The main form of XFormDBF is a "dialog" style of window containing
4 tabbed pages and a series of command buttons across the bottom.
Currently the form is not resizable, but support for resizing is a planned
extension. The form's window title includes the name or description of the
current configuration. Note the little question mark symbol at the
upper right corner, indicating that this application supports "What's
This" help. You can also get to context-sensitive help by pressing
the F1 key at any point.
There are four tabbed pages available for setting up the parameters of a
transformation job. You can use XFormDBF to define a
configuration without immediately running it until a later time, or you can
return to a previous configuration and further refine, test, and run it,
possibly as a recurring batch job.
- Files Page
- Specifies the input and output tables to be processed in this
transformation.
- Fields Page
- Defines the field-by-field mappings to be used for constructing output
fields from expressions involving input fields and possibly also including
related code lookup tables.
- Options Page
- Contains parameters for defining initialization and termination steps that
can be used to set up and clean up lookup tables to be used in this
transformation. Also allows you to specify a template file used to
support the Clone command, plus miscellaneous other options.
- Config Page
- Deals with aspects of state-saving and restoration, including provisions
for specifying a configuration id, title, and description, plus related
commands. Note that some of the commands logically associated with the
Config page (Save, Restore, Switch
To..., and Abandon) have been moved into the
main form body for convenience.
The following command buttons at the bottom of the form can be used from any
page:
- Run
- Generates the output table from the input table using the currently
defined mappings for this configuration. One output record is
generated for each input record. All of the input records are
processed in the sequence they are displayed, but you can abort the run by
pressing the Escape key.
- Test
- Runs the transformation against the current input record only. Note
that the Test command uses an un-optimized
mode of processing in order to give you more detailed field-level
validation messages, for easier diagnosis and debugging. Since the
Test command applies only to the current input record, it is disabled unless
a record is currently selected in the input file grid.
- Lookup...
- Invokes an application-specific lookup table maintenance facility.
- Zap
- Deletes all records in the output table and packs it. A confirmation
dialog is used for this command.
- Exit
- Closes the form after saving its final configuration (unless the last
action produced an error). This is
equivalent to clicking on the form's window close box or any other
conventional window closing command. Use the Abandon
button instead of Exit if you want to preserve the previously saved
configuration instead of updating it.
- Save
- Saves the current form configuration (state).
- Restore
- Restores the last saved configuration (state) of this form.
- Switch To...
- Launches a dialog that allows you to selects a different configuration and switch to
it, or to define a new configuration.
- Abandon
- Exits from the form without saving its present configuration. This
is faster than Exit, and it preserves the last previously saved
configuration.
Copyright © 2000 - 2002, SpaceTime Systems