WebFOCUS Newsletter February 2003 - Maintain in a Minute: New Update Assist

How many times have you had to quickly get in and modify the contents of a database file, but were stymied by the complexity of developing Maintain applications – or even quick Excel-to-SQL Server applications?

Developing these applications with WebFOCUS Release 5 takes just a few minutes. WebFOCUS Update Assist lets you quickly and easily create Web-based database file browsers and data maintenance applications in minutes without having to write any code.

The applications you create can add records, update records, or perform a combination of add, update, delete, and search functions against any database for which you have read/write access. Data navigation and input validation are automatic. This means you get an update application with no need to design forms, or to write navigation, validation or update procedures.

Update Assist uses standard templates that ship with WebFOCUS Developer Studio and is operational from all WebFOCUS Release 5 desktop products (both WebFOCUS Power Reporter and WebFOCUS Developer Studio).

Under the covers, Update Assist uses WebFOCUS Maintain technology, which means it gives you scalable, fast-performing update applications that work on the web and run great in any browser we support.

What's Update Assist For?

Update Assist handles most of the chores of creating a fully functional, attractive update application for your data using the WebFOCUS and WebFOCUS Maintain. The following powerful capabilities are available to any update project you design using Update Assist.

Built-in Navigation: You don't have to write navigation code. Update Assist automatically generates HTML files and navigation code that allows users to locate the records they want to add, edit or delete. You can choose from three types of automatic navigation.

Tree: Users navigate to the data they want to work with via a hierarchical tree view of the data.

Combo box: Users find the data they want to work with via one or more pick lists that help them locate the record keys.

Edit box: For users that know the exact key they want, edit boxes permit them to quickly type in key information.

Search: This navigation option is available in addition to any of the previously mentioned methods. This is also known as Partial Key capability, and users may enter a part of a key using the search facility and return to a list of items matching the partial key. They may then drill-down to the record wanted from the list.

Automatic Validation: You don't have to write validation code. By default, Update Assist performs automatic validation of all user input into the input screens shown to end users. This means you do not need to write custom validation code for users' data entry. Validation against the listed data type in the WebFOCUS Master File Description is built in and runs in the browser so no round trip to the server is needed to perform validation.

Editability: All code written by Update Assist is editable with WebFOCUS Developer Studio tools. The HTML forms, WebFOCUS data extraction code and WebFOCUS Maintain procedures are all tools-editable. This means you can customize Update Assist projects as needed, making Update Assist the fastest way yet to develop proofs of concept and prototypes. You can still develop full applications too.

Scalability: Update Assist generates non-persistent WebFOCUS Maintain applications, which use comparably fewer resources and, as a result, are highly scalable. Maintain applications generated by Update Assist are designed to run on a standard WebFOCUS server. For most applications, you won't need to add extra processors or storage.

Deployability: Update Assist-generated applications may be deployed to any WebFOCUS Release 5 server on any platform. As long as the synonyms required for data access and update are present on the WebFOCUS server, the WebFOCUS code which Update Assist generates works on all WebFOCUS servers without requiring additional server configuration or setup.

Update Assist Tutorial: Step by Step

This tutorial will help you create a quick and simple Update Assist project. You can create more complex ones later. Let's get started.

1. Create a new Project – Right-click the Projects on Localhost node and choose New Project. Step through the new application wizard, and add the directory IBISAMP to your project. Click Finish when done.

2. Set up your project files – Go to Application View, highlight the Master Files folder for your project. On the Toolbar, click the Search button (the binocular icon). You should now see all Master File descriptions in your project's search path. Tip: If you don't see the Master File you need in the view, make sure the Project directory containing the Master File you need is in the search path for the project. You would do this by opening the project's property pane, selecting the Directories tab, and adding the path to your project.

3. Add the Master File Description to your project – Right-click the Master Fileyou need and select Add to Project. For this tutorial, let's choose MOVIES.

4. Start Update Assist – Right-click the MOVIES Master File again and select Update Assist. WebFOCUS Developer Studio displays the Update Assist Wizard. The first panel shows you the structure of the Master File and lets you choose the segment(s) to be updated.

5. Choose the update segment – Click on the segment level at which you will be updating records. In the area below the tree, you will see the segment. Check off only the last segment, which we will call the target segment. Click Next. Tip: For multi-segment hierarchical files or for cluster joins, you can choose to update more than just the target segment, but this results in a more complicated Update Assist project.

6. Select the functionality needed – In the top pane, Update Assist displays the target segment. Click the entries in the Add, Update, Delete and Partial Key (Search) columns to enable these functions.

7. Give the form a friendly name – Update Segment Options also displays the actual segment name for the segment you're updating (MOVINFO) and a Display Name that lets you give the form a friendly name. Right-click the Display Name, select Rename, and type in Movies on Videotape.

8. Choose fields to be updated – In the bottom pane, Update Assist displays the fields available in the target segment. In the Changeable column, click the fields to be updated to set them to Yes.

9. Make the field descriptions friendly – FieldView Options displays the actual field names from the WebFOCUS Master File description. But you don't have to use these names in your form. You can choose more human-friendly field descriptions to be displayed in the form (see Figure 1). To do this, right-click the field name shown in the Display Name column and select Rename. A small edit box displays overlaying that field. Type the new description in directly. Mouse or tab off the Display Name to commit your change. You may move down the list and make all the names friendly as shown in Screen 1.

Actual Field Name Display ("Friendly") Name

MOVIECODE Movie catalog ID

TITLE Movie title

CATEGORY Genre

DIRECTOR Director

RATING MPAA rating

RELDATE Release date

WHOLESALEPR Wholesale price

LISTPR List price

COPIES Copies in stock

Figure 1

Screen 1

10. Confirm validation options for the fields – In this release, you may choose for each field to use Automatic, Static List or Range validation. (We'll explain these validation options in more detail under "Advanced Concepts" further in this article.) For now, leave the Validate column at the defaults ("Automatic"). Click Next.

Screen 2

11. Choose a Navigation option – Update Assist displays available navigation options (see Screen 2). Choose the Treenavigation option (the top left option). Click Next.

Screen 3

12. Choose a skin – Update Assist displays four available "skins" for your project. Choose the red, blue or gray/green skin. Click Next.

13. Confirm files to be created – Update Assist displays a list of the files it will create. Click Next.

14. Finish up – Update Assist displays a confirmation panel that shows all the steps that will now be processed automatically. Confirm the steps. Make sure you have checked Run Project Automatically and unchecked Run with Compiled Maintain files. Click Next.

15. Update Assist generates the files for your project and displays the Deploying Application status box. While the Deploying Application status box shows progress and a Cancel button at the bottom, let it keep running. If you click Cancel at this point, your Update Assist project will be cancelled and the files will not be correctly generated. Once the deployment step is complete, the button at the bottom of the Deploy dialog changes to Close. When this happens, click the Close button to complete the operation. Your Update Assist project will run in a browser; you should see the tree navigation display a tree of the available data in your database (see Screen 3).

This example showed Update Assist working against a FOCUS format file located on your hard drive. But there's no limit to the number of update applications you can create with Update Assist. Try it out against files on remote servers (SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, etc.). There's no quicker way to create a prototype update application than with Update Assist. Look for my next article on this topic in a future issue of the WebFOCUS Newsletter. The next installment will be "Prototyping New Update Applications."