XFormDBF Help

Main Form

Contents | Bottom

The main form of XFormDBF is a "dialog" style of window containing 4 tabbed pages and a series of command buttons across the bottom.  Currently the form is not resizable, but support for resizing is a planned extension.  The form's window title includes the name or description of the current configuration.  Note the little question mark symbol at the upper right corner, indicating that this application supports "What's This" help.  You can also get to context-sensitive help by pressing the F1 key at any point.


Tabbed Pages

There are four tabbed pages available for setting up the parameters of a transformation job.  You can use XFormDBF to define a configuration without immediately running it until a later time, or you can return to a previous configuration and further refine, test, and run it, possibly as a recurring batch job.

Files Page
Specifies the input and output tables to be processed in this transformation.
Fields Page
Defines the field-by-field mappings to be used for constructing output fields from expressions involving input fields and possibly also including related code lookup tables.
Options Page
Contains parameters for defining initialization and termination steps that can be used to set up and clean up lookup tables to be used in this transformation.  Also allows you to specify a template file used to support the Clone command, plus miscellaneous other options.
Config Page
Deals with aspects of state-saving and restoration, including provisions for specifying a configuration id, title, and description, plus related commands.  Note that some of the commands logically associated with the Config page (Save, Restore, Switch To..., and Abandon) have been moved into the main form body for convenience.

Command Buttons

The following command buttons at the bottom of the form can be used from any page:

Run
Generates the output table from the input table using the currently defined mappings for this configuration.  One output record is generated for each input record.  All of the input records are processed in the sequence they are displayed, but you can abort the run by pressing the Escape key.
Test
Runs the transformation against the current input record only.  Note that the Test command uses an un-optimized mode of processing in order to give you more detailed field-level validation messages, for easier diagnosis and debugging.  Since the Test command applies only to the current input record, it is disabled unless a record is currently selected in the input file grid.
Lookup...
Invokes an application-specific lookup table maintenance facility.
Zap
Deletes all records in the output table and packs it.  A confirmation dialog is used for this command.
Exit
Closes the form after saving its final configuration (unless the last action produced an error).  This is equivalent to clicking on the form's window close box or any other conventional window closing command.  Use the Abandon button instead of Exit if you want to preserve the previously saved configuration instead of updating it.
Save
Saves the current form configuration (state).
Restore
Restores the last saved configuration (state) of this form.
Switch To...
Launches a dialog that allows you to selects a different configuration and switch to it, or to define a new configuration.
Abandon
Exits from the form without saving its present configuration.  This is faster than Exit, and it preserves the last previously saved configuration.

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