HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
ALLBASE/BRW Enhancements
by Mary Wernette
Software Technology Division
This release of HP ALLBASE/BRW on MPE/iX Release 4.0 adds several of the
most frequently requested enhancements.
DICTIONARY MAINTENANCE MADE SIMPLE
Now you can modify BRW dictionaries much more easily!
BRW has always provided a set of conversion programs to take other
dictionary formats and convert them into the BRW dictionary format.
Until now, there was no provision for modifying a BRW dictionary. You
needed to modify the original dictionary, such as a system dictionary,
then run the conversion program again. This created quite an obstacle
for those needing to maintain both dictionaries. And, in the case where
the original data dictionary is no longer available, the task is
impossible!
A new utility, BRWDUSER.PUB.SYS, is now available as part of the BRW
product. This utility takes a BRW data dictionary, BRWDIC, and generates
a script file that can recreate the dictionary using the BRWGEND.PUB.SYS
program.
The intent of BRWDUSER is to simplify maintenance of BRW data
dictionaries. Since BRW data dictionaries are usually generated from
some other dictionary, such as the System Dictionary, it was previously
necessary to modify the source dictionary, then reconvert to BRWDIC
format to add tables or modify items. With BRWDUSER, you can decompile
the dictionary file into a script file, edit that file, then recreate
BRWDIC from the modified script file.
The syntax of script files is fully documented in the "Preparing a Data
Dictionary" section of the HP ALLBASE/BRW Reference Manual (35360-90051).
To use BRWDUSER, you run BRWDUSER.PUB.SYS and answer two prompts. The
first prompt is for the BRW data dictionary name; the default is
BRWDIC.PUB. The second prompt is for the output script filename; the
default is GENDEF .
If you want to decompile a compatibility mode RDIC data dictionary, you
must run the corresponding RDICUSER.PUB.SYS program.
NEW IMPROVED MANUAL
The manual has been updated to include HP ALLBASE/SQL screens and
information. In addition, the structure of the manual has been changed
so you can look up screens in alphabetical order in one chapter.
Calculation information is also organized in alphabetical order rather
than random order. Tasks are explained in simple, step-by-step
procedures. Screens and illustrations are more readable. Administration
tasks such as security, configuration, report conversions, and intrinsics
are organized into a separate part of the manual.
STREAMLINED REPORT DEVELOPMENT
A report developer can now test and debug a report with a limited amount
of data, instead of running the whole report. This saves precious
development time and paper.
Two JCWs have been created, BRWLINELIMIT and BRWRECORDLIMIT, which allow
developers to test reports with only a subset of data from the full
report.
SUPPRESS REPETITION ON ANY LINESET
A large number of you have requested greater flexibility in suppressing
repetition. Now, you can suppress repetition on any lineset, not just
the Detail lineset.
SUPPORT FOR IEEE REALS
TurboIMAGE now supports the IEEE REAL number format, in addition to the
HP3000 REAL format. Likewise, BRW supports both formats, providing that
the data item is correctly configured in the data dictionary.
With Dictionary/3000, you can override the assumed REAL number type by
using long names, !REAL-HP3000, or !REAL- IEEE. For System Dictionary,
use element subtypes HP3000 or IEEE.
These long name and element subtype constructs are the same as those used
to supply a DATE/TIME format in these source dictionaries.
BRW now allows REAL number format to be specified, for User-Generated
scripts. The item type REAL (32 floating point) and LONG (64 bit
floating point) now accept two optional keywords, HP3000 and IEEE. For
example:
ITEM oldreal REAL HP3000
ITEM newreal REAL IEEE
ITEM bigoldreal REAL HP3000
ITEM bignewreal REAL IEEE
When this enhancement is combined with the new BRWDUSER utility, it
should be easy to upgrade the data dictionaries to reflect any IMAGE
databases that use IEEE REALs.
NEW JCWS ADD FUNCTIONALITY
The following five JCWs may be optionally set by the user to expand the
functionality of HP ALLBASE/BRW.
BRWLINELIMIT
Used in BRWEXEC and REXEC, this JCW together with BRWRECORDLIMIT provide
a sample values feature for BRW. They let users test reports with only a
subset of the data from the full report.
BRWLINELIMIT provides a value from 1 to 32000, and places a limit on the
number of lines written to the report file. If BRWLINELIMIT is used
without BRWRECORDLIMIT, then BRW completes the full data access portion
of the report, but quits early on printing the result.
BRWNULLCCTL
Used in BRWEXEC and REXEC, this JCW protects you from potentially
introducing an incompatibility problem. Previously, the default CCTL
code used by BRW was a binary zero. Because binary zeros in ASCII files
cause problems on the PC, the default CCTL code is now a blank (Hex 20).
If switching from binary zero to blank causes undesired results, you may
simply go back to the binary zeros by setting BRWNULLCCTL to 1.
BRWRECORDLIMIT
Used in BRWEXEC and REXEC, this JCW together with BRWLINELIMIT provide a
sample values feature for BRW. They let users test reports with only a
subset of the data from the full report.
BRWRECORDLIMIT provides a value from 1 to 32000, and places a limit on
the number of records written to a BRW work file.
NOTE If a BRW report only references one source table, or if all joined
tables are tuned to use keyed access, there is only one work file.
More complicated reports have multiple work files. Since each work
file is limited to N records, the joins and selection criteria
applied on later work files may cause the final access table to
have less than N records.
For SQL tables, BRW stops fetching records from HP ALLBASE/SQL when the
record limit is reached; however, HP ALLBASE/SQL may continue to complete
the full query internally.
BRWSQLTEST
Used only in BRWEXEC, this JCW when set to 1 causes an exact copy of each
SQL statement given to HP ALLBASE/SQL to be written to STDLIST. This can
be useful for observing how selection parameters are expanded into the
SQL statement.
BRWWARNSTDLIST
Used in BRWEXEC and REXEC, this JCW when set to 1 causes warning and
spool file continuation messages to be printed to STDLIST instead of the
report file device. Some customers have expressed annoyance with runtime
warning messages and spool file continuation messages being printed to
the same place as the report output.