Winisis 1.3 November 1998 Edition
Winisis – Supplement to the Reference Manual Versions 1.0 to 1.3 November 1998
Table of Contents A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I.
Using Record MODELs in Winisis Data Entry Implementing the Searched Terms HighLighting Changing the Dbase Window background from within a format How to Prompt the user before executing a Hypertext command How to change the color of Hypertexts Other Hypertext commands Other SYSPAR parameters Other Formatting Language Commands Controlling the search result display: the file EXP
Davide Storti - 1998
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A. Using Record MODELs in Winisis Data Entry Note that Model stands for “Default Values�. Open the Data Entry window, the facilities described below are accessible from the Option button.
1. Creating a Model... a) From a blank page (ex-novo) First, you should click the Create a new record button. A blank page will appear and you may type in all data you wish to be included in the model. b) From an existing record To create a model you should take one of your existing records, taking out everything unneeded and typing in everything you want to be included in the model. Then, select the menu Option - Create a new Model. Winisis will present a new record based on the selected model. You may already start performing data entry. If you don't want to create a new record, just move to another one: for instance you may press the "previous record" button. Winisis will ask you to save the new record and you will answer NO. You are informed about the presence of a MODEL in memory by the Data Entry status bar message [MODEL LOADED]. From now, new records will be created based on the MODEL record. Remember that in Winisis a new record isn't physically stored until you press the "SAVE this record on the disk" button. Don't worry about pressing the NEW record button many times to test.
2. Deleting the current Model If you don't need the current MODEL anymore and want to create really empty records, select the menu Option - Clear MODEL. The status bar message will disappear.
3. Substituting the current Model If one MODEL has already been loaded in memory and you want to create a new one, just select another time the menu Option - Create a new Model. Winisis will ask you to confirm.
4. Recycling unused MFNs Once a MODEL is loaded in memory, you may use it to recycle deleted or unused records. If the record is DELETED, you should undelete it first. Then, you may replace the current record content by the content of the Model by selecting the menu Option Clear entries, which normally would have simply cleared all the worksheet fields. 2/19
5. Copying records over existing ones Go to the source record and create a Model on it (Option - Create a new Model). Then, go to the destination record and select the menu Option - Clear entries. Save the record.
B. Implementing the Searched Terms HighLighting 1. Setting up the HighLighting mode Winisis may highlight the retrieved terms if the parameter 142 is present in the SYSPAR. 142=ForeColor[,BackColor] The background color is optional.
2. How Winisis HighLights the retrieved terms The most difficult thing is to know which terms to highlight. Winisis tries to reduce every term to single words: for instance, the term EDUCATIONAL COSTS Will be treated as being two distinct terms: EDUCATIONAL COSTS When displaying a search result, both terms will be highlighted, no matter in which field they are. Another example. The term EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT counts 3 different words: EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT As before, each of the above terms in the displayed text will be highlighted. The right truncation case is more complicated. Searching for EDUCA$ will retrieve both EDUCATIONAL COSTS and EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT. Winisis will highlight each word contained in such titles, that is:
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EDUCATIONAL COSTS EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT Of course this means that every "AND" Winisis will find in a record will be highlighted depending on the display format. Truncated dictionary terms won’t be recognized by Winisis. Also, words eventually concatenated with others without any separator, are not likely to be recognized by the program. For example, suppose fields v1 and v2 contain respectively: V1 =’EDUCATIONAL COSTS’ V2 =’EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT’ displayed using the following format: V1,V2 EDUCATIONAL COSTSEDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT words COSTS and EDUCATION won’t be highlighted by Winisis. Each search set produces a list of "terms to highlight". Selecting previous searches will retrieve also the correspondent "highlight" list.
3. Free Text Searches Winisis cannot highlight results of free text searches.
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C. Changing the Dbase Window background from within a format 1. Background patterns In Windows, a background pattern is a 8x8 pixels square image used to fill the background of a Windows control. This square may contain colors. You may use any image editor to create your own pattern files. Such files must be saved as bitmaps (BMP). Images larger than 8x8 will be cut. Note that version 1.1 highly improve this feature, by supporting large bitmaps and alignment commands (see section "Other RTF Commands").
2. Command “\isispatt “ This simple utility simply access a hidden function of Winisis in order to set the current background pattern. You must provide the name of the BMP file, without the extension. Note the space after the filename. For example: … ,’\isispatt pat001 ‘,…
3. Where bitmaps are? Of course you must tell Winisis in which directory it can files the pictures using the SYSPAR parameter 141: 141=c:\winisis\bg\ If the above parameter is missing Winisis may not be able to find the pattern files.
D.
How to Prompt the user before executing a Hypertext command
The PROMPT prefix allows you to query the user before executing a polymorphic format at run-time.
1. The command prefix PROMPT The command PROMPT can be added prior to any other commands in the Link statement. For example: ..,Link(('Test'),'PROMPT TEXTBOX Ciao'),.. When clicking the above hypertext, a small textbox appears just beside the clicked term (‘Test’). A blinking cursor indicates that Winisis is listening for the user input. If the focus is moved to a different object, the textbox will disappear. 5/19
Use ENTER to validate the input and take out the prompt from the screen.
2. How to use the user input Winisis will substitute each $$ (double dollar sign) in the rest of the hypertext command with the user input. For example: ..,Link(('Test'),'PROMPT TEXTBOX $$'),.. will open a new window containing the string the user typed in.
3. An useful example Consider the following hypertext command: Base format: TEST.PFT Link(('Click here to search...'), 'TEXTBOXLOAD TESTR') In response to the user click, it will execute a second external format. Such format will search for a given term, opening a new window containing the search results: Loaded format: TESTR.PFT Ref(l('water'),v24) To make this interactive, put the PROMPT prefix in TEST.PFT: Link(('Click here to search...'), 'PROMPT TEXTBOXLOAD TESTR,zzzz,$$') and change TESTR.PFT as follows: Ref(l('zzzz'),v24) Result: when you click on ‘click here to search’ you’ll get a prompt box; type in your query and press ENTER: a new window will appear with the result.
4. How it works? You must use the above approach because of the following: a) It is impossible to delay the execution of the current format; b) The only way to pass values through formats is by using polymorphic extensions. In other words, the mechanism works by doing a double substitution:
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a) the $$ is substituted by the user input (e.g. "Conference"). The hypertext command to be executed now is: 'TEXTBOXLOAD TESTR,zzzz,Conference‘
b) Winisis loads TESTR.PFT, substituting every zzzz sequence by the string "Conference". The resulting format is: Ref(l('Conference'),v24) Now Winisis will look up for Conference and return the field 24 of the retrieved record.
E. How to change the color of Hypertexts
1.1
1. Hypertext default color By default, hypertexts are painted using the actual value of color 2, which is usually green. In order to change such color to, for example, red, you need to: a) b)
redefine the color table using the COLS command; you must define at least three colors (0, 1, 2), by assigning an RGB triple to each.
This means, of course that you can't have more than one color for hypertexts in a given format.
2. RTF-style Command \htcolor The command lets you change the colortable entry to be used to paint hypertexts. The effect takes place immediately after the command and may changed again by using the same keyword with a different value. Must be inserted between quotes! For example: link(('Example 1'),'none')/,’\htcolor1 ‘,link(('Example 2'),'none')/, ‘\htcolor4 ',link(('Example 3'),'none')/
The first hypertext should appear green, the second red and the third blue, according with the default table of colours.
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F. Other Hypertexts Commands Here follow additional commands not listed in the Winisis Reference Manual.
PROMPT (prefix) See section D.
RESETSEARCH (prefix) Description: Disable the Display Search Results mode, as the menu option Browse-Data base does. This forces Winisis to stop displaying search results. For instance, when search terms highlighting is active, you may use RESETSEARCH to stop highlighting words in order to present a new search interface. Syntax and parameter description: RESETSEARCH is a prefix and, by now, only applies to command FORMAT. For example: RESETSEARCH FORMAT cds1
VIEW: new parameters Description: opens a database VIEW and goes to the specified MFN. Displays using format. Eventually substitutes old-text with new-text. Syntax and parameter description: VIEW dbase[,mfn,format,oldtext,newtext] dbase: mfn: format: oldtext: newtext:
name of the dbase to open mfn to go to. name of format to be applied text to be substitued by newtext. ...
It works in conjunction with [n].
VIEWL: View with lookup Description: opens a database VIEW and goes to the occnum posting of lookupterm. Substitues oldtext with newtext if necessary. Displays using format. Syntax and parameter description: VIEWL dbase,format,(lookupterm),occnum[,oldtext,newtext]
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dbase: name of the dbase to open format: name of format to be applied (lookupterm): term to be searched in dbase. Must be included within parenthesis. occnum: number of the occurrence to be displayed oldtext: text to be substitued by newtext. newtext: It works in conjunction with [n].
MESSAGE: Sends a message to Winisis
NOT TESTED
1.1
Description: Sends a message to Winisis. Generally it allows to open a database or a particular dialog box belonging to it. Syntax and parameter description: MESSAGE message,dbasename,formatname the message to be sent. the dbase that should receive the message. the format to be shown by dbasename.
message: dbasename: formatname:
Every action will open the specified dbase if necessary. Dbases are identified by their name. Available messages are: Open the Expert Search. Change the actual working language of Winisis XX should be an existing language code!
OPENSEARCH: LANGUAGE-XX
LAGOTO: Approximately Lookup Goto
1.3
Description: looks up for a term and goes to the nearest MFN. Syntax and parameter description: LAGOTO term LAGOTO/nn term term: nn:
the term to be searched. the field in which term should be searched
Very useful used in conjunction with PROMPT to obtain a very simple search engine. For example: 'PROMPT LAGOTO acc' will present the first dictionary term's record beginning by 'acc'. 9/19
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PRINTTHIS: Print this page
1.3
Description: Prints the current page, including the hypertext command itself. Syntax and parameter description: PRINTTHIS :
has no parameters.
PRINTSEARCH: Access the simple print dialog box
1.3
Description: It allows to print a search result or the current record : user will access the complete simple dialog box in order to choose the format and eventually the filename of the outfile (if any). Syntax and parameter description: PRINTSEARCH :
has no parameters.
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G. Other SYSPAR parameters In addition to parameters listed in the Reference Manual, the following are also available: Parameter 113: Print Index Separator You may change the index separator string by setting this parameter. Note that the separator is being printed before each value, but the first. The default is ", " (a comma followed by a space). Parameter 124: Dbase Window Opening Mode and Size Syntax is: 124=mode[, left, top, right, bottom] Default is: 124=0 The value of mode can be 0 (default) or 1 setting the behaviour of Winisis when opening the default database (parameter 6). If set to 1, Winisis will open the default database with no toolbar nor statusbar and the user won't be able to select most Dbase functions (search, I/F, Import...). This feature is useful for setting up personalized hypertextual menus to be automatically shown when Winisis starts avoiding the user to do other things. Optional parameters left, top, right and bottom defines the initial position and size of the default window (in pixels). Parameter 135: Big Statusbar for Search Results If you find difficult to know whether you are looking to a search result, you may set this parameter to any value between 1 and 20. A status bar will appear, containing also a hypertext item for making easier to terminate a search browsing. The number corresponds to the color of the message. Default is 0. Parameter 136: Display Zoom Use this parameter to set the initial zooming value of database windows. Default is 120 and values may vary from 80 to 160. Parameter 140: Display Logically Deleted records Set this parameter to 0 if you don't want Winisis to display the content of logically deleted records. A message will be displayed instead. Default is 1. Parameter 141: Pattern path See Section C. Parameter 142: HighLight settings See Section B.
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Parameter 980: Display search results in a list Setting this parameter to 1 will let Winisis display the results of a query into a table. Please refer to section I for details. NOTE: THE FOLLOWING PARAMETERS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE SYSTEM SETTINGS DIALOG BOX Parameter 125: Open Database restriction You may avoid users to freely choose databases around the local disk or network, by setting this parameter to 1. This will open a file list instead of the standard Open File dialog box. The user is then obliged to choose from such list. You may set the list, by editing parameters above 1000 in your syspar.par (so called recently used file list). Also, you may force Winisis to display a database description instead of the file name, as follows: 1000=c:\isis\data\cds.mst***CDS - An example database for Isis 1001=c:\isis\data\thes.mst***THES - A small thesaurus example
The three asterisks tell Winisis to display the following text. Note that the length of such text is limited to 80 characters. Parameter 144: Display of the query result when only one record is found When parameter 980 is set to 1, Winisis displays the search results in a table. But when there is only one HIT, Winisis displays the records in the normal way, in the database window. If your application requires Winisis to force the display of the table even with only one match, set parameter 144 to 1. Parameter 150: Set the format of DATE and DATESTAMP functions Usually the format command DATE(n) and the Isis-Pascal function DATESTAMP returns the system date in the form Month-Day-Year. Using this parameter you can set the date format. You can use one of the following codes : YMD to set the format to Year-Month-Day DMY to set the format to Day-Month-Year Note that version 1.3 of Winisis always use 4 digits for the YEAR. Parameter 902: Hypertext debugging When writing complex hypertextual formats, it could be useful to be able to see the command text just before its execution. Set this parameter to 1 in order to get a dialog box each time winisis is about to execute an hypertext format. Parameter 918: Export : Default Record and Field separators When exporting to an ISO file, Winisis uses ASCII character 29 to separate records and ASCII 30 to separate fields. In order to stay compatible with other standards, you
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may wish to set others values. Use parameter 918 to set one specific (ASCII visible) character for record and field separators (in that order). Example : 918=*# will set * as the record separator and # as the field separator by default. You will find more items on this subject in the Winisis Reference Manual.
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Parameter 981: Set Tips Format name (1.1) The Tips Format is a filename common to all databases of a given application, identifying the format to be used when displaying Search Tips in the new Expert Search window. When this parameter is set, the Expert Search window will contain a “Search Tips� button. Clicking this button will open a TEXTBOXCHILDLOAD window belonging to the current database. The Load command will open the Tips Format file. For example: 981=help indentifies the file help.pft, that will be used by the Search Tips button, provided that it exists in the current database directory. Note that you may use Isis-Pascal functions in order to modify the behaviour of the help format : for example, you may call different formats for different languages etc.
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H. Other RTF Commands
1.3
Please attentively read the note below the table. Version
Keyword
Comment
1.1
\qr
Justify paragraph text to the right.
1.1
\htcolorN
Sets the hypertext color. Example : \htcolor1
1.1
{\title text}
Sets the current window title. Braces needed. For example: {\title My window title}
1.1
\sbknone
Keeps the current line intact. If the line doesn’t fit the window space, it will be cut.
1.1
\cb
Sets the background color. It's used for dotted boxes.
1.1
\chpict filename
Inserts bitmap filename in the text. Can be used as hypertext when inserted inside a link command: link((‘\chpict bullet ‘),’CMD notepad mytext.txt’)
1.1
\chpict1 file1 file2
A variant of \chpict for nicer hypertext effects. Inserts bitmap file1 in the text. When the mouse pointer passes over it, bitmap file2 is then displayed. File1 is restored as soon the mouse pointer leaves the area. Note that file1.bmp and file2.bmp MUST have the same size. For example: link((‘\chpict1 bull bullovr ‘),’CMD notepad mytext.txt’)
1.1
\brdrdot
Paints a dotted border around the current paragraph using the current foreground color. The box is also filled in by the current background color.
1.0
\isispatt filename
Uses bitmap pattern filename to fill the background (8x8 pixels bitmap). May be combined with a background bitmap.
1.1
\isisbgbmp filename
Sets bitmap filename as the current window background. It is normally displayed at the top-left corner.
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1.1
\picscaledN
Sets the background bitmap alignment and/or scaling. Available settings are: 1 Tile 2 Scaled 4 Centered horizontally 8 Centered vertically 16 Right aligned 32 Bottom aligned Settings may be combined to get different output styles. For example, use \picscaled12 to center your bitmap in the window (8+4)
Note that all commands must be inserted between single quotes. They haven’t been introduced as native commands yet. Please also consider all extra spaces following command parameters in the examples, such as filenames: link((‘\chpict bullet ‘),’CMD notepad mytext.txt’)
or numbers: ‘\picscaled1 ‘
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I.
Controlling the search result display: the file EXP
1.3
This section explains what’s happen when using the SYSPAR.PAR parameter 980=1, that is “ Display search results in a Table �.
The window behaviour When displaying a search set, the normal window is transformed and two panels, with a toolbar and a status bar appear. The left panel contains the list of records matching the query. The right panel displays few tips on how to use the window. The tool bar holds a combo box with all the FDT fields and an Options button. Choosing a field from the combo box displays that field for each record of the list.
How to mark some of the records The [+] plus sign on the left of each line allows you to select (mark) that record. Clicking the [+] sign changes the color of the line and displays the record content (using the default format dbn.pft) on the right panel. To DE-select the record just click again the [+] sign.
How see the content of a record In order to see the record content without selecting it, just click the corresponding line.
How to change the MFN order By default records are displayed in descending order (highest MFN first). You can reverse the order by clicking the arrows on the status bar.
How to browse the results You can use the scroll bar (if necessary) to see records that don't fit in the window. The total of records retrieved is written on the status bar. By resizing the window you may see more or less lines/records. You may also resize the panels by using the vertical bar on the middle of the window.
How to come back to the normal Winisis display The STOP button on the right bottom of the status bar, will stop the browsing and the normal database window will be restored.
Accessing SAVE/PRINT facilities The OPTION button lets you access some print/save facilities faster: - print the current record - print all marked records
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- print all retrieved records - export the search result - stop browsing (the same as the STOP icon at the window’s bottom). NOTE: when you choose to print something, you can select the output device (printer or file) as well as the print format to be used.
How to change the behaviour of the result window It is possible to setup a configuration file to set up some parameters for the window. It is called dbn.EXP and MUST be located in the same directory as the DBN.PAR, for compatibility reasons. The syntax is the same as for the syspar.par. The following parameters are now accepted: 500=format name lets you specify which format to use to display records on the right panel. Most hypertext formats should work. However, test your formats in this environment before shipping your database or application. 502=short format lets you set the format to be used when displaying records items on the left panel list. For example: 502=mfn(1),'*** ',v2 504=order (ascending, descending) Set this parameter to 1 (default) to display the highest MFN first. Set it to 0 to display the lowest first. 506=Can the user choose the display format ? When set to 1, Winisis will display the list of the available display formats in the usual combo-box. Choosing an element from the list will change the record’s look. Comments are allowed, as for the SYSPAR.PAR: just start the line with a semicolon: ; this is a comment
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