH as well. For this reason, developers need to be careful NOT to build WAMPUM applications in a directory which is part of the DOS PATH since all of the files in this directory then would be accessed by other WAMPUM applications. What should be stored in WAMPUM a directory supported by the DOS PATH command are the following files: WAMPUM.EXE, REPORT.EXE, LABEL.EXE, and the printer config - 69 - files such as HPLASERA.MEM, HPLASERB.MEM, and EPSON.MEM. This will make all of these files accessible to users in any WAMPUM WAMPUM subdirectory. The only exception to these guidelines might be in situations in which a related file and its index need to be shared with several different applications. In this case, just the related file and index should be placed in a directory supported by the DOS PATH command, NOT the configuration files for the WAMPUM application itself. If you don't understand this WAMPUM exception, don't use it. 3.8 WAMPUM System Errors WAMPUM System Errors are error conditions caused by one of WAMPUM three conditions: (1) a DOS-error is detected, (2) a Clipper _______ error is detected, or (3) the abort program key (ALT-C) is pressed by the user. In any of these three situations, a system error message appears on the top line of the screen followed by a prompt asking Quit, Abort, Ignore. What follows is a brief Q A I description of what to do in each of these error situations. DOS errors typically are caused by a hardware failure such as a bad hard disk, a missing floppy disk in Drive A, or an out of memory condition. With any DOS error, you should always ______ select the Quit option. This option gracefully closes all open Q data bases and indexes and assures that no permanent damage is done to your data. Abort should never be used since this forces A an immediate exit to DOS without closing any files. Ignore should I never be used except in the circumstance where you have forgotten to insert a floppy disk and you are attempting to execute a copy to Drive A. Clipper errors typically occur when WAMPUM encounters an _______ WAMPUM _______ illegal dBASE expression in a report or label form, in macro expressions or edit checks, or in a record selection specification. For example, if you entered LASTNAME=Jones as a LASTNAME=Jones record selection criteria without surrounding Jones in quotes, a system error would occur whenever you executed a report, label, form letter, or listing of the file. Unfortunately, the current version of the Clipper compiler provides no means for WAMPUM to _______ WAMPUM _______ test such expressions for validity before executing them. Once Clipper attempts to execute an invalid expression, a system error _______ occurs. You are generally safer executing the Quit option when Q these conditions occur. You then can revise the offending code and try again. In the case of invalid dBASE expressions, you usually can opt to Ignore the error so long as you understand I that the results of any output produced may be erroneous. There may be occasions when you want to cancel some WAMPUM WAMPUM session usually because a report listing is not producing the results desired and you do not want to waste 100 sheets of paper. You can always press ALT-C to cancel what you are doing. Then ALT-C select the Quit option to assure that all of your data bases are Q - 70 - closed gracefully. Do NOT press CTRL-ALT-DEL as a means of _______________________________________ terminating WAMPUM. This may result in damage to any data bases __________________ WAMPUM __________________ which are in use at the time. 3.9 Credits The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies: Clipper Nantucket, Inc. _______ dBASE, dBASE III, and dBASE III Plus Ashton-Tate LOTUS, 1-2-3, and Symphony LOTUS Development Co IBM, IBM PC, and IBM PC-AT IBM Corp HP LaserJet Hewlett Packard - 71 - 
