Procedure Body Execution

Initialisation

• Fields which are preset because they can be copied from predefined records are copied.
  
• If the access mode is batch, the next record for processing is fetched (in accordance with setting of firstitem).
  
• If batch access fails, the procedure body is terminated, returning ESCAPE, unless the procedure was interactive and new records could be processed.
  
• If the access mode is Window, Cleared window or Preview window, the window is displayed and the user is invited to make a selection (unless it is a preview window). If there are no records for the window and new records are not allowed or the user presses <Escape>, the procedure body is terminated, returning ESCAPE.
  
• If a record was selected from a window or fetched with a batch access or the main record is already fetched and is not new, related tables are joined, the condition on the record is checked and locking checks are performed. If these checks fail, execution of the procedure terminates and returns TERMINATED. If no record was fetched or if New record was selected from a window, and auto increment was specified, auto increment is performed.
  

Display

• If the procedure is of type subdevice output, the appropriate subdevice is selected.
  
• The map or form for the procedure is displayed.
  
• The automatically retrieved record or record selected from the window is pre displayed, if appropriate.
  

Run Another Program

If the procedure body is of type Run another program, the command line is executed. If the procedure body is type Link to C, the C exit is called.

Field Processing

If the procedure is a menu or an action bar, an option is selected unless force option is set or the user pressed a short cut function key in an earlier procedure. If the user presses <Escape>, the Escape option is selected if there is one, otherwise the procedure is terminated returning ESCAPE.

The fields are processed in turn, as described under Processing for Each Field . All database accesses and any other questions and remarks in the procedure are associated with one of the fields (for instance, if deletion is enabled the question offering to delete the record is associated with the field at which the main record became defined).

The processing sequence may be modified by user input, as described below.

User Input

The user may press one of the keys which move to another field. When this happens, the following takes place:

• If the field is before the current field, control goes directly to it, otherwise the current field and all fields prior to the new field are executed, but without asking for input. This ensures that the user does not bypass any mandatory input or validation. If there is mandatory input or validation, the cursor will move only as far as the relevant field and execution will proceed from that point as though he had requested to move to it and not the selected field
  
• If the user presses the <Escape> key, the procedure is terminated and its map is cleared from the screen (unless another procedure originally drew the map and this procedure would not normally clear it) returning ESCAPE. If the procedure has a window, however, pressing <Escape> will return to the window (unless the procedure does not repeat)
  
• If a database access fails, processing is returned to the first input field involved in the particular validation (as though a cursor key had been pressed). If there is no input for this validation, procedure body execution ceases, returning TERMINATED
  
• If the user chooses to delete the record being processed, field processing ceases
  

If confirm updates was selected, after the last field has been processed the user will be offered the Save/rekey/abandon menu. If rekey is chosen, processing is returned to the point after the main record is defined.

Posting/Deleting and Final Processing

If field processing is terminated normally:

• All records specified for updating and which satisfy the condition to update are posted without any checks beyond those always imposed by the database manager (checks for locking violation and contention)
  

Otherwise if deletion is to take place:

• The record to be deleted from the database (and any children) are removed, checking that no orphans are left
  
• Other records that are to be updated are posted without any checks
  

If the program does not use the private database and the number of times an updating procedure body has been executed is greater than or equal to the commit_frequency, the updates are confirmed with commit(). If this fails and terminate on commit failure was specified in the program header, the program terminates. Otherwise, an error message indicating the reason for failure is produced unless the program header suppressed update fail messages.

If updates fail, execution of the procedure body returns TERMINATED.

Print output is flushed and the screen is cleared as appropriate.