HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
HP Business Report Writer/iX Enhancements by Mary Wernette Software Technology Division Introduction This version of BRW/iX has several exciting new features. Please refer to the BRW Software Update News for more comprehensive documentation. The Software Update News is included with all new orders and support update shipments. Laser Printing Made Simple with BRW A new BRWSETUP screen allows users to associate symbolic names with user supplied escape sequences. The items may then be included just like table items and parameters on the Define Lines screen. Now you can select bold, underline, and a favorite typeface easily with BRW. Note that since all eight function keys were already used, F4 now has the "Other Keys" label, while "Mail Values" and "Escape Items" are available as a second set of keys. Version Compatibility. BRW has been made "smarter" with regards to updating the version number for SPEC and EXEC files. This means that reports that do NOT use Escape Sequence Items can be exchanged between old and new versions of BRW. Reports that do make use of Escape Sequence Items must use a current version of BRW since they become incompatible with older versions. Online Review. The online Review screen is enhanced to deal with Escape Sequence Items in a report file. Because Terminal emulator software may not support all printer escape sequences, the escape sequences are stripped from the records before display. In addition, the online review screen is modified to accept a FF Form Feed character as a New Page indicator. Inhibiting Escape Sequences. You may choose to inhibit escape sequences by simply using a file equate to reference a BRWCONF file that has no Escape Sequence Items before compiling the report. Third Party Indexing Made Simple with BRW Integration of TurboIMAGE Third Party Indexing (TPI) into BRW was one of the most highly demanded capabilities requested by customers and is now available. BRW has fully integrated access to both generic key search and keywording through standard SQL boolean operators through OMNIDEX and SUPERDEX. BRW users may now perform generic key searches, range retrievals, and keyword searches by simply marking the box "Enable Third Party Indexing" in BRWSETUP. No report changes are required to immediately enjoy a substantial performance boost! Other Enhancements The following new features significantly extend the productivity of our broad base of BRW users. More context in Compile errors. The BRW compiler often issues messages like: '*** WARNING Item X doesn't exist, NO_VALUE used instead' without giving any indication where in the report Item X is used. Now, several global variables are defined and maintained in BRWCOMP so that all Compiler errors display some context information about the location of an error. If the error happens in the Data Access portion, the active Access File is referenced. In the Layout part of the report, BRWCOMP reports the active lineset and line number. In addition, BRWCOMP returns the name of a Calculated item if the error occurs while evaluating a calc item. Improved report listing utility. A new utility, BRWSTOA.PUB.SYS is now available to provide a more compact and readable hardcopy listing of a BRW report. Unlike the BRWLIST program, the BRWSTOA utility (Spec file TO ASCII) displays a report definition in a pseudo command language, eliminating unnecessary detail. Improved VERIFY function. To assist developers that distribute BRW reports to a number of sites running different versions of BRW, the VERIFY function in the BRWXL.PUB.SYS program now gives full version availability information. The VERIFY function lists which versions of BRW are required to modify or execute a given report, along with a detailed list of any advanced features used in the report that require recent versions of BRW. If a report does not use recently added features such as Third Party Indexing or Laser Printer support, the VERIFY function declares that the report will work back to BRW/iX A.01.00 and BRW/V A.02.20. Previously, the VERIFY function only declared if a report created by BRW/iX could be used by BRW/V. Improvements to the Online Review screen. As part of the Laser Printer support, the online Review screen was enhanced to retain alignment when displaying reports containing escape sequences, and to recognize the Form Feed character as starting a new page. In addition, the online Review screen now displays the current page and column number which helps orient the user when browsing a report. Finally, for non-CCTL files, a "Goto Line" function key allows the user to move randomly around the report. Data type information on the Use Items screen. Data type and String length information is displayed on the Use Items Screen. When array items are not displayed, there is room to display the data type S, N, D, T, I or R, and the length for "S" string items. The data type information is right-justified in the field. Update prompts when switching reports. Currently, if you examine one report in BRWXL.PUB.SYS, then want to switch to another, BRW automatically updates the first Report file if there are modifications. An automatic save can be time consuming and may lock in unintended changes, considering you may have been simply browsing the reports. As of this new version, if you select another report in the Select Report screen, there will be a Yes/No prompt: Previous report modified. Do you want to save changes? Y (Y/N) Delete prompt for deleting reports. The confirmation process for deleting a report is similar to other confirmation processes on the Select Report screen. The current behavior is to Press F2 for Delete Table, then ENTER to Confirm or F8 to Cancel. With this version, BRW issues a Yes/No prompt with a default of N in response to the Delete Table key. Delete Table? N (Y/N) The user confirms deletion by changing the N to a Y and pressing ENTER to confirm, or by pressing F8 to cancel.