APDL Public Domain 1/APDL_PD1A.iso/database/powerbase/docs/scriptfile

Text File | 1995-08-21 | 7.5 KB | 160 lines

Ch 12 − Script Files

Powerbase incorporates a script language which lets you control some
features from a script file. Using script files you can automate jobs which
need to be done frequently. Print jobs are the most obvious example, and
most of the script commands concern printing.  Script files are plain text
files (created with Edit) and are executed by dragging them to the main
Powerbase window. All commands in a script file must be in upper-case,
preceded by “!”, and may be followed by a parameter, separated from the
command by a single space. The following commands may be used (parameters in
square brackets are optional):−

!SCRIPT All script files must begin with the line !SCRIPT POWERBASE. This
enables the program to distinguish a script from other text files. You
should make !SCRIPT END the last line of the file. The command can be made
to “chain” another script file by following it with the name of the new
file, i.e. by using the form !SCRIPT <filename>.

!COMMENT may be used to insert comments in a script file. The rest of the
line after the command is ignored.

!SELECTION <filename>  where <filename> is the name of a selection file in
the PrintRes directory, installs the selection as if you had dragged it from
PrintRes to the Powerbase window yourself. If you issue the command without
a parameter the current selection will be cleared.

!PRINTOPTS <filename>  where <filename> is the name of a print options file
in the PrintRes directory, sets the print options just as if the the file
had been dragged from PrintRes to the Powerbase window.  Issued without a
parameter causes the default options to be set.

!QUERY [filename,]<search formula>  is used to print a list. It returns the
same result as typing the search formula into the Print window and clicking
Print. If you first issue a !DESTINATION File command you can use a script
containing a list of !QUERY commands to create a batch of reports as text
files in PrintJobs. !CASE and !INDEX also affect the behaviour of this
command if issued beforehand.

!CSV  [filename,]<search formula>  resembles !QUERY but produces a CSV file
in PrintJobs. A !DESTINATION command is, of course, unnecessary.

!EXPAND is one of a number of commands used to select or deselect a switch
in the Print options window. !EXPAND ON selects the switch which causes
fields to be expanded by reference to a linked validation table. !EXPAND OFF
(or just !EXPAND by itself) deselects the switch.

!DATE turns date and time stamping ON and OFF. It works in exactly the same
way as !EXPAND.

!UPPER forces upper-case printing when followed by ON, normal upper/lower
case printing otherwise.

!UNDERLINE turns underlining ON and OFF when output is sent to the printer.
Underlining won’t be visible when the report is displayed in a window,  but
will occur when the output is subsequently printed.

!CASE turns the Case specific switch on the Query panel ON and OFF.

!HEADER followed by ON causes header information (see 3.5) to be printed on
reports.

!FIRST followed by ON causes the header to appear on the first page only.

!FOOTER followed by ON causes footer information (see 3.5) to be printed on
reports.

!SHRINK followed by ON this removes surplus “white space” between the
columns of reports in Vertical format.

!HEADINGS D causes descriptors to be used as field identifiers in a report.
!HEADINGS T, or without any parameter, causes tags to be used.

!PITCH <n> sets the number of characters per inch for hard-copy printing to
n, which  should be 5, 10, 12 or 17, representing double-width, pica, elite
and condensed respectively.

!TITLE <string> uses <string> as a title on subsequently printed reports.

!PAGE <n> sets the page length for reports to n lines. 70 is correct for A4,
66 for American letter.

!LINESPACE <n> sets the line-spacing to n lines. The default is 1, i.e. no
blank lines between lines of report. 2 gives double-spacing

!LMARGIN <n> sets the left margin to n character spaces.

!TMARGIN <n> sets the top margin to n lines.

!SPACER <string> specifies the string to be used to separate columns of
printed data in reports using Horizontal or Table format.

!COLWIDTH <n> sets the width of the blank columns used in Table format to n
spaces.

!FORMAT <string> where <string> is Horizontal, Vertical, Label or Table
(N.B. case of <string> does not matter), sets the print format. In the last
case the number of columns required must be appended as a second parameter,
e.g. TABLE 8. If any other parameter is used, or !FORMAT is issued by
itself, the Horizontal format is used.

!DESTINATION <string> where <string> is Window, File or Printer (N.B. case
of <string> does not matter), sets the destination for report printing (see
3.1).  If File is used the report is saved in PrintJobs

!LABEL is used to define a label specification to use with the LABEL format.
It requires seven parameters, separated by commas:−

(1)     The number of labels across the page (1,2 or 3)

(2)     The horizontal label pitch (i.e. left edge to left edge) in inches.
This is only meaningful when  (1) is 2 or 3.

(3)     The vertical label pitch in inches.

(4)     The number of lines to be printed on each label.

(5)     The line which is to be replaced, if blank, by the last field in the
selection. If nothing is entered here (2 commas together) then no
substitution is performed.

(6)     If ON is entered the the primary key will appear on the label (in
brackets) as an identifier.

(7)     If ON is entered blank fields will be skipped when printing.

!DELETE <key> deletes the record whose primary key is <key>. The benefits of
this command may not be at all obvious. Suppose you have a text file giving
details of records which must be deleted from the database. If such a job is
going to occur at all often it could be worthwhile to write a customised
program to read the text file and generate the primary key of each record,
then output the results as a Powerbase script file with each key preceded by
!DELETE. The whole batch of records can then be deleted by simply dragging
the script into Powerbase. Not worthwhile for ten records, perhaps, but
could be for a hundred. Note that all 6 subfiles will be searched for the
records to be deleted.

!INSERT is the counterpart of !DELETE and is useful in similar
circumstances. In this case the command must occupy a line by itself and be
followed by the record to insert, one field to a line. It is the user’s
responsibility to ensure that the lines are not too long for the database
fields into which they are placed and that the number of lines following
each !INSERT is the same as the number of fields in the record. Don’t forget
to leave blank lines for empty fields!  Records will be inserted into the
currently-selected subfile

!IMPRESSION , used in conjunction with !QUERY to generate a report in
text-file format, allows you to insert Impression DDF* commands at the start
of the text-file. A script may, for example, execute a series of !QUERY
commands and the resulting files are to be all selected together and dragged
into an Impression document. To make each file go into a new frame you need
to make each begin with {nextframe}. This can be achieved by placing the
script command !IMPRESSION {nextframe} before the first !QUERY. You do not,
however, want {nextframe} to begin the first file created, or the Impression
document will have a blank frame on its first page. To suppress the effect
on the first file use the form:−

!IMPRESSION {nextframe} Not first

There must be a space between the “}” and the “N”, but the “Not first”
string isn’t case sensitive.