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1997-08-19
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This is part of the official documentation for MaxBase V 1.08
An HTML version of this document (with *much* more
information) is available on a separate zip package.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"
Many thanks to Giuseppe Aprile for his great .dbf <---> .dat conversion
utilities. Also thanks to all the testers who have helped me while I
was (but I still am and will be!) developing MaxBase.
Thanks saCUL, Penny and all the others!
Index:
1 .. What Is MaxBase?
2 .. Shortcuts
3 .. Legal Stuff
4 .. Frequently Asked Questions:
- How can I move the buttons in the panels from bottom to top?
- How can I avoid users messing up with my db?
- How can I translate MaxBase to my language?
- I have heard that I can print and view images. How do I?
- How much can I customize it? Can I have two languages at once?
- How can I reduce memory footprint for MaxBase?
- Why do I get an empty archive when importing from DBF files?
1 What is MaxBase?
------------------
MaxBase is a graphical tool that allows you to manage your
databases, both as a database administrator (working with DBs structure),
and as a user. Of course the db created with MaxBase are compatible with
the RXDbase class, and vice versa, since MaxBase is only a front end
to the RXDbase APIs.
At the moment, nearly all of the RXDbase features are implemented.
Notice: Sportello, the net-aware application (similar to MaxBase, but
network-oriented) has the same capabilities as MaxBase, only lacks the
functions that allow to manage the db structure and login/logout.
A third GUI based DB tool is SpApplet, the Applet version of MaxBase.
From there, you can browse or populate the archive.
2 Shortcuts:
------------
The following keyboard shortcuts are active in the list which presents
the records:
.) When presented with more than one entry field (eg. when entering
records data), use the keys PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN to move from
one line to the previous or the next. CTRL+PAGE DOWN, CTRL+PAGE UP
move one page forward or backward (when 6 or more fields are present).
.) double-clicking on an item brings you directly into the 'modify record'
layout.
.) Selecting a record and then selecting another one, while pressing
the shift key selects also all the records between the first and the
last that have been clicked.
.) The CTRL+END key is used as a shortcut for "store" when adding or
modifying records, "set filter" when setting filters.
Similarly, CTRL+HOME aborts the very same operations (much like hitting
"cancel" or equivalent)
.) The CTRL+A keys bring you directly into the 'add record'
layout.
.) The CTRL+B keys blank a field with a single
keystroke.
.) The CTRL+C keys, when used during record adding or modifying,
copy the record which was last stored into disk into the
current fields. Warning: this way only up to four fields will be
filled. In fact, CTRL+C fills all the fields visible for that
page except for the one field you're in. Useful when you have
to enter a batch of records which differ only for a field.
ALT+C copies ALL of the fields for the page you're in (including
the one the cursor is on). [See also CTRL+V]
.) The CTRL+D keys bring you directly into the 'delete records'
layout.
.) The CTRL+F keys bring you directly into the 'filter'
layout.
.) The CTRL+O keys bring you directly into the 'order'
layout.
.) The CTRL+V keys act like CTRL+C, but only copy the values for
the field you're in.
Also, you can select which of the standard MaxBase's functions are to be
activated upon MaxBase startup. If MaxBase finds a file called maxbase.mnu
then it reads all the strings in it, and labels buttons and text bits
after those strings. If a button string is set to '-' (the dash character,
without the single-quotes), then that button is disabled. If maxbase.mnu
doesn't exist, then the default strings will be used.
NOTE: maxbase.mnu files for Unix and Mac (\n and \r line-terminated)
are stored in maxbase.*.unix and maxbase.*.mac where * = a language
(eg eng = english or ita = italian).
Just copy one of them into maxbase.mnu.
NOTE-2: All the messages and buttons presented to the user are configurable
through the customization of maxbase.mnu ASCII file, and that means also
that you can _translate_ maxbase from english to other languages (as
examples I've put in this package the english and the italian translations;
if you translated MaxBase into another language let me know!).
From RXDbase 0.90 on, I started using Taligent's widgets. You can browse your
data with the vertical and horizontal scrollbars, and you can also resize
the columns width by dragging the column separator in the maint caption for
that column.
MaxBase can be given a parameter in the command line: the name of the
database to log in to at startup (trailing .dat extension NEEDED).
E.g.: 'java MaxBase imgs.dat' or (OS/2's 1.0.1 Java) 'javapm MaxBase imgs.dat'
You can expand MaxBase functionalities through the use of plug-ins. Refer to
the plugins packages for more details.
The printing functions are provided as a plugin, and must be extracted
from the plugin.zip (macplug.zip, unixplug.zip) package.
(The plugin.ini file gets read *in the current directory* if it's present)
3 Legal Stuff
-------------
See license.txt for details.
MaxBase is (c) Max Marsiglietti 1996, 97.
4 Frequently Asked Questions
----------------------------
Q) How can I move the buttons in the panels from bottom to top?
A) Settings for placements of buttons:
maxbase.mnu, 2nd line reads "South". Change it to North, East, West to see
what is the best for you. (North and South are the two that work well now).
Q) How can I avoid users messing up with my db?
A) If you want to customize MaxBase, remember that if you put a dash ("-"
without the quotes) on a button label in the maxbase.mnu text file, that
button will be disabled (useful if you want to put the db in a computer
on a fair or on a show room, or avoid your cousins/sons/etc hacking it).
NOTE: maxbase.mnu files for Unix and Mac (\n and \r line-terminated)
are stored in maxbase.*.unix and maxbase.*.mac where * = a language
(eg eng = english or ita = italian).
Just copy one of them into maxbase.mnu.
Q) How can I translate MaxBase to my language?
A) maxbase.eng and maxbase.ita can be copied/renamed to maxbase.mnu;
eg if you 'copy maxbase.ita maxbase.mnu' you'll see all the text strings
turning suddendly into italian words (yes I am italian). To create a new
language just copy maxbase.eng into, as an example, maxbase.de and translate
all the text that's there in German. Copy maxbase.de into maxbase.mnu and
your menus, labels, buttons, everything will show up in German.
Don't forget to send me a copy of your maxbase.mylanguage, so I can include
it in newer releases!
Q) I have heard that I can print and view images. How do I?
A) unzip plugins.zip (or macplug.zip or unixplug.zip)
and you'll find two new buttons in the main panel after a DB has
been loaded: view text/image and print.
View text/image works only with dbs which have the words
"image" and/or "text" in some field's name, and show an applet which
sports the image for that record (field with IMAGE in its name) along
with the text for that record (field with TEXT in its name).
Printing is a bit easier, because you basically select some records,
push the "print records" button. A new application will then pop up
and allow you to customize the command to send to the printer in order
to print the "printme.txt" file which has been generated and there are also
some options to control the appearance of the fields which are being printed.
Q) How much can I customize it? Can I have two languages at once?
A) MaxBase looks for plugins and .mnu files in the directory where it is
launched, so you must pay attention to that (also, the position/size of the
window and fonts/colo(u)rs get saved in that directory). You can use this
info to make it work for you: call 'java MaxBase' from the directory where
you did put a database plus its own plugins and .mnu and .ini files and you
will have a database customized with those settings (.mnu, plugins, .inis).
More in detail:
plugin.ini -- 2 lines each plugin:
the 1st is the text to show in the button,
the 2nd is the command to issue when the button is pushed.
maxbase.ini -- position, size of the window, number of records to be loaded
at once, active query, index last used, information on fonts
and colors.
maxbase.mnu -- menus, labels, buttons, messages, etc.(*)
(*) If maxbase.mnu can't be found, MaxBase proceeds with the default
action: english language, all buttons enabled.
Q) How can I reduce memory footprint for MaxBase?
A) Well, I have spent a lot of time trying to optimize it.
Whenever you enter one of the principal panels (Main Panel,
Records Panel, Tools Panel) MaxBase makes the garbage
collection mechanism turn on.
As a net result, if you're experiencing memory hogging, try
to switch panels and you should recover at least some of
your RAM. If the above doesn't work, add as a last parameter
-gc:0 to MaxBase (works also with Sportello); if neither this
helps please contact the author.
-gc:0 simply prevents those garbage collections to be kicked in,
and so it can be useful also for those VM which have GC bugs.
Q) Why do I get an empty archive when importing from DBF files?
A) Records stored in DB III files are marked as 'deleted' when
they have a '*' character somewhere (the exact location isn't
important to our discussion); I have seen that at least in one
case ALL of the records which were imported from another
database did sport that '*' character, effectively fooling our
DBF import routines (as a side note, also Object Desktop pro DBF
filter was fooled the same way), and this is probably a problem on
the export routines in certain databases.
So, the workaround is to provide the -sdr:0 (it means Skip Deleted
Records = 0) parameter to MaxBase prior to launching it.
Warning: this way all the records marked as deleted will be imported
as well, and in many circumstances you don't want this to happen
(because you could have many records which you don't see with other
databases for they're deleted, but they still are phisically present,
and that's why this option has been defaulted to skip deleted records).
After having imported an archive with the -sdr:0 switch you may
have to manually delete unwanted records with MaxBase (just select
the records to be deleted and press CTRL+D, or choose 'delete' from
the 'data..' panel).
Sayonara!