Program Summary

  1. Select the Summary option on the Program Editing Functions menu. The following dialog appears:

    In the Description field enter a summary, describing the intended purpose of the program. Your description will be displayed in menus of programs, so make it clear. The maximum length is 75 characters.

  2. Click in (or <Tab> to) the Program type. A menu of Program types appears. Choose the most appropriate type for your program. The following table explains the six types briefly:

    Program Type  Description
    Data Entry Update the database interactively. For example: an order entry program. Use this program type unless another type is more appropriate.
    Enquiry Inspect the records on the database without updating it. For example: a customer balance enquiry program.
    Batch Update Update the database with little or no user interaction. For example: a program for creating order invoices.
    Report Print details of records without updating the database. For example: an invoice printing program. Note that any program type can use the printer.
    Library A dummy program holding and maintaining procedures for use in other programs. Libraries are explained in more detail here
    Variant Library

    Dummy programs which contains procedures attached to PlaceHolders by PROGBIND. They can be edited in the usual way, but cannot be compiled or executed.

  3. Click on the OK button (or press Enter or Tab to complete the dialog). PROGMAKE will set The contents of these fields will be considered later.

Once you have successfully completed the Program Summary dialog you can begin to create the procedure tree for the program using the Program Flow Diagram.

Description field

Use this field to describe the intended function of the program. Your description will be displayed in menus of programs, so make it clear and concise. The maximum length is 75 characters.

Initialise printer/output file

Enable this option if the program needs to print or send output to a file and you wish to open the print device at program start up time. Note that you can also initialise printers and output devices in later procedures. This may be useful if the printer is required only occasionally.

The output device(s) to be used are set in the Default Output Devices dialog.

See Printing for information about print devices and printing in QA Build.

Exclusive access required

Enable this option to prevent other programs from using the database while this program is running. This facility is normally used only for Month End-type programs.

Stop program if update fails

Enable this option if you want the program to stop if an update request fails. An update request will only fail if another user has locked or updated the record that you are trying to update. If you choose not to stop when an update fails, all the records to be updated are reread from the database.

Suppress update fail messages

Normally, when an update fails, a system message is displayed informing the user of the failure and the reason for it. Enable this option if you do not want these messages displayed.

Private database updates

Some programs, such as order entry programs, may need the facility to confirm or abandon a large number of updates at once. Enable this option if you need such a facility. If you do this, updates will take place only in those procedures which secure changes, but your program will behave as though the updates had been made at once.

Ask questions with menus

This question is used to control the default style of dialog. DP4 programs typically interact with users in one of two ways:

Whether a dialog takes the form of a question or a menu determines the design of the map in which it takes place.

Required read authority

Enter the read authority required to run this program. The default is 0. At run time PROGRUN checks this authority in addition to all the other security checks.

Required write authority

Enter the write authority required to run this program. The default is 0. At run time PROGRUN checks this authority in addition to all the other security checks.

Screen layout mapname

By default, error and information messages in a QAB program are displayed as pop ups in whatever part of the screen is empty or has been least recently used. If you would prefer to display these messages in a fixed position on the screen, answer this question and the following one which assign a map whose fields determine the position of these messages, and which you also can use for positioning other maps used by your program. This is known as a Screen Layout Map. Enter the name of the mapset containing the map to be used as the layout map.

Screen layout map number

This field is not entered directly but using the Map Assignment Menu See the page Screen Layout Map for how to set up and use this facility in a QAB program.