keystrokes.<br />## <br />Group Menu<br />The intermediate menu lists functions and groups of functions which are available to you and which belong to the (cont.)<br />selected Logical Application. Since MAGEC applications usually contain a set of functions, all having the same (cont.)<br />three-character prefix, this menu shows such sets of functions as a single line item. If you cursor-select one of these (cont.)<br />sets you will receive the third-level menu which will show each individual function within that set. If the group-level (cont.)<br />menu detects that there is only one function available to you (for a given three-character prefix) then it will display (cont.)<br />that function on a line. If you select such a single function you will be given the actual application screen for it (cont.)<br />without having to go to the third-level menu.<br />## <br />Application Menu<br />The third-level (lowest level) menu is called the "application menu". To get an application menu you may cursor-select (cont.)<br />the desired function set from the group menu or you may key into SFUNCT and SKEY (SKEY immediately follows SFUNCT on (cont.)<br />the screen) the command:<br />$$MENU nn<br />&nbsp;<br />where:<br />nn<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />= the logical application number desired.<br />Logical application numbers may be any number from 01 through 50 which are assigned by the security officers or data (cont.)<br />processing development staff. If you will be using the menus often then you may set a session option to equate the PA1 (cont.)<br />(Ctrl-F1) key to the $$MENU function to reduce keystrokes needed to return to the application menu from any other (cont.)<br />screen.<br />## <br />Using the Application Menu<br />The low-level application menu display lists functions which belong to the logical application selected and which the (cont.)<br />operator logged on to the terminal is authorized to do. In some cases the list will continue for more than one "page" (cont.)<br />(screenful). Just pressing PF8 will "page forward" through the menu list. When the end of the menu list is reached (cont.)<br />pressing PF3 will return to the main menu.<br />To select a function from the application menu you may position the cursor to the line on which it is shown and press (cont.)<br />ENTER. If you position the cursor to a function's line and press HELP (PF2) instead of ENTER, the online documentation (cont.)<br />for the selected function will be presented instead of the application screen.<br />Since most functions require a key value in order to make up a complete command, you may key in the desired key value (cont.)<br />beside the selected function right onto the application menu screen. If the key value is not entered onto the menu (cont.)<br />screen and one is required then the application screen will be presented with a message in SCOMPL "Enter key Info -or- (cont.)<br />Press PF1 for Help".<br />You may then key in the desired key value or use the HELP key to obtain a key analysis display showing the proper format for entering the key value for this function.<br />CUSADD&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Add a Customer<br />CUSCHG&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Change a Customer<br />etc.<br /># <br />Documentation<br />## <br />Viewing Documentation<br />An online facility is built into MAGEC to enable you to view documentation at your screen. It includes a three-level (cont.)<br />"menu" to help you to choose among all the many topics stored in the documentation file (the DOC (cont.)<br />file).<br />To begin, you enter the function code: ****HELP**. You will be presented a list of *Entity Types* defined to the MAGEC (cont.)<br />dictionary. You can choose one by positioning the cursor to the line it is displayed on and pressing ENTER. The list (cont.)<br />may be more than one page (screenful) long. If you wish to page forward, just press ENTER without cursor-selecting an (cont.)<br />Entity Type.<br />When you select an Entity Type you will be presented a list of *Key Words (or Key Phrases)*. They will be the ones (cont.)<br />associated with the selected Entity Type. For example, if you chose an Entity Type of FUNC (online function codes), you (cont.)<br />would receive a list of key words which were online function codes; if you selected an Entity Type of BPGM (batch (cont.)<br />programs), you would receive a list of key words which were batch program names, and so forth. Your list could continue (cont.)<br />for multiple pages, to page forward just press ENTER. When you see the Key Word or Phrase you are interested in, point (cont.)<br />to it with the cursor and press ENTER.<br />When you cursor-select a Key Word or Phrase, as described above, you will then be presented a list of *Topics* from the (cont.)<br />MAGEC documentation file. They will be those topics which are referenced by (associated with) the Key Word or Phrase (cont.)<br />you have selected. This list may also continue for multiple pages, you can just press ENTER to page forward. When you (cont.)<br />see the Topic you are interested in you can cursor-select it and press ENTER, you will be displayed the first page (cont.)<br />(screenful) of text for that Topic.<br />As you browse through the selected Topic you can page forward by pressing PF8, or page backward by pressing PF7 (F7, on (cont.)<br />a PC). When you are through reading it, you can press PF12 (Shift-F2, on a PC) to return to the Topics (cont.)<br />list.<br />At each level of the selection menus the PF12 key will take you back up to the prior menu. If your security (cont.)<br />authorization permits you to modify documentation, you can do so while you are browsing through the Topic. To do that (cont.)<br />you would alter the function code (SFUNCT) to DOCCHG, key in your changes, and press ENTER.<br />Another way you can look for a Topic in the DOC file is by simply browsing through it using the DOCLOC function. The (cont.)<br />DOCLOC screen is merely a list of Topics, in alphanumeric order, which are on the file. They are not organized by Key (cont.)<br />Word references. This method is handy when you know the Topic (and how it is spelled, approximately) that you want to (cont.)<br />view. You do not need to enter the complete Topic Name as a key value in SKEY (though you could), you could enter only (cont.)<br />the first few characters of it or just enter a "1" to start browsing at the beginning of the file.<br />As with all lists in MAGEC, you can cursor-select the item you are looking for by positioning the cursor to it, when it (cont.)<br />is shown in the list on the screen, then you can press ENTER and be immediately presented the DOCSEE display of the (cont.)<br />first page (screenful) of text for the Topic you chose. You also can produce hardcopy manuals from the DOC file. Your (cont.)<br />online applications have function-level and field-level online HELP which will be discussed later.<br />**<br />NOTE:<br />**<br />**HELP menus help find Documentation. DOCLOC lists Topics.<br />## <br />**HELP and DOCLOC<br />*<br />Figure 02 --&nbsp; Reviewing Documentation Online<br /># <br />Key Value Entry<br />## <br />Keying into SKEY<br />A complete "command" might be considered to be a combination of the function code (entered into SFUNCT) and the key (cont.)<br />value (entered into SKEY). SFUNCT and SKEY are the first two screen fields on any MAGEC application screen. Some (cont.)<br />functions might not require any key value to be entered, but most do. Though the formats for entering key values for (cont.)<br />various applications may differ greatly, certain rules are common to all MAGEC applications. Understanding them will (cont.)<br />save much time and make it easier for an operator to quickly learn to use any MAGEC-generated (cont.)<br />applications.<br />## <br />Padding<br />There are only two types of data which may be entered into the Skey field, they are: numeric data and non-numeric data. (cont.)<br />In either case the operator may key in the desired "value" and MAGEC will pad it as appropriate to produce the proper (cont.)<br />internal key. For instance: if a Customer number is six digits long the operator may key in a value of "37" and MAGEC (cont.)<br />will "pad" it to 000037 internally, if a Customer Name is 20 characters long the operator may key in "JONES" and MAGEC (cont.)<br />will append the appropriate number of blanks to the end of it.<br />Numeric key data is "right justified" and padded with leading zeros and non-numeric key data is left-justified and (cont.)<br />padded with trailing blanks. The application developers specify whether each item of key data is numeric or (cont.)<br />non-numeric. They also specify the minimum number of characters which the operator is to be allowed to enter for each (cont.)<br />item (component field) of key data. For instance: a minimum of two digits might be specified for Customer number, (cont.)<br />requiring an entry of "03" for Customer 3. Requiring a minimum number of characters (or digits) for an item of key data (cont.)<br />is often done to reduce the chance of mis-keyed data.<br />## <br />Compound Keys<br />In many cases the key value will consist of more than one "key component". An example of such a compound key value (cont.)<br />might be: a key of Customer number plus Invoice number for accessing the invoice information screen. If the Customer (cont.)<br />number is six digits long and the Invoice number is seven digits long, then to access Customer 37's Invoice number 125 (cont.)<br />the operator may enter a key value of 37/125 instead of the cumbersome 0000370000125, which is the actual database key (cont.)<br />value. As in the example given, the slash character (&nbsp;/&nbsp;) is used as the delimiter between key Components. (cont.)<br />Each of the components may have a minimum number of characters specified for it. In some applications the key value may (cont.)<br />be compound with some numeric and some non-numeric key components, the slash separates the components and each will be (cont.)<br />properly padded and may have its own minimum specified. Up to five key components might be used in any given key value (cont.)<br />depending on the needs of the application.<br />## <br />Key Delimiter<br />As mentioned above, the normal delimiter for key components is the slash (&nbsp;/&nbsp;). In most cases that is very (cont.)<br />acceptable; however, there might be some instances where a slash is a valid character within a key value. For example, (cont.)<br />an automobile's Vehicle Identification Number might look like: AB3/12XV45. In that example the Slashes are not (cont.)<br />delimiters separating different component fields of the key, they are actually part of the key value. Obviously, if the (cont.)<br />Slash were both a valid character within a key value and the delimiter separating component fields, a great deal of (cont.)<br />confusion would result. To solve this problem, MAGEC allows the developer to specify a different delimiter character to (cont.)<br />be used instead of the Slash. Therefore, in some of your screens you may use some other delimiter character to separate (cont.)<br />component key fields. Hopefully, the developer was thoughtful enough to advise you with either written documentation, (cont.)<br />online HELP text, messages displayed on the screen, or all of the above, in those cases.<br />## <br />Lowercase in Key Value<br />It is a standard feature of all MAGEC applications that the function code and key value entered into the top row of the (cont.)<br />screen will be converted from any lowercase alphabetics to uppercase automatically. This eliminates the need for (cont.)<br />operators to concern themselves with the type of terminal being used and whether the terminal is converting alphabetic (cont.)<br />characters to uppercase or not. In almost all cases this uppercase translation is desirable. In very few rare cases it (cont.)<br />may be necessary to key lowercase alphabetics into the key value and not have them translated into uppercase. There is (cont.)<br />a way to do that.<br />MAGEC will not uppercase characters in the SKEY field if they are enclosed in quotes (&nbsp;"&nbsp;). Thus, to enter a key value of: ABC Corporation of OHIO<br />"ABC Corporation of OHIO"<br />**- or<br />"ABC Corporation of OHIO<br />- or<br />abc c"orporation of" ohio<br />would all be equivalent. The quote characters will be "squeezed out" of the key value and do not count in the (cont.)<br />calculation of the length (number of characters) of data entered. The first quote encountered (left to right) will stop (cont.)<br />the uppercasing at that point and the next one will restart it at the point where it is encountered. If the entire key (cont.)<br />value is not to be uppercased then simply prefixing it with a quote will suffice since it is not necessary to restart (cont.)<br />uppercasing.<br />If the uppercasing is stopped by using the quote but the operator keys the data, or part of it, in uppercase alphabetics then those characters will remain uppercase as entered.<br />## <br />HELP for Entering Key Values<br />If you require assistance in properly entering the key value for any given application you may use the HELP key to (cont.)<br />request a key analysis at any time. If the HELP key is pressed while any invalid key format is entered in SKEY, then (cont.)<br />the key analysis will be displayed. If the HELP key is pressed with a blank key value in SKEY, then the full online (cont.)<br />documentation will display. The last "page" (screenful) of the online documentation is the key analysis. The (cont.)<br />Documentation may also be requested by selecting the desired function from the application Menu and using the PF1 key (cont.)<br />as described in the Menus section of this book.<br />The key analysis screen displays a "key format", a mock-up of the complete key value with X's representing non-numeric data and 9's representing numeric data. For example:<br />XXXXXXXXXX/999<br />&nbsp;<br />would indicate that the key value consists of a 10-character non-numeric item plus a 3-character numeric item. A (cont.)<br />description is also shown to help in understanding what this key value actually is. For example: City Name/ZIP code (cont.)<br />Prefix.<br />Below that is an "analysis" of the components showing the minimum number of characters for each and the maximum and the type of data, numeric or non-numeric.<br />If the key analysis is not enough to clarify the proper key format then you should review the full online documentation (cont.)<br />for more information. Just blank out the entire SKEY field and press the HELP key to request full online (cont.)<br />documentation.<br /># <br />Standard Functions<br />## <br />Standard Function Codes<br />MAGEC applications are always accessed using the six-character function codes entered into SFUNCT. There is no (cont.)<br />restriction regarding what characters may be used to make up function codes except that they be six characters long and (cont.)<br />that they be unique. The application developers could produce an application in which "XYZABC" is a valid function code (cont.)<br />- or "ADD$$$" or " @#$%^" or virtually any sequence of six characters which can be keyed into a CRT keyboard. However, (cont.)<br />it is more likely that they would use mnemonic, easy to remember, codes with some consistency of (cont.)<br />format.<br />The kinds of things that online applications do can be grouped into several categories. With very few exceptions they:<br />Add data to the database<br />Change data on the database<br />Delete data from the database<br />Duplicate data on the database<br />Display (Inquire into) data on the database<br />Browse through data on the database (with variations)<br />MAGEC very strongly encourages the developers to use a standard set of nine function codes to accomplish these (cont.)<br />operations. The standard set consists of function codes with a prefix (first three characters) which describes the (cont.)<br />"Data Class". Customer data might, for instance, be called "CUS". The last three characters describe which operation is (cont.)<br />to be done. The standard set of functions for CUS data would be:<br />CUSADD&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Add a Customer<br />CUSCHG&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Change a Customer<br />CUSDEL&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Delete a Customer<br />CUSSEE&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;See (Display) a Customer<br />CUSNXT&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;See the Next Customer (from the one shown on the CUSSEE screen)<br />CUSDUP&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Duplicate a Customer<br />CUSLOC&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Locate a Customer (Browse)<br />CUSSCN&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Scan for selected Customer(s)<br />CUSFND&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Find Customers meeting certain criteria<br /><br />next: user04.md.txt