CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Information Map

  Information Table

  Preface

  1      Introduction

  1.1     Before You Begin

  1.2     Introducing the DECintact Development Process

  1.3     Introducing DECforms Software

  1.4     Before You Continue

  2      Designing the Application

  2.1     Identifying Application Requirements

  2.2     Describing the Database and Data Records

  2.3     Describing the User Interface
    2.3.1      Employee Choice Panel
    2.3.2      Employee Prompt Panel
    2.3.3      Employee Information Panel

  2.4     Defining the Processing Steps

  3      Creating Forms

  3.1     Establishing Naming Conventions

  3.2     Creating a Form

  3.3     Creating a Panel
    3.3.1      Creating Panel Literals
    3.3.2      Creating Panel Fields
    3.3.3      Creating the EMPLOYEE_CHOICE_PANEL and EMPLOYEE_PROMPT_PANEL Panels
    3.3.4      Testing the Panels
    3.3.5      Printing Panels
    3.3.6      Modifying a Picture Field

  3.4     Editing and Including Instructions in the Form IFDL Source File
    3.4.1      Editing the Form IFDL Source File
    3.4.2      Including Definitions and Instructions in the IFDL File

  3.5     Making the Form Available to the Application

  4      Describing the RMS File

  4.1     Using Files in the File Manager Database

  4.2     Adding the Employee Information RMS File

  4.3     Rebuilding the File Manager Database

  4.4     Creating the RMS Indexed File

  5      Developing the Employee Information Application

  5.1     Coding the Employee Information Application
    5.1.1      Identification Division
    5.1.2      Environment Division
    5.1.3      Data Division
    5.1.4      Procedure Division

  6      Building and Testing the Employee Information Application

  6.1     Building the Employee Information Application
    6.1.1      Invoking an Application using the TEST Menu Function
    6.1.2      Compiling the Source Code
    6.1.3      Linking the Object Code

  6.2     Testing the Application

  6.3     Making the Application Available to DECintact
    6.3.1      Recompiling and Relinking the Application
    6.3.2      Relocating the Application
    6.3.3      Modifying the File Manager Database
    6.3.4      Adding an Item to the DECintact System Menu
    6.3.5      Making DECforms Servers Available
    6.3.6      Restarting the Production Copy

  FIGURES

  1-1        DECforms Form Structure

  2-1        Employee Choice Panel

  2-2        Employee Prompt Panel

  2-3        Example:  Employee Information Panel

  2-4        Employee Information Panel

  3-1        DECforms LAYOUT Screen

  3-2        Form Development Environment (FDE) Main Menu

  3-3        Choose or Create a Panel Screen

  3-4        Create Panel Screen

  3-5        Sample DECforms Panel

  3-6        Create Field Menu

  3-7        Choose Data Type Menu

  3-8        Data Type Character Screen

  3-9        Create Field Menu with Picture Field Entry

  3-10       Sample Panel with One Data-Field Picture

  3-11       Sample Panel with Data-Field Pictures

  3-12       EMPLOYEE_CHOICE_PANEL Panel

  3-13       EMPLOYEE_PROMPT_PANEL Panel

  3-14       Testing Screen

  3-15       IFDL Structure

  TABLES

  1-1        DECforms Terminology

  3-1        Form and Panel Names in the Employee Information Application

  3-2        FDE Function Keys

  4-1        PFT Parameters