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QuickFile v2.01 18 November 1993 by Alan Wigginton ========= CONDITIONS OF USE =========== QuickFile is not Public Domain, however it can be freely distributed provided all documentation and sample files are included unchanged. This version is fully functional, except that the 'About QuickFile' requester will be frequently displayed to remind you that it is unregistered. I accept no liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of this program. Users must evaluate the program and decide its usefulness for their own purposes. If you continue to use this program for more than one month, you should send $30 registration fee to: Alan Wigginton 23 Carissa St Shailer Park, Queensland 4128. AUSTRALIA Overseas users - please do not send personal cheques. Please send either an international money order or an overseas bank draft in Australian Dollars drawn on an Australian bank. Any cash currency is also OK, however sending cash through the mail is at your risk. I intend to develop the program further if enough interest is shown and would appreciate any constructive comments you may have, even if you decide not to register. Enclosing a stamped self addressed envelope will ensure a personal reply. ====== Benefits of Registration ============= Registration will entitle you to: - A registered copy of the latest version of the program with the about requester display removed. - Free support and advice - slow mail only I'm afraid (You are welcome to phone providing you pay the call charges) - Upgrades to future versions for a nominal cost. Registration will also encourage me to continue to develop the program. Please include the version number (from the about requester) of your copy. I would also be interested to know: - Where you obtained your copy of the program - Your system configuration. Model, memory etc. - What you are using the program for. ========== COPYRIGHT NOTICES ============ Quickfile copyright 1992, 1993 by Alan Wigginton I accept no liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of this program. Users must evaluate the program and decide its usefulness for their own purposes. AmigaGuide, AmigaGuide.info, amigaguide.library, WDisplay, WDisplay.info (c) Copyright 1991-1993 Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced and distributed under license from Commodore. AMIGAGUIDE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE; NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED. =========== PROGRAM DESCRIPTION ================= QuickFile is simple but flexible, flat file database. It uses random access, with indexes for fast access to records. Files can be larger than available ram, but as much of the file as possible is kept in ram to reduce disk accesses. Features include: - Multiple indexes that are automatically maintained. - Character, date, integer and floating point data types - Up to 250 characters per field and 250 fields per record. - Form and list style displays and reports. - Unlimited number of views of each file. - Fast sorting with multiple sort keys supported - Search operators include Like, Equal, Between, Sounds Like, Not Like and Not Equal. - Fields can be added, changed, or deleted at any time. - Flexible export/import - Flexible multi column label printing. - Runs on WB1.3 or later and should be OK with 512K ram. QuickFile is written in C and compiled with NorthC (Fish 384) from Steve Hawtin. Thanks for your efforts Steve. ============ QUICK START ============ WARNING. QuickFile is a random access data base that buffers records in memory. Failure to exit the program properly after updates are made will result in lost updates. ALWAYS exit the program before a reboot or power off. DO backup your files regularly. When backing up a database, make sure you backup all files - definition, data and indexes. It is strongly suggested that you copy QuickFile to a work disk before you try adding or updating records. The easiest way to do this is to drag the QuickFile drawer into another disk window. Use the QFDefine program to define a new database or change an existing file definition. Use the QuickFile program for all other functions. The current view determines the display and print format. The current index determines the sequence for displays and reports. Sorting and Selecting create temporary indexes which are available until you close the file or explicitly drop them. Two demonstration databases are provided. Click on one of these icons to start Quickfile and display the first record in the file. It is a good idea to browse through this document to get a feel for the program before trying to do too much. I recommend that you place each database in a separate drawer (directory) as a number of index and view files for different databases can be confusing. This also makes it easy to backup the database by simply dragging the drawer to a backup disk. ========= STARTING THE PROGRAM =========== Starting from Workbench QuickFile can be started from the WorkBench using the QuickFile icon or a project icon for a data base. If you start QuickFile from a project, the file is opened and the first record is displayed. If you start it from the program icon, a file requester is displayed for you to select the file you want to open. Icons are not generated by the program. Sorry, but if you want them you will have to create them yourself. Starting from the Shell or CLI" To start QuickFile from the CLI, type the program name followed by a file name (optional) as a parameter. For example QuickFile [data:addressbook] If you include a filename, the file is opened and the first record is displayed. If you do not give a file name, a file requester is displayed for you to select the file you want to open. =========== FILE REQUESTERS ============= QuickFile supports the following file requesters (in order of preference): The ASL requester (WB2) will be used if asl.library is in your LIBS: directory. The ARP requester will be used if arp.library is in your LIBS: directory. If you have neither, QuickFile will use a requester with simple string gadgets for you to enter Drawer and File names. This file requester will be used whenever a file name is required. =========== MAIN WINDOW =============== The main window title bar is used to display a status line and status messages. The status line contains. the name of the current view, the name of the current index, the current record number and the total number of records. A row of buttons is displayed across the bottom of the window to control frequently used functions. Remaining functions are accessed via Menus. The vertical scroll bar on the right hand side is used to move from record to record through the file. The horizontal scroll bar at the bottom is used to display additional fields that do not fit in the window. This usage is the same for both form and list displays. ========== INDEXES ================= QuickFile uses indexes to sequence the records and to provide rapid access by key field value. Searching an index is much faster than searching the whole file. Any record out of thousands can be located in seconds - under 1 second if the file is completely in ram, longer if records have to be retrieved from a floppy. Each data base must have at least one index, and you can have a number of indexes, all of which are automatically maintained as you add, change and delete records. The current index name is displayed in the title line. If other indexes are available you can choose them with Indexes item on the View menu. Indexing has some overheads, but with QuickFile these are quite small. The downside is that its capacity is limited to relatively small files (like 10,000 to 20,000 records). =========== RANDOM ACCESS =============== Random access means locating a record in a file directly using its offset from the start of the file, instead of reading sequentially through the file record by record until you find the one you want. This means you don't have to read and write all of the file if you only want to update one record. Random access is generally only a useful technique when combined with indexing. Without indexing you have to supply the number of the record you want, which isn't particularly useful. ============ ABOUT VIEWS ============= Views allow you to display data from a file in different ways. There are two basic types FORM and LIST. A view may display only some of the fields from the file, and it may only show part of some fields. Each view has its own field titles, positions and lengths, window size and report details. Once you have a view set out the way you want it, you can save it for future use. The Define View requester is used to select or change the fields included in a view. The positions of fields on a form can be changed by dragging them around with the mouse. When you open a file, QuickFile looks for a view called filename.VIEW and loads it. If it doesn't find it, it creates a default view in ram. To use your favourite view automatically, save it as filename.VIEW. A View is only saved if you explicitly save it, otherwise any changes to a view will be lost when you exit the program. If you want to keep things simple and are happy with the default view, you need not define a view at all. Views are typically used to print labels, export or import selected fields or print lists containing only selected fields. ============= EDITING KEYS ============== Standard Amiga text gadgets are used for entering data. These provide the following editing keys: right Amiga-X Erase all text in the gadget (as does Control-X) right Amiga-Q Restores the text that was present before you changed it. Shift-left arrow Moves the cursor to the beginning of the field. Shift-right arrow Moves the cursor to the end of the field. Shift-Del Erases all characters from the cursor to the end of the gadget. Shift-Backspace Erases all characters to the left of the cursor. The ENTER key will normally move the cursor to the next field on the screen. If pressed on the last field, it will wrap around to the first field. ============== CHANGES SINCE VERSION 1.3 ============== - Now able to define views that can be saved and reloaded. Views specify field title, position and length, window sizes and report details. - Position fields on the FORM display by dragging with the mouse. - Multi column label printing - Vastly improved searching - Descending as well as ascending order for sorting and indexing - Many minor improvements and bug fixes. - Preset export formats added and improved flexibility provided for custom formats. ================ FORM DISPLAY ===================== The FORM DISPLAY shows a single record per screen in the format specified by the current view. This can display all details for a record. If there are more fields in the view than will fit in the window, the horizontal slider can be used to scroll the display. The LIST button can be used to quickly change to a list display with the current view. Field positions can be changed by dragging fields around the window with the mouse. Note that the program does not stop you from positioning fields on top of other fields. This does no harm, but it does look odd. To add or delete fields, change field titles or displayed lengths, press the VIEW button; ============== LIST DISPLAY ================== The LIST display shows as many records as will fit in the window with a single line per record. This allows you to display records in the context of the records before and after it. If the records are wider than the window, the horizontal slider can be used to scroll left or right. To update a record double click on it with the left mouse button Before using the Modify or Delete buttons, select a record using a single press of the left mouse button. If You use the Modify without a record selected, the first record on the screen will be displayed for modification. If you use the Delete button without selecting a record, you will get an error message. ================ MAIN REQUESTERS ==================== Define View Requester The view requester is displayed when you select an option to define or change a view. If you selected New View, a new view called 'Unnamed' is displayed. To change an existing view you press the VIEW button, or select VIEWS from the VIEW menu, highlight the view you want to change, then press the ALTER button. The Define View requester contains the following elements Name This name identifies the view and is displayed in the view selection list. The current view name is also displayed in the window title bar. Available Fields List This is a list of the fields in the current file. Clicking on a field will add it to the current view. Selected Fields List This is a list of the fields in the current view. Clicking on a field in this list will select it and display its name and length below the list box. These can then be changed if required. The changes will only affect the current view. If a field is highlighted, new fields will be added before the high- lighted field, otherwise new fields will be added at the end of the list. To remove highlighting click in the blank part of the box. Type Button This button toggles between Form and List to select the basic view type. Field Names Button This turns the display of field names on and off. Field names are normally only turned off for printing labels. Field Title String Gadget You use this to change the field title for this view only. This is useful for having a short title for a short field in the list display. The title can be blank. This gadget is disabled unless one of the selected fields is highlighted. Length String Gadget Changing this length allows you to have a display length different to the file length. This can be useful for reducing field lengths on a list display to fit in more fields. It can also be used to print an initial instead of a first name on a mailing label. This gadget is disabled unless one of the selected fields is highlighted. IMPORTANT NOTE: You must press enter after changing either the field name or length or your changes will be ignored. Delete The delete button will delete the highlighted field from the selected fields list. No confirmation is asked - it is deleted immediately. This gadget is disabled unless one of the selected fields is highlighted. OK Button Accepts the new or changed view Cancel Cancels any changes you have made. === Define Index Requester === The Define Index requester is displayed when you are adding or changing an an index. A similar requester is used for defining a sort key. It contains the following elements Name This name identifies the index and is displayed in the index selection list and in the window title bar when the index is active. It is also used to form the file name for the index. Available Fields This is a list of the fields defined in this file. Clicking on a field will add it to the fields selected for this index. Selected Fields This is a list of the fields in the current index. The order of the fields in this box determines their priority in the sort. The first field is the primary key, the second will only be used for records where the first keys are equal and so on. Clicking on a field in this list will select it and display its name and length below the list box. If a field is highlighted, any new fields will be added before the highlighted field, otherwise new fields will be added at the end. To remove highlighting click in the blank part of the box. Length Changing this length allows you to index on part of a long field. IMPORTANT: YOU MUST PRESS ENTER OR RETURN AFTER CHANGING A LENGTH OR YOUR CHANGES WILL BE IGNORED Order This toggles between A..Z and Z..A to select whether the index is to be sorted into ascending or descending order. Delete The delete button will delete the highlighted field from the selected fields list. No confirmation is asked - it is deleted immediately. OK Button Accepts the new or changed index Cancel Cancels any changes you have made. ============== MAIN WINDOW GADGETS ================= GoTo Button GoTo finds a record by key value using the current index. This makes access extremely fast, even on large files. Only The key fields for the current index are displayed. You only need to enter enough of the key to identify the record you want, but you must start at the beginning of the key - if you enter only the second key field, you will go to the start of the file. Press RETURN on the last key field or click on the OK button to perform the GoTo. If the key you enter does not exist, the followin record is displayed. You can enter "SM" to position on the record for SMITH, which will be followed by SMITHERS, SMITHFIELD etc. Insert Button Pressing the INSERT button displays a blank form for you to enter values for a new record. Press RETURN on each field to move you to the next field. Press the Copy button to copy the contents of the last record displayed or added. This is useful if you are entering records with similar values in some fields of each record. Warning - it replaces anything you have keyed. Press Insert to store the details and clear the fields ready for the next record. Press Cancel to return to Browse mode. NB When Cancel is pressed any values displayed on the screen will be lost. Press Insert to insert the record, then Cancel. You cannot insert a record that is completely blank. The vertical scroll gadget is disabled while you are in insert mode. The horizontal scroll gadget can be used to scroll the display and access fields that do not fit in the window. Modify Button Pressing the MODIFY button displays the current record for you to make changes. Press RETURN to move to the next field. Press the Update button to store the changes. Press the Cancel button to keep the current values. The vertical scroll gadget is disabled while you are in insert mode. The horizontal scroll gadget can be used to scroll the display and access fields that do not fit in the window. Delete Button Pressing the DELETE button displays a requester asking you to confirm the deletion. Press OK to delete the record. Press Cancel if you really want to keep it. Once the record has been deleted you cannot get it back. List/Form Button The LIST button is displayed on the Form screen. It will change the view to a List view. This is the same as selecting Views from the View menu, pressing the Alter button and changing the type to List. The FORM button is displayed on the List screen. It will change the view to a Form view. This is the same as selecting Views from the View menu, pressing the Alter button and changing the type to Form. View Button Pressing the VIEW button displays the Define View requester showing the current view ready for your changes. This is a shortcut for selecting the View menu item, selecting a view and pressing the Alter button. Slider Gadgets Scrolling is controlled by two slider type gadgets. Vertical Slider This controls movement through the file and works in the usual way. Press the arrows to move one record at a time. Click in the box to move one page at a time - for the form display this is also one record at a time. Drag the knob to move as far as you like. Horizontal Slider If there are more fields than will fit in the current window, this can be used to display the next group of fields. This works the same as the vertical slider except that there are no arrows. ============= MENUS ====================== Project - Open Selecting the OPEN menu item brings up a file requester for you to select the file to process. Always select the definition name - the one with no extension. If you select a file that is not a QuickFile definition, you will be given a message saying that the definition cannot be found. Project - Save Selecting the SAVE menu item writes all updated blocks and indexes to disk. You should use this periodically during a long update session. Project - Close Selecting the CLOSE menu item writes all updated records and indexes to disk and closes the file but leaves the program running so you can open another file. Project - Save As Selecting the SAVE AS menu item creates a new file from the currently open file. If the current index is a selection, only the selected records are written to the new file. A file requester is displayed for you to enter the new file name. It is best to create this in a different drawer. The new file is reorganised as it is written. Indexes for the new file are not created - they will be built when you first open the new file. When the file has been created, a requester is displayed to ask if you want to open the newly created file or continue with the file currently open. Project - Reorganise This reorganises a file by creating a new reorganised version and then copying that version over the original file. Reorganising is not essential, but if you have been doing many additions and deletions, it may reduce file size and will improve performance. During reorganisation free space is adjusted to the value specified in the file definition and records are physically stored in the sequence of the active key. Select your most used key sequence before reorganising to optimise access with that key. You are not allowed to reorganise using a selection of records. The file requester will be displayed for you to enter a name for the work file required. This should be in a different drawer to the main file. It is not automatically deleted and may be kept as a back up if you like. Project - Exit Selecting the EXIT menu item writes all updated records and indexes to disk, closes the file and exits the program. Selecting the Close gadget on the screen has the same effect. A requester is displayed to confirm your choice. Note that you do not have the option of exiting the program without saving the file. This is because records may be written back to the file any time while you are running the program. View - Indexes Choosing the INDEXES menu item displays a requester showing a list of indexes for you to choose from. If you have performed a sort or selection, the list will include "Selected" and/or "Sorted". Double click on an index to use it, or click once to select it. When you change indexes, the same record is displayed but the file will be in a new sequence. e.g. You can use this to find a book by a particular author, then select the subject index to list all other books on the same subject. Pressing the Drop Button removes the selected index from memory and frees the space used. You can only drop the Selected or Sorted indexes. To remove any permanent index use the QFDefine program. View - Views Selecting the VIEWS menu item displays a requester showing a list of views for you to choose from. If you have not created or loaded any views, you will have a single view called filename.VIEW. Double click on a view to use it, or click once to select it. Press the Alter button to bring up the Define View Requester to change the view. Press the Drop button to drop the selected view. You cannot drop the last view - you must have at least one loaded. View - New View Selecting the NEW VIEW menu item creates a new view called 'unnamed' and displays it in the Define View requester. View - Load View Selecting the LOAD VIEW menu item brings up a file requester for you to select a view to load. When you load a view, it becomes the current view and the display will change accordingly. If fields have been deleted from the file definition, they will be automatically dropped from the view. If field names have been changed or new fields added, they will appear at the end of the view. The fields in the view and the file definition are associated by name. If you load a view from another file, it will display only those fields that are the same in both files. View - Save View As Brings up a file requester for you to enter the file name for the view. The current view name is displayed as a default. The default view for a file is named filename.VIEW, but a view can have any name. Note that you are not reminded to save a changed view before you close a file. Tools - Sort The Sort Requester is very similar to the index requester as a sort effectively creates a temporary index that is updated automatically as you add, delete and change records. The Sort index is discarded when the file is closed, but until then you will not need to re-sort to place changed or new records in the right sequence. See the Index Requester for details on specifying the sequence. If you request a sort while displaying selected records, only the records in the selection are sorted. Date, integer and number fields are sorted correctly according to their value, rather than their ASCII sequence. You can sort over as many fields as you like with a single sort. Press OK to start the sort, or Cancel if you have changed your mind. Sorting is quite fast so you shouldn't have to wait long. A sort (over one field) of the 1300 records on my largest file takes 22 seconds on my standard A500. The sort technique used requires that all sort keys be resident in memory, so record buffers are freed to increase the memory available to the sort. You will notice that disk activity increases after a sort as buffers are reloaded. If you are short of memory, it may help to sort using less than the full length of long fields. Tools - Select A selection is a sub-set of the data base that matches specified conditions. QuickFile searches through the whole data base looking for records with fields matching requested values, and creates an index containing these records. You can then browse, print, export or backup the selected records. The selection is updated automatically for deletions and changes but not additions. Records you add to the data base will not be added to the selection. When displaying a selection, the title bar will show the number of records selected. Don't panic, you haven't lost your file. The full number will be displayed when you choose a full index again. The selected data will be in the same sequence as the current Index. You can sort it into another sequence if required. If the current index is the result of a previous selection, only the selected records are searched, which is much faster than searching the full file. You can use any number of criteria for a search, but the more you have the slower the search will be. Two values can be specified for each item. The second value is primarily for the Between operator, but it can be used to specify an alternative value for the other operators. Search Panel The Search Panel displays a list of search criteria with buttons for inserting, modifying and deleting them. Clicking on the Insert or Modify will display the Search Details requester for you to insert or modify the details. For insertions, if an item is selected, the new item will be inserted before the selected item, otherwise it will be inserted at the end of the list. Clicking on delete will bring up a requester for you to confirm the deletion of the selected item. Search criteria linked with 'and' will select only records that match all criteria, while search criteria linked with 'or' will select records that match either criteria. 'And' has higher precedence so criteria are formed into groups split by 'or'. All criteria in a group must be satisfied for a record to be selected, but a record will be selected if it matches any group. That is confusing and is probably best explained with an example: Occupation equal programmer and location equal sydney or Occupation equal programmer and location equal canberra This will find all programmers who live in Sydney or Canberra. Note that Occupation had to be repeated. The following would give all programmers who live in Sydney and EVERBODY who lives in Canberra. Occupation equal programmer and location equal sydney or location equal canberra You can also do things like Name like john and Name notlike smith which would find all persons named John, except those named John Smith. The Search Details requester contains the following items: Connector Button (AND or OR) This toggles between AND and OR to specify how this search item is combined with the previous one. It has no effect for the first item. Available Fields List This lists all the fields in the file for you to select the field to search on. The current selection is displayed under the list. Comparison Operator This determines the operator to be used for this search item. See below for details, Value 1 This is the primary search value. It is always used. If you want to search for empty fields leave this empty. Value 2 This is the secondary search value. Its primary use is with the between operator but can be used to enter an second search value for the other operators. Note that with Not Equal and Not Like, value 1 and value 2 are joined by AND rather than OR. It will find all records except those that contain value 1 or value 2. Using OR in this situation would select every record. Search Operators The operators available for searching are: Like Matches fields that contain the search string anywhere within them. eg "bit" would find "The Hobbit" and "Bitter Sweet". Equal Matches a field only if it exactly equals the search value. Note that case is not significant so that dog will match Dog or even dOG. Between Matches a field with a value equal to or between the specified pair of values. This can also be used to perform a less than or greater than search. e.g. 'between 41 and 999' is the same as 'greater than 40'. Sounds Like Matches fields where the first word sounds like the search value. This is really a bit of a gimmick as it is not very smart. It uses a version of the old soundex technique which requires that you know the first character, and has a number of other limitations. It can be useful though. NOTE it only looks at the first word of the field. Please don't write and tell me that it doesn't work with such and such, unless you include a better (and compact) algorithm. Not Like As for like but will only match records that do not contain the search value. Not Equal As for equal but will only match records that are not equal to the search value. Tools - Rebuild Index Selecting the Rebuild Index menu item Rebuilds the current index from the data records. This can be used if the index and data files are inconsistent for some reason (eg a system failure). The index is rebuilt from the data file. Try using this if the program is failing with a 'Block not found message' or any messages to the effect that QuickFile could not find a record it looked for. Tools - Export Export Allows you to write all, or selected, records to an ASCII file for exchanging data with other applications such as word processors, other data bases etc. The order and length of the fields in the export file is determined by the current view. Before doing the export, you may need to create a new view to give the record layout you want. A requester is displayed for you to select the record format to be used. A number of preset formats (see below) are provided or you can tailor your own Record and field Separators by selecting the Custom format. The headers button determines whether a header record containing the field names is to be included at the start of the file. Pressing the OK Button displays a file requester is displayed for you to specify the name of the export file . All records from the currently selected index will be written. If you are displaying Selected records, only the selected records will be written. Preset Export/Import Formats" A number of preset formats are provided including the mailmerge formats for a number of wordprocessors. You can choose from: Custom This allows you to define your own format using predefined Separator characters. "...", This is a quote and comma delimited text file such as used for data for BASIC programs. The following preset formats are available only for Export, not Import. Final Copy Interword KindWords 3 ProWrite WordWorth Only the KindWords 3 version has been tested. If you have a problem with any of them please send me a copy of the specification for the format and, if possible, a sample file that works. If you require a format that is not included, let me know as I should be able to include it very easily. Field and Record Delimiters The Custom delimiter buttons work like cycle gadgets in that the selection changes with each click. You can only select from the predefined delimiter codes. Field Start This is fairly obvious and is the character that marks the start of a field. Field End This marks the end of a field. It differs from the field separator in that a separator does not appear after the last field in a record while a field end character appears after every field. Field Separator This separates each field in the record. It does not appear after the last field in each record Record End Marks the end of each record If Field Start is used, a Field End must also be used. If neither Field End nor Field Separator is used, the records will be fixed length with each field padded to its maximum length with spaces. Example 1 "field1","field2"{LF} This is a fairly common text file format and is defined by Field Start = " (Quotation mark) Field End = " (Quotation mark) Field Sep = , (Comma) Record End = {LF} (Line Feed x'0A') Example 2 field1{TAB}field2{TAB}{LF} Field Start = None Field End = {TAB} (Tab character x'09') Field Sep = None Record End = {LF} (Line Feed x'0A') The available characters are: LF Line Feed. This is the standard Amiga end of line character. TAB Fields are separated by a TAB character. CRLF This is the MSDOS style end of line character; a carriage return followed by a line feed. NONE No character used ' Single quotation mark " Double quotation mark Do not use the same character as a field and record separator for import. If you have a choice, use TAB for field separator, and LF for record separator, or use the "...", preset. Tools - Import Import works in a similar way to Export, except records are loaded from an ASCII file into your data base. The sequence and length of fields in the input file are determined from the current view. You should create and select the view before selecting the import function. Both sequence and length can be different from that in the database. Also, not all database fields need to be present in the ASCII file. Any fields not present will be set to blank in your data base. Record and Field separators are the same as for export. NB: It is vital that the sequence and number of fields you set in the selected fields box of the field selector correspond to the sequence of fields in the ASCII file you are importing. Make you sure to backup your database before you import a file into an existing data base. If you get the format wrong, it is easier to restore than to fix or delete all of the incorrect records. Also use plenty of buffers if you are going to import a large number of records. Example: Data Base Surname 40 First Names 40 Street 30 Suburb 30 Postcode 10 Date of Birth 11 ASCII File record example "Alan","Wigginton" "William","Smith" This will work correctly provided you ensure that you set up a view in the sequence that they are in the ASCII file. The Import field selector should show the selected fields as:- First Name 40 Surname 40 This will load First Name and Surname to the correct fields in the data base and set the remaining fields to blank. Print - Print Displayed Records Prints the records currently displayed on the screen. This will be a single record for a form display. Print - Print all Records in Current Index Prints all records in the current index (or Sort or Selection). The fields printed and the style (form or list) of report is determined by the current view. The report details are saved with the view The print requester is displayed for you to enter formatting details for your report. If this is a new report, defaults will be taken from your current printer preferences. Your current printer preferences will be restored after the report is printed. The fields that can be entered are: Title Allows you to enter a title to be printed at the top of each page of your report. The title line will also show the current date at the left margin and the page number at the right margin. The title will be automatically centred. The title line is only printed if you enter a Title. Note that even a single space will print a blank title. Use CTRL-X to ensure that all characters are deleted. Left and Right Margins Allows you to temporarily override the current preferences settings. QuickFile will not print beyond the character position specified in the right margin. Lines/Page This controls the number of lines QuickFile will use on each page. The default is paper size minus 8 to provide a top and bottom margin. NB QuickFile issues a Form Feed when a new page is required. This depends on you setting the page height on your printer correctly, and may be a limitation with some printers. If you have a problem with this, let me know and I will look at using the preferences paper size. A value of zero will suppress the report title and page breaks. Print Pitch. This button operates like a WB2 cycle gadget. Each time you press it, it displays the next value from the following PICA (10 cpi) ELITE (12 cpi) FINE (15 or 17 cpi) depending on your printer Lines Per Inch This button toggles between 6 and 8 lines per inch. If you are printing a form type view, a number of additional fields are displayed which allow you to print the form in multiple columns such as multi-column address labels. See Label printing below for full details. Press the OK button to start printing or the cancel button to cancel any changes you have entered. Saving the view will save all of your report settings. LABEL Printing Label printing is available for FORM type views only. You will normally define a special view as follows: Create a new view using the New View menu item, or load a suitable view. Set Field Labels for the view to "No". Arrange the fields in the top left hand corner of the FORM screen to match the desired label format. Select print and use the following fields in the print requester to control your label format. Labels Across This specifies the number of labels to print across the page Label Width This specifies the width of each label. One additional space will be allowed between labels. If you want to print labels further apart, increase this value. Labels Down This specifies the number of labels to print down the page. This number of labels will print in each column, before the next column is filled. For example 3 across and 4 down will print in the following sequence: 1 5 9 2 6 10 3 7 11 4 8 12 13 14 etc Label Height This is the height of each label in lines. An additional blank line will be printed between each label. The default is the number of lines in the form. You will probably want to set Lines Per Page to zero to suppress page breaks as well. If you are printing a single column of labels only, you can leave all of the above fields blank and use the number of lines in the form to determine the label height. Options - About Tells you about QuickFile. If it is a registered copy, the name of the registered user is displayed. Options - Buffers This displays the number of ram buffers allowed for the file and allows you to change it temporarily. The items shown are: Blocks in file. The size of the current file expressed in blocks. This gives the number of buffers required to hold the whole file in memory. Buffers in use. The number of ram buffers currently allocated. This starts at 1 when you open a file. Buffer size. Gives the amount of ram required for each buffer allocated. Maximum buffers. The maximum number of buffers that QuickFile will use. This can be changed to alter the number to be used for the current session. The next time you open the file, the maximum will revert to the number specified in the file definition. To permanently change the maximum number of buffers, use the QFDefine program. =========== DEFINING FILES ======================== The file definition is now in a separate program called QFDefine. While this may not be as convenient, it keeps the main program smaller. This is mainly for my benefit when compiling and linking as I only have a floppy based, 1 meg A500. To start the program from workbench, click on the QFDefine icon. To start it from the CLI type the path and name. You can change just about everything in a file definition, except the block size, even after you have loaded data to the file. You can change field names, types and lengths. You can add or delete fields, and add or delete indexes. Caution should be used when changing the type for fields that contain data. WARNING: Deleting a field makes its data inaccessible, even if you re-add the same field. If you accidentally delete a field, reload the definition without saving your changes and start your changes again. =========== File Details ============ The file details are shown in the box in the top left of the QFDefine window Block Size QuickFile does not read and write single records at a time, but builds them into blocks. This reduces the number of disk reads and writes required. Around 2000 seems to give good results. The only way to change block size is to export the whole file, define a new data base and use import to recreate your file. Block size must be larger than the maximum record size plus free space, plus some space for control fields (2 bytes per field plus 2 bytes for the record length). Free Space Specifies the amount of free space to be left in each block to allow for records to expand. As QuickFile only stores the actual data entered (not trailing blanks), additional space is required if a change makes a field longer. 100 seems to work OK. Records are moved to another block if necessary, so this is not critical. Buffers This is the maximum number of buffers QuickFile will use for holding blocks of records in memory. Unless you have very large files or are short of memory, use a large figure such as 100. QuickFile will never use more buffers than are required for the whole file. The more of the file in memory, the faster QuickFile works. The memory used is approximately (number of buffers * buffer size). =========== Fields ===================== Use the QFDefine program to define or change fields. The fields defined so far are listed in the box at the right of the window. Use the Add button to add a field. A requester will appear for the field details. If a field is highlighted when you press add, the new field will be added before the highlighted field, otherwise it is added to the end of the list. To change or delete fields, click on the field, then press the appropriate button. A requester will appear for you to make changes or to confirm the deletion. The Field Requester contains the following fields Name string gadget Enter a name of up to 12 characters for the field. Length Enter the required length. 60 characters is a practical maximum length as no left and right scrolling is provided and more characters cannot be displayed. (You can scroll within fields on the update screen, but this is pretty tedious). The maximum is 250. The minimum length of a date field is 11 characters. Space is used only for the number of characters entered in each record, not for the maximum field length. In fact, if a field is empty it takes up no space at all. Type button This cycles around the available field types. Choose from character, date, integer or number (real). See Field Types below for more detail. All of these values can be changed at any time without any unexpected effects. If you reduce the length of a field, excess data is only discarded from records as they are updated. Increasing the field length will restore the old data except for records you have changed. Note that reorganising will reformat ALL records. ============= Field Types ============== Character This the usual character string. You should probably avoid double quote characters as you may need these for delimiters when exporting data. Date These have a minimum length of 11 characters and are always entered as day/month/year. The separator can be any of /-. or a space. Month can be entered as a number or a three character name Year can be entered as two or four digits. If two digits are used, a number greater than 50 is assumed to be this century, 50 or less, the next century. eg. 3/6/94 is interpreted as 03-Jun-1994 1-aug-10 is interpreted as 01-Aug-2010 Leading zeroes can be omitted. Dates are always displayed in the format 14-Apr-1993. The following are valid dates 03/08/93 3-8-93 3.aug.93 03 aug 1993 Integer Whole number, no decimals. These are displayed right justified. Number. Real numbers with decimals. Numbers are displayed right justified, but are not reformatted after you enter then. If you want decimal points to line up, you will have to enter the same number of decimal places in each record. ============ Defining Indexes ================ Use the QFDefine program to define or change index field definitions. You must define at least one index to be used for sequencing your records, and quickly locating records. If you are not sure, pick any field that will give a useful sequence, such as surname, title etc. Each index can use a number of fields to give precise control of sequence. If you change an index on an existing file, it will be rebuilt the next time you open the file. Insert Button Pressing this brings up the Define Index requester. You must give the index a name (up to 8 characters) and select the fields to be used. You can use a portion of a long field for an index by changing the default length in the field requester. This will reduce sort storage requirements when rebuilding indexes. Modify Button Click on an index to highlight it before pressing this button. Displays the Define Index requester for you to change the fields. Delete Button Click on an index to highlight it before pressing this button. Displays a requester showing the fields in the index. Press OK to delete the index, press cancel if you have changed your mind. You can have any number of indexes but you should limit yourself to those you are going to use regularly. I find it difficult to see how more than 2 or 3 would be useful, particularly as sorting is quite fast. Indexes are maintained automatically as you add, modify and delete records on your file so they reduce the need for sorting and resorting. ============ File Types ================= FILES QuickFile uses four types of file distinguished by extension. These are not text files and cannot be edited with most text editors. Using a hex editor will probably corrupt the file. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. The DEFINITION FILE has no extension. This is the name you enter when specifying a file name for QuickFile. The DATA FILE has an extension of .Data. INDEX FILES have an extension of .nameX where 'name' is the name of the index as specified in the file definition. VIEW files usually have an extension of .View, but this is not essential. ============ Possible Problems =================== If you are prevented from saving your changes by a program error, system or power failure, your file will probably be in an inconsistent state. 1. The updated indexes will not have been written to disk. This is only done if you Save, Exit or Close the file. Each index must be rebuilt. See "Index doesn't match data file" below. 2. Changed records may not have been written to disk and will have to be re-done. Note that because of the way buffering works, changes are not necessarily written to disk in the order they are done. INDEX DOESN'T MATCH DATA FILE It is possible for an index and data file to get out of synchronisation. This can be caused by not closing a file properly, typically because of a guru or power loss with a file open. If you suspect an index has been corrupted in some way, you can delete the index file (called filename.indnameX). When you next open the file, the index will be rebuilt. This is indicated by a message such as "getblock: Block not found" being displayed in the Console window. You can also rebuild an index by selecting the Rebuild Index item from the tools menu. BUGS You can give several fields the same name. If you do this you will get some odd effects but it should not cause major problems. Error handling is still less than adequate. an Out of Memory condition should display a requester advising you to free some memory. In some cases there may not be enough memory to display the requester, and the program will stop with an error message. Disk errors will also cause an immediate termination. The program has been reasonably tested, but only on my A500. Some bugs refuse to show up until you hit exactly the right combination of conditions, so please let me know of any problems you find. Sending a copy of your database and the version of the program you are using together with instructions on how to duplicate the problem will help me to fix the problem. ============== Limits ================== QuickFile is still limited in some areas. These may be enhanced in future. Calculations There is no facility for totalling, or calculating a column based on other columns. Field Length While up to 250 characters are allowed per field, this is not very useful as each field is limited to one line. Number of Records per File The theoretical limit is currently 65,535. In practice it will be much less because of the indexing technique which will run out of either memory or processor speed. Each index requires a contiguous area of ram 4(n + 200) bytes in size, where n is the number of records in the file. The sort technique also limits the size of the file. The sort loads all sort keys to ram and also requires 8 bytes per record in one contiguous area. My largest file is about 2800 records (115 chars per record) and it is fine. The largest file I know of is almost 7000 records and works well even on my 1meg A500. A realistic maximum is probably in the order of 10,000 to 20,000. While files can be larger than available memory, operation is much faster if you set the number of buffers large enough to contain the whole file. I would be interested to hear from anyone using it with larger files. Number of fields per record 250. But I got bored at about 60, so you take your chances if you want to try more. Maximum characters per field 250 Number of indexes More than you should ever need to use. =============== Additional information =============== Block Size QuickFile reads and writes records in groups called blocks. This improves performance as fewer reads and writes are required. Free space is also left in each block to allow records in the block to expand without having to move them on disk. Block size is specified when a file is defined and cannot be changed later. Block size must be larger than record size, but is not otherwise critical. Typical values are in the range of 1000 to 4000 bytes. Buffers A buffer is a chunk of ram used to hold a block of records. QuickFile will try to keep as many blocks in ram as possible to reduce disk accesses. Performance is much better, particularly with floppies, if records can be held in ram rather than having to be read from disk. You can specify the number of blocks to be used for a file with the QFDefine program. You can override the number temporarily by selecting the Buffers item from the options menu. Generally you should try to have the whole file in memory. Limit the number of buffers if your ram is limited or you want to reserve ram for another application. Buffering combines the speed of a memory based database with the capacity of a random access.