HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
GLOSSARY Access group: A set of configured Access PC users. Access groups are used to control which users get to see configured tables and items within configured tables. Each access group has a capability associated with it that determines what actions users in that group are allowed to perform. Access PC: See Information Access PC. Access Server: See Information Access Server. Access SQL/UX: See Information Access SQL/UX. Access SQL/XL: See Information Access SQL/XL. Administrator Utility: A menu-driven utility that gives the primary DBA or secondary DBA control over the environment in which Access Server operates. ADMLIST: A file to which all reports and printouts from the Administrator Utility are directed. The default print device Access Server associates with this file is LP. Print output can be redirected using a file equation. Alphanumeric characters: The character set made up of the ten numerals (0-9) and all uppercase and lowercase letters (a-z, A-Z). ASCII file: An MPE flat file that only contains text. Binary file: A standard MPE data file that contains binary data. Numeric data is stored in its binary representation. BRW/IRF files: The Intermediate Report File, a special type of self-describing data file used by Business Report Writer, version A.01.30. Capability: The level of actions an access group is allowed to perform. Each access group is defined with a capability of 1, 2, or 3. Capability 1 (the default) allows users in the access group no special capabilities. Capability 2 allows users to configure host databases and IMAGE tables. Capability 3 provides the same capabilities as Capability 2 and also allows users to delete configured tables associated only with their access group. Chained read: A search through an IMAGE dataset for entries that contain some specified value of a search item (also called a key item). Because entries with search items include a pointer to the next entry whose search item has the same value, chained reads, even on very large datasets, tend to be very fast. (See also serial read.) Composite key: An IMSAM key field consisting of more than one field or parts of a field within a dataset. (See also IMSAM.) Configuration screens: Screens in the Administrator Utility that the primary or secondary DBA uses to add, change, delete, or examine entries in the Information Access data dictionary. The DBAs use configuration screens to configure remote HP 3000 systems, databases and files, tables of data (view, IMAGE, and file), access groups, users, and data security. Configured table: Data presented in the form of a table (rows and columns), where each row contains one record, and a column corresponds to a data item. Configured tables are of three types: IMAGE tables (derived from one IMAGE dataset); file tables (derived from one MPE file), and view tables (derived from one or more previously configured tables). A configured table can contain up to 64 items (columns). Whenever a configured table is accessed, the user sees the most recent information that is contained in the data source from which it is derived. Default user: A PC user who, though not explicitly defined in the data dictionary, can see a limited subset of information. When Access Server is first installed, default users can only access public tables and cannot save any result tables on the host machine. The primary DBA can choose not to allow default users by deleting the user DEFAULT-USER and the access group DEFAULT-GROUP, which are automatically configured as part of the installation. DIF file: A Data Interchange Format file (used by VisiCalc) that contains the file description in its first records. File table: A configured table derived from one file data source only. Free-Format Numeric: A data type that is the ASCII representation of a numeric value. Scientific notation, integers, and reals with a decimal (period) in decimal form are supported. HDPDIC: An IMAGE database that, together with HDPENV, constitutes the Information Access data dictionary. HDPDIC contains all the information needed to allow access to data as relational tables. HDPDIC resides in the group PPCDICT.HPOFFICE. HDPENV: An IMAGE database that, together with HDPDIC, constitutes the Information Access data dictionary. HDPENV contains all information having to do with Access Server users. HDPENV resides in the group PPCDICT.HPOFFICE. IMAGE table: A configured table derived from one IMAGE dataset only. IMSAM: The IMAGE Sequential Access Method that provides sorted-sequential and partial key access to IMAGE databases (for HP 3000 users who have the OMNIDEX Information Management System). Information Access data dictionary: The two IMAGE databases HDPDIC and HDPENV. The data dictionary contains all the information necessary to present IMAGE data (and mainframe data) in relational table format and to control which users see what subset of the data. Information Access PC: A PC application running on the HP Vectra, supported IBM PCs, and supported Compaq PCs that gives PC users access to IMAGE data and files by interacting with Access Server on the HP 3000. It also gives PC users access to ALLBASE/SQL tables by interacting with Access SQL/XL on the HP 3000 or with Access SQL/UX on the HP 9000. Users can reformat the data and either download the results to their PC or save them on the host (only on the HP 3000). Access PC gives the PC user a similar interface to local PC databases. Information Access Server: An application running under MPE/V or MPE/XL on the host HP 3000 that gives users running Access PC access to IMAGE data and files formatted as relational tables. Access Server includes the software that interacts with Access PC, the data dictionary that defines the Access Server environment, the two utilities used to manage the data dictionary, and the Host Batch Facility. Information Access SQL/UX: An application running on HP 9000 Series 600 and 800 computers that gives users running Access PC access to ALLBASE/SQL tables. Information Access SQL/XL: An application running on HP 3000 Series 900 computers that gives users running Access PC access to ALLBASE/SQL tables. Integer: A data type in which any whole number (no fractions or decimals), the negative of a whole number, or zero is represented. Items of this type can be converted to character (C), real (R), or left as an integer, using the appropriate Administrator Utility Conversion screen, before they can be included in the definition of a configured table. Item security: Control exercised by the DBA over sensitive data items. Items with no security specified are public items, accessible by any user who can access the table containing the item. Item security is added by using the Administrator Utility's Add Item Security screen. JOIN operation: The creation of a new table by combining existing tables. The choice of which records to include is based on matching values in a specified column or columns. Jointly-owned table: A configured table to which two or more access groups are assigned. (See also solely-owned table and public table.) KSAM file: A Keyed Sequential Access Method file in which records are accessed sequentially or randomly by primary or secondary keys. A KSAM file consists of a data file and a key file. The data file is a standard MPE file that contains either binary or ASCII data. Numeric fields must be identified as stored in either binary or ASCII. Local table: A local table is resident on the PC or on a shared disc, as opposed to a remote table, which resides on a remote system. OPC (Office Products Coordinator): A person in your organization who acts as a work group resource for office automation tasks. The OPC is likely to be the first person users will turn to for answers to their questions about office products. Alternate names for the OPC are Office Automation Coordinator and Office Automation Specialist. Packed decimal: A data type in which decimal numbers are represented two digits per byte, with a sign in the low order four bits of the right-most byte. Items of this type must be converted to character (C) or real (R), using the appropriate Administrator Utility Conversion screen, before they can be included in the definition of a configured table. PRODUCTION operation: The creation of a new table by combining existing tables such that the new table contains every combination of records from the original tables. Public item: A data item with no item security. Any user who has access to the table containing the item can also see the item. To make an item secure, at least one access group must be assigned to the item by using the Administrator Utility's Add Item Security screen. Public table: A configured table with no table security. To make a table secure, at least one access group must be assigned to the table by using one of the Administrator Utility's Add/Delete Table Security by Table or Add/Delete Table Security by Group screens. Relational table: A table that presents information in rows and columns and upon which operations associated with relational databases can be performed. Access Server presents data in relational table format and allows (both in the creation of view tables and in the queries done from Access PC) a number of relational operations to be performed on those tables. Remote table: A remote table resides on a remote system, as opposed to a local table that resides on the PC or on a shared disc. A remote table is either a saved table or one of the three kinds of configured table (IMAGE, file, or view). Result table: A table resulting from accessing and manipulating one or more tables (local or remote) using Access PC. When the PC user saves a result table on the host HP 3000, we refer to it as a saved table. It then appears on that user's Remote Tables screen labeled Saved. Saved table: A table resulting from a PC user's accessing and manipulating one or more tables (local or remote), then saving the table on the host HP 3000 for later use in Access PC. It appears on the Remote Tables screen of the PC user who saved it, labeled Saved. Saved tables provide "snapshots" of the data as it was when the save occurred. The definition of the saved table is kept in the data dictionary, while the contents of the saved table are kept in a privileged file in the group PPCSAVE.HPOFFICE. SD File: A self-describing file whose user labels define the file structure. Serial read: A search through an IMAGE dataset, in which every entry is examined for a match with the desired value (or range of values) for a specified item. Serial reads must be done on any items that have not been defined as search items. Serial reads must also be done even when search items are involved, if the search involves anything other than matching a precise value (such as a range search or a search using wildcard characters). For large datasets, serial reads can be very slow. (See also chained read). Solely-owned table: A configured table assigned to one access group only. Only users in this access group can access a solely-owned table. If that assignment is removed, the table becomes a public table. (See also jointly-owned table and public table.) System Status screens: Screens in the Administrator Utility that the primary DBA uses to investigate the current usage of Access Server and to control users' use of system resources for saved tables. Table security: Control exercised by the primary or secondary DBA over access to configured tables. Tables with no access groups assigned to them are public tables, accessible to all users. Table security is added with the Administrator Utility's Add/Delete Table Security by Table and Add/Delete Table Security by Group screens. TRANLIST: The file to which printouts from the Translator Utility are directed. The default print device associated with TRANLIST is LP. Printed output can be redirected using a file equation. Translator Utility: A menu-driven utility that gives the primary or secondary DBA a quick, automated way to take information defined in a Dictionary/3000 data dictionary and add it to the Information Access data dictionary. TRANSLOG: The log file to which the Translator Utility sends a record of all Translator Utility transactions. TRANSLOG can be printed out by choosing Print Log File f1 on the Translator Utility's Dictionary/3000 Information screen before exiting from the utility. TurboIMAGE/3000: An updated version of the IMAGE/3000 database management system, designed to reduce data access time and provide more flexible data access. View table: A configured table derived from one or more previously configured tables. A maximum of 16 tables can be combined to form a view table. The number of columns and records can be reduced using various relational operators; for example, tables can be JOINed on common columns. A subset of records can be specified as well. The records can be pre-sorted for the PC user. View tables also allow you to define new items in a variety of ways, such as concatenating or extracting substrings from existing items. Zoned decimal: A data type in which each digit is represented by a single byte in ASCII format. The sign is indicated in the right-most byte by converting the numeric value to a non-numeric character. An item of this type must be converted to character (C) or real (R), using the Administrator Utility's IMAGE Data or File Conversion screens, before the item can be included in an IMAGE, file, or view table.