HP 3000 Manuals

HP ALLBASE/BRW Reference Manual

Changes in Dictionary Files 

This section describes the consequences when a data dictionary is
modified.

Modifying BRWDIC 

You cannot directly modify a BRWDIC dictionary file.  If a data
dictionary has been modified, you must run the appropriate program
(BRWD3000, BRWAPPD, or BRWSD) to create a new BRWDIC file from the
modified data dictionary.

The BRWDIC file is time-stamped upon creation.  There fore, when a new
BRWDIC is created, a new time stamp is added.

Automatically Recompiled Reports 

You can enable HP ALLBASE/BRW to automatically recompile your reports by
changing the Execution Values default using the BRWSETUP program.  (See
Chapter 17, "Configuration and Security" for more information about the
BRWSETUP program.)

Each time a report is run, HP ALLBASE/BRW compares the time-stamp of the
report compilation and the time-stamp of the BRWDIC file.  If the BRWDIC
file was created after the report was last compiled, the BRWEXEC program,
(that part of HP ALLBASE/BRW that executes reports), automatically
recompiles the report before execution, provided you changed the defaults
in the configuration.  This guarantees that the BRWEXEC program always
uses the actual formats of datasets and files.
[REV BEG]


CAUTION  If the layout of the source tables has been changed (for
         example, an item used in the report has been deleted), you need
         to recompile the BRWDIC from the updated data dictionary to
         ensure correct execution of the report.

         You can insulate the report from some changes to the source
         tables by requesting item security on the Tune Access screen.
         Item security will cause HP ALLBASE/BRW to only ask for items
         from the source table that are specifically used by the report.
         In the case of the source tables having changes that don't
         directly affect those items, you may be able to run the report
         without any errors.  There could be a slight performance cost
         for using item security.  See Chapter 19 for more about
         performance considerations.

[REV END]

Automatic Upgrade of the Specification File 

HP ALLBASE/BRW checks the creation time-stamp of the BRWDIC dictionary
file used for the report.  If the dictionary file was prepared after the
last modification of the report specification file, HP ALLBASE/BRW
automatically upgrades the file while loading the report.

The changes made during this upgrade are listed on the Select Report
screen.  You can print out the listing by pressing the terminal Print 
key.  It can be helpful to have this information and a specification file
listing to identify what changes (if any) must be made manually.

Manual Upgrades to Specification Files 

Some problems can occur that cannot be solved by either the automatic
recompilation or the automatic specification file upgrades.  For example,
if you change an item's type from numeric to string, you must manually
change all calculation formulae in which the item occurs.  Similarly, if
you change the length of an item and you want to print the item with the
new length, you must modify the report specification file manually.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation