New York Conference 2005

Developing Sophisticated Applications

in SIR

Unsophisticated

I’m the only user

I’m only go to do this once anyway

I know what these codes mean

If anyone wants any of this stuff they have to come to me anyway

You can do anything with a spreadsheet

Sophisticated Applications

Other People Use It– Reliable

– Repeatable

Long Lived– Changes in People

– Changes in Application

Understand Requirements– Implementation may not be the problem

Data, Processes and Interfaces

Database Design – Driven by data

– Data Analysis from existing/proposed documents or systems

– Records and Keys

– Coding systems

Processes – who, what, when?– Regular Data Input

– Standard Tasks

– Interfaces to other systems

– Queries and analyses

Data, Processes and Interfaces

User Interface

– Easy to use

– Easy to learn

– Consistent

Implementation Issues

– Test Database

– Data Base Administration

– Long Term Maintenance

– Documentation

Building Sophisticated Applications in SIR

‘Cooking with SIR’

– Known Ingredients

– Possibly some old favorites

– Fresh Ideas

Four presenters

– Tony Reardon & David Baxter

SIR developers

– Dave Doulton and Tom Shriver

Long term sophisticated SIR users

Timetable

Day 1 12:30 Overview

Creating and Maintaining a Database

14:30 Building User Interfaces – David Baxter

Day 29:00 Building Sophisticated Processes

10:30 – 11.00 Converting from earlier versions of SIR – David Baxter

13:00 Exchanging Data between SIR and other Systems – Dave Doulton

14:30 A Case Study – Tom Shriver

Creating and Maintaining a Database

New Database– Logical Design

– Normalization

Eliminate redundant data

Identify data dependencies – keys

SIR Schemas

PQL Schema Functions– Simple Data Dictionary

Internals of SIR database

Structure of records

Structure of blocks

Structure of index

Loading Factor

Concurrent Update

Master

– General Principles

– Database Access

– Lock Management

– ‘Difference File’

– Managing Master

Backup and Restore

Unload/Reload

Journals

Restructuring

Export/Import

Verify

Building User Interfaces in SIR

Menus & Dialogs

Generic Database Applications

Spreadsheet & Forms

Other Interface Possibilities

Menus and Dialogs

Menu Overview

Writing and Running Menu Programs

Menu Tips

Dialog Overview

Dialog Programs

Dialog Painter

Dialog Tips & Tricks

Generic Database Applications

Programs and Retrievals

Schema Functions

Generating Code

Example Applications

Spreadsheet & Forms

PQLForms

Writing Forms

Generating Forms

Forms Painter

SPREADSHEET DBMS command

GRID PQL Command

PQL+Forms+Grid

Other Interface Possibilities

GUI vs Console Interfaces

ODBC/SIRSQLs Interface

CGI Interface

API Interface

Building Sophisticated Processes

Review of SIR Structure

Command Processing ‘scripts’

Use of Globals

PQL as development tool

– Review of Syntax

– Recent Commands

PQL

EXECUTE DBMS

GUI commands outside Dialogs

Current capabilities for file and directory processing

ARRAY Processing

GRID command

LOOKUP command

PQLForms

Converting from Earlier Versions of SIR

EXPORT/IMPORT

PQL Programs

ICE Procedures

FULLSCREEN PQL

SIR3.2 Menus

SIRFORMS

HELP Tabfiles

Tips & Tricks

Exchanging Data between SIR and Other Systems

ODBC

– Setting up ODBC sources

– ODBC import

– ODBC PQLl

– ODBC members

Using sirweb.cgi

ODBC and sirweb.cgi

ODBC and PQLServer

Case Study

Implementation Philosophies & Strategies for Sophisticated Applications

Brief description of the MNYR database

Database Management on Remote Control

A Model for End-User Database Navigation Systems

Useful End-User Features

New York Conference 2005

Developing Sophisticated Applications

in SIR