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1993-10-04
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Registration Manager
v 1.01
KickStart 2.0 or
higher required.
Shareware ($15)
Paul Mclachlan
Copyright ©1993
INTRODUCTION:
Registration Manager (or Rego, for short) is a small `address book'
program, which provides added support for program registrations,
ie: for shareware. This was, at least, it's original intention.
Of course, it is capable of much more than shareware registrations
- if you run any sort of club or magazine, in which people can
register to more than one item, then this program is for you. It
provides for multi-registrations - so when people register this
program to me (and you will... won't you?), as well as my other
major program, AII, then I don't have any major hassles putting
them in the database for both. Pretty clever, huh?
FEATURES:
Registration Manager keeps the following information about each
person in the database:
Name, Street Address, Suburb/City/Locale, State, Zip/PostCode,
Phone Number, Country, an optional comment line, and of course,
the items that they've registered to.
It supports searching, and this is done through AmigaDOS pattern
matching (power in a system you already know how to use) - and it
can search Name, phone Number and registered items. If according
to the pattern that you specify, there is more than one person who
fits the bill, you can single step through them all easily.
DOCUMENTATION OF FEATURES:
OK, now we're into the nitty gritty. This is intended as a
reference, not as something to read all through. First I have a
real quick list of some features that are not immediately apparent,
and then an indepth explanation of everything in the program.
KEYS:
There are several keyboard shortcuts that allow you to do
things within the program quickly without reaching for that
pesky mouse (always hated the thing anyway... mine doesn't work
too well...)
HELP - Hit the help key for a list of all the other
keys that work in the program.
ARROWS - Use the arrow keys to step through the records.
If you hold down SHIFT and hit an arrow you
will go to the beginning or end of the records.
Left & Up go towards the beginning, while Down
& Right go towards the end.
ESCAPE - Same as the close gadget: saves and quits.
DELETE - I mean the little KeyPad one, on the `.', I
don't like the other one (next to help) since
it's too close to HELP, and some people might
hit it by accident. Deletes the current
record. (Same as gadget)
INSERT - On the keypad too, on the `0' key, its marked.
Adds a new record to the database.
TAB - Activates the Name gadget to write into. I
HATE using the mouse to activate a string
gadget so I can go back to the keyboard again -
so here is a shortcut. Using SHIFT with this
key will activate the little gadget under the
registration manager listview. This is the
only gadget that cannot be activated by
starting on one and <RETURN>ing your way
through.
Gee... that wasn't very concise, was it? Oh well... sorry.
You sorta need to know those keys but (especially the arrows..
there isn't another way to do that in the program). Wow...
here I am writing these docs, and I've got the program running
in the background (so I don't miss anything)... anyway.. for
those keys above I was looking at the help screen (again - so I
didn't miss any - It's not because I don't know how to use my
own programs, Chris...).. anyway, I then went on to start the
next section of the docs, and clicked the little help window
close gadget... nothing happened. Program worked fine in the
background... I've just got this help window sitting on my
WorkBench screen... you're lucky I found that one.. that would
have been annoying :)
OK.. onto the proper sections of the program.
THE MAIN WINDOW
Lets start with the control gadgets:
NEW:
Quite predictably, makes a bit of memory, and frees
everything up for you to enter a new person into the
database.
DELETE:
Use this one with care. This deletes the current
person (the one that you're looking ats name and
everything).
SEARCH:
This brings up the Search Window. We'll check it out a
few pages down.
WRITE:
Writes the database to disk "S:RegoData". This file is
also loaded every time the program is started up. You
don't need to click this every time before you quit the
program, as quitting the program (via the close gadget)
will automatically save the database.
The big box with `Registered' written above it is a ListView
gadget. This listview gadget contains all the programs or
items that the current person is registered to. The use of
the listview is as follows:
To add a new item to the listview gadget, simply click (or
SHIFT-TAB) into the string gadget below the listview, and
type in the name of the item to add, and hit return.
To modify or change an item in the listview gadget, click
on its name, and modify its name in the string gadget
below, then hit return.
To delete an item in the listview, click on its name, and
then, in the string gadget below, delete the name, and hit
return. This deletion can be quickly accomplished by
putting the cursor at the end of the string, and hitting
SHIFT-BACKSPACE.
The other string gadgets `scattered' around the window contain
information about the user. Entering this information is as
easy as any string gadget. Simply click on the gadget and
change it. If you hit TAB, then you will be taken to the Name
gadget, and then when you hit return you will be taken down
through the other gadgets, allowing you to easily enter new
records (without reaching for that mouse again).
A few notes on these. The `Locale' is intended as a generic
for a City/Suburb or whatever. Here in Australia, we call
them suburbs, but I know that in America they are called `City'
and so I have opted for the general. In order to present an
example that I believe no-one in the world wouldn't know about,
"Beverly Hills" is a locale, although so could "LA" be a
locale, depending on your preference, large or small scale.
For an example closer to home, "Blakehurst" is a suburb, on the
small scale of Locale, while "Sydney" is a city, on the larger
scale. Aww... who cares. Do whatever you want here.
The same on `Zip'. We call them Post Codes here, but the
Americans call it a Zip Code. Besides, Post Code didn't fit,
and Zip did :) (Try 90120 for an example... one guess where
that's from :)
Of course, it doesn't matter to me or the program how you use
these gadgets. They are all just strings as far as the program
is concerned. If you want, replace Phone with company, for
instance, and put the phone number somewhere else. Then you
can search for people depending on what company they work for.
Alternatively, you might put the company they work for in the
listview, allow people to work for multiple companies (??).
THE SEARCH WINDOW:
In the search window is a cycle gadget, a string gadget and a
little button to begin the search.
The Cycle gadget determines which field to search. It can be
Name, Phone number, or an item in the registration list. I
suppose I should also include a search through the `Comment'...
oh well.. see the next version.
The string gadget "Search String" is the string to search for.
It uses AmigaDOS searching patterns. So if you want a name
that contains "Paul" then specify "#?Paul#?" in the search
string. The you'll get the first person who has the string
Paul in his/her name. It allows for much more complicated
searches than would normally be possible under a straight
keyword.
The begin search button finds the *next* record that fits the
pattern specified. If there are multiple records that fit the
pattern, you can jump through them all by repeatedly clicking
this button.
Umm, say I search for all registered users of `Rego', then I
put `Rego' in the search string, click the cycle gadget through
to `Registration', and click begin search. The first
registered user will appear. Now I can modify that user
however I want (leaving the search window there - if I want),
and when I'm ready to find the next guy who's registered, then
I can click Begin Search again. When I've gone around all the
people who've registered it will just wrap around them and
start again.
If you click Begin search and nothing happens, this is because:
i) The user currently displayed is the one and only user
that fits the pattern.
ii) There are no users that fit the pattern.
Fun huh?
AFTERWORD:
Have you noticed that I've finished all the features in this
program? Hmmm...
OK - This program IS shareware, which means that I want to be paid
for spending all my time making it work. Sure, I'm gonna use it,
but it wouldn't be this good if it was just for me. (I'll show you
some of the programs I've written just for me, if you want :)
So, send $15 to me at this address (please?):
Paul Mclachlan
60 Hatfield street
Blakehurst, 2221
AUSTRALIA
If you live in Australia, send me Australian Dollars - otherwise,
send American (I believe that these are the easiest to come across
- and easy for me to cash as well).
Alternatively, just send me a disk with some cool programs you've
written on it (with source if you can fit it) - and we'll call it a
swap.
If you want the source to this program - then this can be
organised.. write to me and tell me why you want it and I'll send
you out a copy (unless your reason is REALLY lame :) Umm, if you
do this you'd better register + about $3 extra for the disk to send
to you, and also the postage. I'll also pack the disk full of
anything else I've written (no extra weight - might as well send it
across), etc etc.
FOR THOSE NOT IN THE KNOW:
These stupid little :)'s is a grin. Its a way of representing a
well, smile that you would use in conversation. Quite a trend
throughout the modem world - but anyway.
SUPPORT:
If you've registered (or registering) and you find a bug, send me
out everything you can think of about the bug (including what sort
of system you're running on), and I'll fix it. If you haven't
registered, send it anyway, but if its too hard to understand what
the problem is I probably won't spend too much time trying to work
it out.
Umm.. you can also call my board to get the latest version or
whatever, on:
Intl-61-2-5430572
All 2400->14.4k speeds, 24 hours, etc etc.
FUTURE:
In the future, I'd really like to put in automatic sorting of the
users in the database. This was going to be in this version but it
really stuffed up well, so I thought it was better to release this
now, then making you wait 6 months for the version with very little
different. I've got to do my final exams in about 3 months, and so
will be doing less than zero programming. If any of you people out
there have any wonderful ideas for the improvement of this program,
feel free to send them in to me. I'm always looking for ways to
improve any of my programs.
FINALLY:
Registration Manager facts:
Source Code Size: 66575
Executable Size: 22112
Documentation Size: 14773
Total Size of Distribution: 37851
This program was created with the help of:
(Listed from least use to most)
Iff2Src by J.Tyberghein.
GadToolsBox by Jan ven den Baard
Cygnus Editor release 2
SAS/C v6.3
Everyone's favourite computer
Apart from the source generated by Iff2Src, GadToolsBox, the Amiga
Includes and the linked code from the standard Amiga libraries,
this code is entirely my own work and is copyrighted as such.