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MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ HOW TO DISPLAY TIME DATA TYPE IN DIFFERENT FORMATS DATE : 05/86 NUMBER : EX-5-1 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : FORMATS SUBCATEGORY : TIME DATA TYPE ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: How can I display or enter data into a TIME type column or variable in military format or without the seconds? EXPLANATION: Time type variables and columns can be displayed or entered in any of the following four formats: o am/pm format with seconds by using a location/display width of 9 o am/pm format without seconds by using a location/display width of 6 o military format with seconds by using a location/display width of 8 o military format without seconds by using a location/display width of 5 or 7. For example, 6:35pm can be entered as 6:35p or 18:35:00 and displayed as: o 6:35:00p o 6:35p o 18:35:00 o 18:35 If you are entering 6:35p, remember to include the p (for pm) or the value entered will be assumed to be 6:35 am. SOLUTION: When entering data, use any of the four formats. To display data in a certain format, set the width of the output by using the location width (including the S and the E) in your report or form. Or you can use the =w option available in the SHOW VARIABLE and SELECT commands. For example, if you want to select the time columns START and STOP and display them in am/pm format without seconds, use the following command: SELECT START=6 STOP=6 FROM tblname If START and STOP are variables, use the following commands to display their values in military format without seconds: SHOW VAR START=5 SHOW VAR STOP=5 It does not matter how the data was originally entered because these are display formats. The data is not actually changed in any way. Use the following table as a general guide: WIDTH TWO SAMPLE DISPLAYS ---- -------------------- 5 12:16 18:35 6 12:16p 6:35p 7 12:16 18:35 8 12:16:10 18:35:45 9 12:16:10p 6:35:45p Note that the displays for widths of five or seven are the same. MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ USING VARIABLE FORMS AS HELP SCREENS IN APPLICATIONS DATE : 05/86 NUMBER : EX-5-2 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : VARFORMS SUBCATEGORY : HELP SCREENS ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: I have discovered that I can draw as many variable forms as I want to, without having to issue a NEWPAGE, if I do not locate any variables in them as long as I check for an error code of 616 and redraw the form if it is found. In other words, if I meet these two conditions, I do not have to do a NEWPAGE after five DRAW commands. How can I make use of this undocumented feature? EXPLANATION: Tim Smith, a registered R:BASE consultant, explains his use for this feature below. One of the subtle areas of power most R:BASE users may not know about is the ability to use informational text-only variable forms as a help box to remind casual users of an application of the choices they have. There are three basic methods that can be used to make and use text-only help boxes (screens): o Use physical DOS text files that you TYPE or DISPLAY. o Use help screens created by Application EXPRESS. o Use WRITE statements to write the help on the screen. o Use text-only variable forms. We have found that the use of physical DOS text files to store help screens is slow, limited, and can clutter your disk with a number of small files. Additionally, it is difficult to EDIT the help screens created by Application EXPRESS because the application has been compiled. If you use WRITE statements then you also must go into your application itself and change the code whenever you want to revise your help information. This makes updates to an application difficult. Text-only variable forms can be drawn anywhere, up and down the screen, as many times as you like, as long as you draw the screen twice when encountering a 616 error code. If the need arises to change the help screen, all you need to do is update the forms table and send a disk to the customer with an RBASE.DAT file that automatically updates their FORMS table. An application using several FILLIN commands will run fastest by using consecutive WRITE commands to draw your help screens. However it may be difficult and time consuming to modify. Text-only variable forms are the next fastest method because by using variable forms you never have to find and open a DOS file. Because text-only variable forms are the easiest to modify, we use them extensively in our applications. SOLUTION: Here, Tim describes the text-only variable forms method and gives an example. Making the Variable Form Help Box Create a variable form with the text information you want. It is best to keep help boxes short and simple. Six lines or less is best. Make sure to put a border around it. The border is necessary if you want to create a blank box to blank out your help box. The blankout form will not work unless there are characters on the righthand border of the form. When you QUIT and SAVE the form you have just created, you may get an error message warning you that no variables are located; just ignore it. Save the form with a context sensitive name such as TRANCODE if the transaction codes for a general ledger are what is stored in the form. Using the Variable Form Help Box To use the variable form, DRAW it onto the top or the bottom of the screen. This way the user has a continual reminder of appropriate reactions to the FILLIN prompts and the application developer can control the location, content, and timing. Also, the help boxes can be drawn over each other or a blanking box can be drawn on top of them to make them go away. Your application will run faster, be more manageable (because of fewer files), be easier to modify, and will take up less storage (because of DOS minimum file size). The example below relates a common usage. Exercise Create a variable form TRANCODE that looks like the sample help box below Sample help box: _______________________ | NCR Trancodes | | ------------- | | 1. Cash | | 2. Charge | | 3. Layaway | | 4. Paidout | |______________________| Now, make a second variable form that has blank lines in it by issuing the following commands: PROJECT TEMP FROM FORMS USING ALL WHERE FNAME EQ TRANCODE CHANGE FNAME TO BLANKBOX IN TEMP WHERE FNAME EQ TRANCODE APPEND TEMP TO FORMS REMOVE TEMP FORMS BLANKBOX At this point, press E to edit the form and the BLANKBOX form will come up on the screen ready for you to edit it. Leave the box outline marks and space over the letters inside the box to create a blank box. Save the form and you have your blank box. TEST.CMD, the command file listed below, is an example of how to implement this concept. This particular example is set up to run through the WHILE loop eight times. The eight was simply chosen to demonstrate the concepts involved. You will want to modify the code to better reflect your actual situation. *( TEST.CMD shows the value of being able to DRAW a text-only variable form in an R:BASE 5000 command File.) SET MESS OFF SET ERR MESS OFF SET ERR VAR CHECKIT SET V vwhile TO 8 WHILE vwhile GT 0 THEN *(Draw the HELP BOX and if it fails then DRAW it again) DRAW TRANCODE AT 1 IF CHECKIT = 616 THEN DRAW TRANCODE AT 1 ENDIF FILLIN vaction USING " " AT 19,25 *(Now blank out the HELP BOX area) DRAW BLANKBOX AT 1 IF CHECKIT = 616 THEN DRAW BLANKBOX AT 1 ENDIF SET v vwhile TO .vwhile - 1 ENDWHILE The IF blocks are necessary because if this is the sixth DRAW the DRAW will fail and the error variable CHECKIT will have a value of 616. But because the buffer is cleared when the error is encountered all you need to do is redraw the form to start counting over again. These help boxes can be used in a variety of applications. Anyone who uses the FILLIN command to have the user pick from a number of valid choices can make use of this feature. MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ OUTPUTTING TO VARIOUS OUTPUT DEVICES DATE : 05/86 NUMBER : EX-5-3 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : REPORTS SUBCATEGORY : OUTPUT/DEVICES ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: How can I output reports and other types of output to different printers or other output devices such as modems? SOLUTION: Use the OUTPUT command to specify the correct device name. For example, the following code will send the report NAMES to the printer attached to the LPT1 port and send the DOLLARS report to the printer attached to the COM1 port: OUTPUT LPT1 *( Notice no colon ) PRINT NAMES OUTPUT COM1 PRINT DOLLARS OUTPUT SCREEN This works because of a feature of DOS. R:BASE creates a file with the same name as the output device and whenever DOS finds a filename that is the same as the name of the device, DOS sends the contents of the file to the device. To DOS the filename and device are the same thing. MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ R:BASE 5000 WITH THE HP LASERJET DATE : 05/86 NUMBER : EX-5-4 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : PRINTERS SUBCATEGORY : HP LASERJET ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: R:BASE 5000 interfaces with the HP Laserjet printer just as it does with any other printer that works with DOS. However, there are a few differences in terms of set-up and operation of the printer. EXPLANATION: The Laserjet interfaces with the serial port on the computer. Most dot matrix printers use the parallel port. Therefore, the following two commands must be executed at the DOS level, usually in an AUTOEXEC.BAT file: MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P MODE LPT1:=COM1 These commands redirect the output to the serial port instead of the parallel port. Without these mode settings, if you try to output to the printer, it will go to the parallel port. If you don't have a printer hooked into your parallel port, the computer will hang. Escape sequences function much the same as with other printers. The Laserjet stores some fonts in memory, but others are stored in replaceable cartridges. Only the fonts in the currently installed cartridge or in memory are supported. The Laserjet often does not appear to print the last page of a report. This is due to the fact that it stores each page of data in its memory before it prints it. Whenever the "form feed" light is on, it indicates that there is data in the printer's memory. If the memory contains less than a page of data, it will not print that data until the page fills up or it is sent a page eject. There are several ways to force the last page of a report to print as indicated in the solution section. SOLUTION: Try the following suggestions to get the contents of the printer memory buffer to print: o Turn the printer offline by pressing the "online" key so that the light on that key is off, and then press the "form feed" key. When there is no longer any data in the printer's memory buffer, the light above the "form feed" key will go off. Make sure to press the "online" key to put the printer back online in order to do more printing. o At the R>, if the output is still directed to the printer, type "newpage". This sends a page eject to the printer and causes it to print the data in the buffer. o Specify a page eject after the report footer. If you don't have a report footer in your report, simply mark a blank line as report footer - it won't affect the appearance of the report. o Define a report variable as a page eject and locate it in the report footing. A common misconception is that Laserjet escape codes are too long for R:BASE report variables, which have a maximum length of 30 characters. The only time that this should be a problem is if the escape codes are concatenated. The Laserjet will allow several escape codes to be concatenated together into one long escape code. Instead of concatenating, define each escape code as a separate report variable. Make sure that the report variables are located in the correct order because the Laserjet will perform the escape sequences in the order in which they are specified. Finally, study the Laserjet Owner's Manual, Chapters 3 and 4 in particular. Chapter 3 discusses the operation of the printer, and Chapter 4 discusses the use of escape sequences. These two chapters cover a great deal of information that warrants careful study. MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ ERRORS WITH ENTER FORMNAME FROM FILENAME DATE : 05/86 NUMBER : EX-5-5 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : ERRORS SUBCATEGORY : ENTER form FROM file ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: I am getting the error message: - ERROR - No WHILE or IF blocks are open on the current input source I know that I do not have any extra ENDWHILE or ENDIF commands. Why am I getting this erroneous message? EXPLANATION: You will get the above error message, If you have the following command inside an IF block or WHILE block: ENTER formname FROM filename This version of the ENTER command is used to load a formatted file using a form. In addition to the error message problem, this particular ENTER command can also cause parts of your command file to repeat itself if any commands follow it, even if it is not inside an IF or WHILE block. Therefore, we suggest using the solution below to solve both problems. SOLUTION: Put the ENTER command line in a separate one-line file and then run the one-line file when you want to enter data through a form. For example: IF X1 = 0 THEN RUN INFORM ENDIF where the file INFORM contains the following command: ENTER formname FROM filename MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ FDATA NOT DEFINED WHEN RUNNING REORD.FM DATE : 06/86 NUMBER : EX-6-1 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : PROGRAM SUBCATEGORY : ERROR MESSAGE ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: In attempting to use the program REORD.FM on a particular database, I get the following error message: - ERROR - Variable FDATA is not defined EXPLANATION: The database is probably an R:BASE 4000 database that has not been converted to R:BASE 5000. To be sure, list the FORMS table with the following command: LIST TABLE FORMS In R:BASE 4000, the two columns in the FORMS table are FNAME and DATA. In R:BASE 5000, they are FNAME and FDATA. R:BASE 4000 FORMS tables work just fine with R:BASE 5000 applications as long as you are not literally referring to the FDATA column. The REORD.FM program does refer to the FDATA column, hence the problem with R:BASE 4000 FORMS tables. SOLUTION: First, remove the temporary table that REORD.FM creates by issuing the following command: REMOVE TT1 Next, use the following command to rename the affected column in the FORMS table and you are all set to reorder the prompting order in your forms with the REORD.FM program. RENAME COLUMN DATA TO FDATA IN FORMS MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ BUILDING CHOOSE MENUS BASED ON COLUMN VALUES DATE : 06/86 NUMBER : EX-6-2 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : MENUS SUBCATEGORY : TABLE BASED ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: A traditional menu with fixed choices is fine in some applications but sometimes I need to build menus based on the values stored in a column. An example would be a General Ledger for a Multi-Department Company or office. The traditional method of building a menu quickly becomes obsolete as the possible choices change. If a user wishes to add, delete, or change a costing center the menu must be updated. I need to to be able to create a menu based on choices that are stored in a table. The command file listed below will create a CHOOSE MENU by using the CHOOSE command itself, a simple command file, and a one line report. EXPLANATION: CHOOSE menus are menus used with the CHOOSE command. They are created automatically by EXPRESS or you can create your own. The solution presented here automates the process of changing the choices presented in a CHOOSE menu during processing of the application. As the choices change, the application automatically changes the menu choices. CHOOSE menus can be blocks in procedure files or can be actual DOS files. They must follow a specific format and may have the choices listed verically (a column menu) or horizontally (a row menu). The first line must be the word MENU. The second line's first word is ROW or COLUMN, depending on the type of menu, followed by the title to be printed at the top of the menu. The remaining lines are the choices to be listed in the menu. You can have up to a maximum of 382 characters per menu. Vertical (column) menus have have up to 9 choices and horizontal (row) menus may have up to 40 items as long as you stay within the maximum of 382 characters.. If the menu is a DOS file, name it with the name you will use to call it. For example, if the file is named FUND, you would use the following R:BASE command line to execute it: CHOOSE OPTION FROM FUND In this example, the variable OPTION will hold the choice that the operator picks from the menu FUND. For more information on menus and the CHOOSE command, see your R:BASE 5000 manuals. SOLUTION: This solution was contributed by Tim Smith an R:BASE 5000 registered Value Added Reseller (VAR). The following describes the database used in this example: Table: PROGRAMS (Contains general ledger entries. It is used to track 23 community service programs). Columns: PRGRM# Integer - The Number of the Costing Center or Department PRGRMNM Text 40 - The Name of the Program Report: FUNDMENU CREATING THE REPORT Create the FUNDMENU report and locate the column containing the menu choices (PRGRMNM in this example). Next, mark the line containing the PRGRMNM location with a D for detail. The entire layout will consist of the following single line: D S E Do not mark a REPORT HEADING, but do select it in order to TURN OFF INITIAL CARRIAGE RETURN. If you omit this step, you will end up with a blank line as a choice in your menu. Print the FUNDMENU report sorted by PRGRM#. THE COMMAND FILE RUN the following simple command file to create the menu named FUND and prompt the operator for his choice. The FUND menu lists the choices which are, in this example, names of costing centers and programs. This method creates descriptive prompts and allows a menu to build itself as the menu options change over time. *(FUNDMENU.CMD creates a menu named FUND which is then used in the R:BASE application with the CHOOSE command ) OUTPUT FUND *(DIRECT OUTPUT TO fILE) WRITE "MENU" *(BEGIN BUILDING A MENU FILE) WRITE "ROW CHOOSE FUND TO WORK WITH" *(CHOOSE ROW OR COLUMN MENU TYPE) PRINT FUNDMENU SORTED BY PRGRM# *(PRINT CURRENT LIST OF MENU CHOICES) OUTPUT SCREEN *(CLOSE THE FILE) CHOOSE FUNDNM FROM FUND *(GET THE OPERATOR'S CHOICE) That's all there is to it! When the operator adds, changes, or deletes a program or costing center, the new menu is automatically created when you RUN FUNDMENU.CMD. Your application automatically grows and changes as needs grow and change. If you prefer you can put the word MENU on the first line of the report (in the heading) and the ROW... line as the second line in the heading. This would eliminate the need for the two WRITE commands in the command file. Also keep the limits of a MENU in mind. You can have a maximum of 40 menu items or 382 characters whichever comes first. For example, the above process may result in the following menu file being generated: MENU ROW CHOOSE FUND TO WORK WITH CCFP Family Day Care Homes CSBG Chore / Homemaker Insurance III-B Transportation CEOP RCS Audit Non-Federal This horizontal (row) menu has nine options and a total of 107 characters (a total of 99 characters plus the eight spaces between each of the choices). In this example all the menu options fit within the CHOOSE menu limits. MICRORIM TECHNICAL NOTE ________________________________________________________ PRINTING AN AGED ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE REPORT DATE : 06/86 NUMBER : EX-6-3 PRODUCT : R:BASE 5000 VERSIONS : 1.01 CATEGORY : REPORTS SUBCATEGORY : AGED A/R REPORT ________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: What is a good way to go about printing an aged accounts receivable report? In other words, I want to print a report where a balance is printed in one of three columns (30 days, 60 days, and 90 days) based on the age of the balance. How can I do this type of columnar report in R:BASE? EXPLANATION: In R:BASE 5000 any value divided by a NULL value returns a NULL result. Using this feature we developed the solution presented here. SOLUTION: Set your report up using the principles and ideas presented in this example solution. Table ACCT This example uses a table named ACCT: ACT# AMT TDATE ---- ----------------- -------- 101 $100.00 05/20/86 102 $200.00 04/19/86 103 $300.00 03/19/86 104 $400.00 04/20/86 Aged Accounts Receivable Report The report calculates the number of days an account is overdue, and displays it in a 30 days overdue column, 60 days overdue column, or 90 days overdue column, as appropriate. Totals for each group are also given. Assuming a system date of 6/19/86, the sample report looks like this: ACT# 0-30 DAYS 31-60 DAYS 61-90 DAYS # DAYS ---- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 101 $100.00 30 102 $200.00 61 103 $300.00 92 104 $400.00 60 ----------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS: 30 DAY 60 DAY 90 DAY ---------- ---------- ---------- $100.00 $400.00 $500.00 Special Table DAYTAB Used By Report Variables The DAYTAB table is a special three-row look up table used by the report variables to look up the values needed to make the report format you want. The columns DAYS, C1, C2, and C3 in the table DAYTAB are all integers. The DAYTAB table has the following contents: DAYS C1 C2 C3 ----------- -------- -------- ---------- 61 1 -0- -0- 31 -0- 1 -0- 0 -0- -0- 1 You can modify the number in the DAYS column to fit the conditions you want. For example, if you wanted a 60, 90, 120 day aged accounts receivable report, you would modify the contents of the DAYTAB table to match the following: DAYS C1 C2 C3 ----------- -------- -------- ---------- 91 1 -0- -0- 61 -0- 1 -0- 0 -0- -0- 1 The positioning of the ones and nulls in the DAYTAB table is critical. Report Variables Define the following report variables in the define mode of the report writer. Be certain that the order of the variables is exactly as shown here. Expression: [F3] to list, [ESC] 1:DATE : DT1 = .#DATE 2:INTEGER : DT2 = DT1 - TDATE 3:INTEGER : F1 = C3 IN DAYTAB WHERE DAYS LE DT2 4:INTEGER : F2 = C2 IN DAYTAB WHERE DAYS LE DT2 5:INTEGER : F3 = C1 IN DAYTAB WHERE DAYS LE DT2 6:DOLLAR : 30DAY = AMT / F1 7:DOLLAR : 60DAY = AMT / F2 8:DOLLAR : 90DAY = AMT / F3 9:DOLLAR : 30TOT = 30DAY + 30TOT 10:DOLLAR : 60TOT = 60DAY + 60TOT 11:DOLLAR : 90TOT = 90DAY + 90TOT The first two report variables are used to calculate the number of days an account is overdue by comparing the date column to the current system date. F1, F2, and F3 are the lookup factors to be used as denominators. Only one of these three variables will be 1, the other two will be null, since that is what is stored in the DAYTAB table. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth report variable expressions, AMT is divided by each of the factors (F1, F2, and F3) to calculate each of the variables 30DAY, 60DAY, 90DAY. The variables 30DAY, 60DAY, and 90DAY are located on the report. Because two of the factors are NULL, and division by NULL returns a NULL, two of these located variables will be NULL. Therefore, before printing the report, set NULL to a blank. For example: SET NULL " " PRINT reptname SET NULL -0- With null set to display as a blank, only one of the located variables will show up on the report because only one of the variables will have a non-null value. The last 3 report variable expressions calculate the report totals for each of the three (30 day, 60 day, and 90 day) report column. Report LAYOUT This final chart shows the layout section of the report: HP <1,1> [F3] to list, [ESC] to exit HP ACT# 0-30 DAYS 31-60 DAYS 61-90 DAYS # DAYS HP ---- ---------- ---------- ---------- --------- HP D S E S E S E S E S E FR FR--------------------------------------------------------------------- FR TOTALS: 30 DAY 60 DAY 90 DAY FR ---------- ---------- ----------- FR S E S E S E FR