HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
BRW Files
When you create a report with ALLBASE/BRW, you use as well as create
files on the MPE XL system. The figure shown on the previous page
represents the basic files used or created by ALLBASE/BRW and also shows
some logical components of the ALLBASE/BRW report file.
This section describes these files and logical components:
* data sources
* created files
* temporary files
* logical components of the specification file
Data Sources
You build a table using from 1 to 14 source tables. Source tables can be
any of the following:
* IMAGE data sets
* HP ALLBASE/SQL tables
* KSAM files
* MPE files
* ALLBASE/BRW table, which is another table defined in the report,
for example, when using a series of tables
* intermediate report file (output file) from another ALLBASE/BRW
report
When you create a ALLBASE/BRW report, you need to know the names of these
data sources.
Created Files
Some files are created as a result of creating, compiling, or requesting
the report. These files are saved in the MPE group and account where you
started ALLBASE/BRW, or you can put them in another group by adding a
group name to the path.
* Specification file (the report specifications)
* Execution file (the compiled report)
When you compile the report, this MPE file is created containing
the compiled version of the report.
* Print file
If you request a report and designate DISC as the Print Device,
you create an MPE file that contains a printer-ready version of
the report. You can print it later to the printer, or you can use
the Online Review feature to preview the report.
* Output file (intermediate report file)
You can save certain linesets from your report by sending them to
an output file. The output file contains only the items from the
lineset. Output files and formats are discussed in Chapter 12
.
Temporary Files
While ALLBASE/BRW is creating and processing your report, some temporary
files, like workfiles and sortfiles, are created. These files are
eliminated when the processing is complete.
Logical Components of the Specification File
Within the specification file, you create some logical entities that are
collections of report specifications. You can give these entities unique
names within the report (like table1 and set1) but they don't need to be
unique in your group and account. They are not files and do not appear
when you use LISTF. Some of these entities include:
* Access tables
The access tables are created from the data sources. They do not
physically contain data, but give a logical definition of one or
more source tables.
You can add one or more access tables to the report. Access
tables added to the report can, in turn, be used as source tables
(in that report) for more efficient report tuning. These tables
are not files and do not appear in the MPE directory. Before you
can compile your report, you must consolidate all the tables into
one final access table containing all the data you need for the
report.
* Selection sets
A selection set is an optional specification for determining
parameters needed for data selection, job scheduling, and printing
characteristics such as number of copies, name of the print
device, and so on.
You can define multiple selection sets, or you can choose not to
define any selection set. Selection sets are discussed in greater
detail in Chapter 9 .