.fill .justify .rm 60 .m1 2 .m2 1 .m3 1 .m4 2 .in 5 .ls 1 .ul all .nr a 0 .autoparagraph .define chapter .bp .nr a +1 .nr b 0 .bd 1 .fo /User's Manual/Chapter @na/Page #/ .ce $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9 .cl 0 Chapter @na $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9 .sp .en .define section .sp .nr b +1 .bd 1 .sp .ti -@nb Section @na.@nb $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9 .cl 1 Section @na.@nb $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9 .sp .en .bd 2 .he /Custom Services/DataBase Manager/Version 2.0/ .fo /User's Manual/ /Page #/ .chapter General Information .section Warranty Policy Registered users will recieve free of charge a corrected version of the program. To do so you must send a SASE along with a disk containing enough information to show the problem. A sample database and a note explaining the problem. The disk will be returned as soon as the problem is fixed. Our warranty is simple. If you pay the registration fee, you will recieve a new version of the program with the problem fixed. We support our programs. This software and manual are copyrighted work. You may distribute this program by any desired means so long as the program and all files included in with it remain intact. You may not sell this program without the expressed written consent of Custom Services. No fee other than a simple fee for making copies may be charged for this copying. Since Murphy was an optimist it is with a keen sense of the obvious that we state that while every attempt has been made to free the program and programmer from the embarrassment of failure, and since the registration fee is small, we shall only be made to suffer to the extent of the registration fee no matter what you lawyer may have lead you to believe. Usage of this program signifies your acceptance of these terms. .section Registration and Reward This program is "No-Frills Software" and is available with documentation for the registration fee. Our policy is to supply at least one free update to all registered users. To register please send the requested fee along with your name and address. When you register please also include information as to where you obtained the product. Custom Services has a policy of rewarding users who refer other users to our products. A percentage of the registration fee will be credited to REGISTERED users. Once you are registered and someone mentions your name when they send in their registration fee you will get a credit. The credit will be available for you to spend on other hardware or software available from Custom Services. Registered Users with a non zero balance will be notified once per year(or upon request) of their balance. Please direct all questions and comments to: .nf .in +5 .sp Custom Services P. O. Box 254 Moorestown, NJ., 08057 .fi .in -5 .sp This program is a CLI only product. You must run it from CLI. This program is a shareware program supplied to you with documentation and executable program. A sample database is also inclosed. You are allowed to distribute these files in any manner you choose provided the charges for distribution do not exceed normal coping costs. You may only distribute these files together. All materials included here are the copyrighted property of Custom Services. No commercial use of this product may be made without the expressed written consent of the Author. This product may be used on any number of computer systems without fear or fee. It is up to you to judge the usefulness of this program. If you use it please feel free to send the shareware fee to the above address. .section Limitations This program will allow you to have up to 1024 byte per record, each record may have up to 36 keys and 255 fields. The data file is packed binary to minimize the disk usage. Keys are kept on RAM: for fast access. Field names may be up to 7 characters in size. The maximun length for a database is 35. The maximum length of a field description is 39 characters. Interger and Floating point data is represented as 32 bit values taking four bytes per field. Logical flags are treated the same as character data except that you may only store a "Y" or "N" in the field. Character fields may be any size from 1 to 80 characters in length. .chapter Program Operation .section General This program will use the first CLI argument as the filename. It will create the file if it does not exist. The filename may be up to 30 characters in length. The default name is "MASTER". the program will create MASTER.DIC, which is the dictionary for your file, and MASTER.DAT, which is the actual data. The program is invoked by the command: .nf 1> CSDBMS or 1> CSDBMS .fi The default(first example) is the same as the command "CSDBMS MASTER". You may only specify the name of the database, You may not specify the pathname. In other words, the database must reside in the current default directory. If it is not there it will be created. .section Functions You have the following functions available: .in +5 Create a Database Add records Change records Delete and Undelete records repack the file (really deletes the deleted records!) Select a set of record(by a range or list) Reselect from the current set of records( by a range or list) change the print options(what prints and order, where to print it) perform math on the selected records(add, subtract amount, total fields) .in -5 .section Creating a Database A database is created when CSDBMS cannot find the database you specified on the command line. You may only specify a database name on the command line not the path where it resides. You must have your default directory set to the directory which contains the database files. When CSDBMS does not find the database in the current directory it will ask you if it should be created. When you answer yes it will then prompt you for the name, description, if it is to be a key and the type. The type of the data may be: .in +5 i - integer data f - real data(floating point number) l - logical flag(Y or N only values) c - character data( you will be asked the size) .in -5 You will be asked if the item should print by default. It is recommended that you always print items by default(or turn it on later) for adding data to the file since only printed fields will be displayed. After each field is defined you will be asked if it is alright. If you answer yes the field will be added to the dictionary and the size of the record displayed. A "no" answer will cause the field to be forgotten. .section Key and their meaning When you wish to select records in your database it is the same as looking in a file cabinet. The drawers of the file cabinet are the different keys in your database. You must have at least one keyed item in the database so you can select a set of data. The selection of records is only allowed with field that are keyed. If the database is found the dictionary will be read in and the key files created. .section Operation The Idea is to allow you to keep track of your data and print it selecting the items and fields. A simple sequence of using it would be: .nf .sp .in +5 1) build the database(automatic if file doesnt exist) 2) Add records 3) Select on a Key field 4) Reselect one or more times to reduce the Current Set to the records you want 5) make changes to the selected records 6) make proper print selection(what prints, to a file?) 7) print reports 8) do whatever else you want! then exit .sp .in -5 .fi .section Selecting records Selecting records from the file can be done with lists of exact data or ranges of data. The type of character can be matched on a wildcard character of "*" which matches all characters that follow. The "*" will end the check for a match causing a match. Characters after the "*" are ignored. "abc*" is equivalent to "abcwdd" and "abcdef". This works best on the list selection but will also work in ranges. The question mark can be used to replace any single character. While the "*" will end the check for a match the question mark just skips a character in the same position giving a match for that character. Other than the "*" and "?" match all list matches are for exact matches. Upper and Lower case do matter! To select all records for a field which is character wanting all that start with a "w" you can use the list option and select using "W*" and "w*" to get both upper and lower case versions. Note, the quotes used are to highlight the examples only, you do not need the quotes to talk to CSDBMS about strings! .section Printing and Formatting You may select which items to print and the order they are to print. This option will override the defaults setup when the database is created. All set all items to print by default. You select the order the data is printed with the "Print Order Selection" menu item. You may print your items multiple times by just selecting the item more than once. .section Hardcopy selection: You may select items not to print, you may also select where to print the items. CSDBMS will print to a file, your printer, or to the screen. The default is to the screen. If you print to a file, ALL print output will go to that file. reselecting the option will allow you to turn it off. .chapter Basic Operation: The default answer to a question is YES, if you hit return CSDBMS will assume that is your answer. Most destructive commands need a NO answer to the prompting question "Do you wish to cancel this operation". This prevents you from accidently deleting your work! all numbers are decimal. .chapter Command References .section A - Add records Adding records is simple. You will be prompted by the field name you just input the data. The field size will be included in the prompt in parentheses. For example, a 40 character field with the name of LOCATION will prompt: LOCATION(40). .section H - Hard Copy Reports Hard copy reports will allow you to select the items you wish to print along with the destination. You can print to PRT:, a file, or the screen. There are several parts to this option. The first is to select the items you wish printed. All items will appear on the menu with either a "y" or "n". The above example for LOCATION would appear LOCATION(y) if it was to print. Selecting the item will toggle the y to an n and from n to y. When done just hit return to go to the next phase. The next phase will ask about the line size, the line spacing within a record, and the line spacing between records. The next phase will ask if you wish the hard copy option turned on or off. You will be asked for the destination. Turning the option off will result in output to the screen. This is the default state. .section C - Change records This command will allow you to change ALL the selected records. If you wish to change an item, select it from the menu. You will be prompted for the new value. ALL selected records will have that field set to the value input. .section D - Delete records This command will flag all selected records as deleted. These records may be undeleted with the "U" option. These records will stay in the data base until you repack the data. .section S - Select records This command will allow you to select records by either a list or a range prompting you by field name for the values you have choosen. This command will only allow you to select via the KEY items. You may not select record by items that are unkeyed. To select records for items which are not keys, you must select all records(answer no to the select by list and select by range questions) and then use the "F" option to make your selection. The records will always be in order by of the Selection key! .section U - Undelete records This command will undelete all selected records. .section F - ReSelect records This command is used to reduce the selected data set by reselecting on either a list or range(as in the select command). The difference is that it requires that you select records first and then reselect on any field. .section K - Dictionary Key items This report will list all fields in the dictionary which are keys. .section I - All Dictionary items This report will list all fields in the dictionary. .section R - Report Active records This command will list the current data set for records selected which are not deleted. .section N - Report Inactive records This command will list the current data set for records selected which are deleted. .section W - Repack Database This command will rebuild the database removing all deleted records. .section M - Math Functions This command will allow you to Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, or Total up the values in an integer or floating point field. It will operate on the current data set. .section G - Generate OverLays This command will allow you to redefine the current data dictionary. You can make a new item which overlays an existing item. For example: you may have LOCATION as a field which contains 40 characters. It may be made up of City for 20 characters, State for 2 and zipcode for 9. you defined LOCATION when you created your database. With this option and the fact that LOCATION occured at byte 100 in your record you can define City to be an overlay at location 100, State at location 122, and zipcode at location 125. The data will be entered using LOCATION when you add records but you can reference it by City, State or zipcode when you reselect records. You can make your overlays permenent by using the J option. .section J - Update Dictionary file This command will allow you to resave your dictionary after changes to the print selection or the creation of overlays. This will allow you to setup defaults for print selection and save it for next time. .section O - Optional Secondary Sort This option is not included in this version. It will allow the selection of items by a key with an optional field being specified for sorting when the key item is equal. This will be included in a later version. .section P - Print Order Selection This command will override the default print selection turning off all items. The order you select the items will be the order printed. Only those items referenced by this command will be printed. .section E - Exit or Q - Quit This command will close all files and exit. .chapter Other items of interest .section Mailing Labels Example CSDBMS will generate 1-up labels directly to your printer in a simple manner. Assume you have a database built with the name and address data entered. Each field(name, address-1, address-2, location, and zipcode) is 35 characters in length(except zipcode). You would print labels by arranging the data into the form: .nf .sp .in +5 name address-1 address-2 location zipcode blank line .sp .in -5 .fill This would be print one label on your forms for a 3 1/2 wide by 15/16 inche 1-up label(35 character wide and 6 lines long for a printer set to 6 lpi and 10 cpi). Using the P option select the five field and then use the H option to set the line size to 1 character(that way every field will get a new line ), the spacing within a record to 1, and the spacing between records to 2. If your printer is ready with the labels turn the Hard copy option on and give the device "PRT:" as the filename! Now you have defined the output structure for the label. Line up the labels on your printer with the top line set so the first line of the label is the first line to print. Since everything is set you now use the "Report Active Records" to print the labels, but before you do that make sure you have selected the records you labels for! When done printing the labels just reselect the Hard copy option and turn off the printer output. It is a good idea to display the records on the screen before wasting labels. The data is printed to the screen whenever the hard copy option is off. .section You own options! Other options may be included if requested by the users sending in the registration fee. If you want it just ask! .page .he / / / / .pn roman .fo / /-#-/ / .nofill .sp .center T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s .sp .printcont