Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr54/lg102.zip/READ.ME

Text File | 1993-06-03 | 12KB | 228 lines

Date: 11-14-90
Time: 4:15 pm

from the desk of Lonnie J. Rolland

From the folks who brought you Logger3, that pop up and non pop up
information collector, comes LoggerG where the 'G' stands for generic.
We went and did something nice. We called up some folks who were pleased
with the idea of Logger and were trying it out. We asked them, if the
logger could do something different, what would you have it do. This
question caught them off guard. But they recovered quick enough.
Then they came back with answers like:

 "The names on the fields don't quite fit what I had in mind. But I'm
  going to try to use it anyway."

Well don't settle for something that 'kind of' fits your needs.
Get the new improved LoggerG where the labels on the fields are what
'you' want them to be.

( Well, I think I've been watching too much late night tv.)


LG (a.k.a. LoggerG or logger generic) has a ascii text file which is
read when the executable is ran. The contents of the small text file
configures the field names. There are twenty fields in the upper part
of the record. Fifteen of the twenty field descriptions are under your
control. The top line you can't mess with. The labels on the next 8 lines
you can change. The top line has the start date/time, stop date/time
and the cumulative elapsed time. The labels on the next lines typically
ask for name, address and phone number stuff. You can choose the field
names that will appear there. But the names you choose do have a word
length constraint. The working example supplied with LG / LGNP might
suit your particular needs. Here it is below:


|-------  ------------ MY NICE LITTLE LOGGER ver 1.02 -------------------------|
| Start: ../../..  /  ..:..  Stop: ../../..  /  ..:..  ET: ..:..   Time: ..:.. |
| File No: ..........  File Desc: ...............................  By: ....... |
| Contact: ................................................................... |
| Company: ................................................................... |
| Address: ................................................................... |
| City: ..................  State: ..........  Country: ......  Zip: ......... |
| Work Ph: ................  Home Ph: ...............  Fax Ph: ............... |
| Action: .................................................................... |
| Resolution: ................................................................ |
|---------------------------< MEMO FIELD >-------------------------------------|


The top line in the ascii text file is attached to the top of the log.
Put your company or work group name there. The second line in the text
file currently has 'File No: ', which is a nine character string. The
number nine is important. You can put in any nine ( or less ) character
string you wish in its place. If you supply it with a string which is
bigger, it'll only use the first nine characters. Now lets break away
from these details and back up a moment.


LoggerG is fully functional, non-crippled information logging program.

It uses a DBase III+ compatable .dbf and .dbt

*********************************************************************
***                    ATTENTION USERS                            ***
*** LG can run on a network with full record/file locking,        ***
*** therefore when you do so you MUST run dos's SHARE program     ***
*** first before the logger or it'll keep popping up error        ***
*** messages at you and not save your input.                      ***
***                                                               ***
*** The locking is done with netbios calls. Therefore you have    ***
*** to be running DOS version 3.1 or later.                       ***
***                                                               ***
*** It'll still work fine if you don't have a network too.        ***
***                                                               ***
*** By default logger doesn't need share and will not do locking. ***
*** You turn that mode of operation 'ON' with the one and only    ***
*** command line switch logger uses, '/n'.                        ***
***                                                               ***
*** You MUST have an environment variable called 'netdrive'.      ***
*** The variable tells logger what drive/sub-directory the data   ***
*** will be sitting on.                                           ***
*** An example would be 'set netdrive=C:\your-subdir\'.           ***
*********************************************************************


Install and remove the program from your hard disk with the batch
files MAKE_LG and REMO_LG.

To use the program, envoke it with the batch file called LOGGER. It will
change directory, setup some environment variables, and then envoke logger.
Logger now auto-detects whether its running on a mono or color system.

The logger program, when envoked, needs about 114k bytes of ram.
The file 'LG.EXE' is the tsr version of the program. It's a nice, small
6K byte pop up tsr that uses swapping technology. The hot key to pop it
up is "CTRL" + "ALT" + "A". Note you have to hold all 3 keys down at the
same time. The file 'LGNP2.EXE' is the non resident ( pass through )
version of the program. Both programs look and function exactly alike.
The file 'L3GBLK.ZIP' is a set of empty .dbf/.dbt files. The file
'L3GABC.ZIP' is a set of test data .dbf/.dbt's files.

Logger does NOT have a delete function. I left that function out on
purpose. Call me up and complain. I can be pursuaded. Delete and pack
the .dbf and .dbt files offline with dbase.

A note about 'Orphaned Memos'.
They will happen within the .dbt file when you: 1) delete and pack out
the .dbf that points to the memo, 2) edit an existing memo and make it grow
larger in size than it originally was (512 to 1024, 1024 to 1536...etc).

The structure for L3G.DBF is:
Field  Field Name  Type       Width    Dec
    1  FN01        Character     10           { file no.   /9}
    2  FN02        Character     31           { file desc  /11}
    3  FN03        Character     67           { contact    /9}
    4  FN04        Character     67           { company    /9}
    5  FN05        Character     67           { address    /9}
    6  FN06        Character     18           { city       /6}
    7  FN07        Character     10           { state      /7}
    8  FN08        Character      6           { country    /9}
    9  FN09        Character      9           { zip        /5}
   10  FN10        Character     16           { work ph    /9}
   11  FN11        Character     15           { home ph    /9}
   12  FN12        Character     15           { fax ph     /8}
   13  FN13        Character     68           { action     /8}
   14  FN14        Character     64           { resolution /12}
   15  FN15        Character      7           { by         /4}
   16  STARTDATE   Character      8
   17  STARTTIME   Character      5
   18  STOPDATE    Character      8
   19  STOPTIME    Character      5
   20  ELAPSETIME  Character      5
   21  MEMOFLD     Memo          10
** Total **                     512

Logger has got timer, find, browse and does date/time stamping.
Logger will now also send the currently displayed record to the
printer too. If you are within the find or browse function, you
press the (O) key to send the record information out to the printer.
If you are within the edit function, (and not in the memo pad area)
you press the (ctrl-O) key instead.

The timer (T) command starts an entry. The find (F) command is nice.
It works on the first four fields of the record. Which for our example
would be: 1) file no. 2) file desc 3) contact and 4) company.
The search order is from the last record to the first record. It will
find embedded strings anywhere within the target string and is case
insensitive. The browse (B) command uses the keypad keys. It uses the
up, down, PgUp, PgDn, home, and end key. Browse will remember where
you were browsing at last. You may start the timer then escape out of
the entry to do a browse or find (or go to dos for the tsr version) and
then return back to your started timer entry. If you elect to edit a
record from the find or browse mode, you do so by pressing 'enter' to
select a record. When you have finish your editting, logger will ask
you if you want to (maintainence mode) re-write the record back to
where it came from OR (add mode) append the record as a new one to
the end of the DBF.

The memo pad portion saves only what it needs to save, from a 512
byte minimum, to a 4096 byte maximum size. The full screen editor
understands wordstar style key strokes and it does automatic
word-wrap at end of lines also!


Logger was written by me with toolboxes from Max Software Consultants
at 301/828-5935 for handling the dbase structures and Turbo Power at
408/438-8608 for tsr/swapping/string/memo handling.

Logger does take advantage of two environment variables called:
1) NETNAME and 2) NETDRIVE. The netname variable gets plugged auto-
matically into the originator (BY:) field. The netdrive variable tells
logger the disk drive and subdirectory where your data files are sitting.
Please note you DO need to use the two environment variables. They
are there to make your life (and my life) easier.

At where I work, we run Artisoft's Lantastic AI Netbios/NOS on Western
Digital ethernet cards. We have our data sitting on the server in
'K:\LOGGER3\L3G.DBF'. I have my neton batch file setting up the
environment variables as:
'set netdrive=K:\LOGGER3\'
'set netname=LONNIE'
You (for instance) could load your data in 'C:\BILLABLES\'.

Note you may need to expand your environment size beyond the default
160 bytes by placing the following in your config.sys file.
'shell c:\command.com c:\ /e:256 /p'


I will not be held responsible for your data loss or your hardware
acting up. I am a Senior Tech Support Engineer. I created this program to
maintain our customer database (here) at work.


* * * * KNOWN BUG LIST: * * * *
( I thought that would get your attention. )

1) You will get a toolbox '540' error if you are running in the network
   mode and share is not loaded and resident.

2) You will get a dos error '2' when logger fails to find and open the
   data files. Your netdrive variable is not letting logger find them.

3) If the printer is not available or on-line, logger properly detects
   that its off-line. Logger will not post a "PRINTER OFF-LINE" message
   but instead will completely ignore the printer's absence and go on
   with its business.

4) If there is no LIM 4.0 / EMS ram available, the tsr version of logger
   will make a 'SWAP' file to the root directory of the 'C:' drive only.
   But fear not. When you release the tsr, it removes the swap file.
   If you kill power and not release the tsr first, when you next power
   up, the swap file will still be there. Note the swap file's attribute
   makes it hidden from view.


I want your feedback! Call my company BBS and drop me a note.
It's number is [phone]. If you were using Logger3, please note
we moved to a new building and I had to (UGGH!) get a new bbs phone
number.

<relax & enjoy>


dBASE and dBASE III are registered trademarks of Ashton Tate, Inc.

(c) Copyright 1990, Lonnie J. Rolland, Symbol/MSI, Costa Mesa, CA.