FOCUS ENVIRONMENT

THE FOCUS ENVIRONMENT

FOCUS has on-line tutorials for beginners. The Table Talk and File Talk tutorials helps to illustrate how FOCUS handles basic reporting and File Definitions tasks. These facilities present formatted screens from which we can select options to create reports and write file description. If your FOCUS installation has one start using it to gain familiarity Text editor TED FINANCIAL REPORTING LANGUAGE DATA EXPORT INTERFACE AND FILE TRANSFER GRAPH GENERATOR FEATURES FOR THE APPLICATION DEVELOPERS DATABASE MANAGEMENT : MODIFY DIALOG MANAGER FULL SCREEN DATA ENTRY FORMS : FIDEL. WINDOW PAINTER DATA BASE EDITOR : FSCAN THE TEXT EDITOR                                      TED is for creating Focus Programs : Focexecs
Focus allows coding of Focus executable programs (called FOCEXECS ) from a Focus editor called TED. This allows us to code Focexecs and save them . These can be subsequently modified and executed from TED.   However Focexecs can also be coded from the M/F system editor and saved as a member of a PDS. TED : This is an optional full screen editor for creating and editing text files for use inside or outside FOCUS environment. Inside Focus they can be used for creating FOCEXEC’s or for coding Master File Descriptions (MFD). The files created this way and stored can be used outside Focus .
TED is a development tool designed to support application building and as such is not an word processor.
Salient   features of TED 1) It is functionally equivalent in all versions of Focus.

2) If an error message is generated due to a stored request
     being executed it returns the error message to the terminal. If we then type TED, Focus
     invokes the editor environment and displays the request along with the cursor on the error line
     so that this can be corrected and submitted again.

3) TED provides access to FIDEL screen painter facility, viz.
used for generating full-screen data entry forms.

4) TED has split screen facility that allows to display up to 4 files
simultaneously on the screen and move fields from one file to another.

5) It allows creation of and editing comma-delimited (variable length )
and fixed-form (fixed length ) data files.

THE ROW-ORIENTED FINANCIAL REPORTING LANGUAGE : FRL

The FRL also known as Extended Matrix Reporting , is specifically designed to handle the special needs associated with creating, calculating, and presenting row-oriented financial data. FRL produces financial statements such as balance sheets, Income and Expense Statements etc..

DATA EXPORT INTERFACE AND FILE TRANSFER These are facilities for saving the output of Focus requests as formatted files for transfer to other machines ( PC focus files can be exported to M/F) . Also Files can be prepared   for immediate use by other software packages. GRAPH GENERATOR This is used to produce graphic displays.   Various graph forms can be generated via Focus
such   as :
· Connected point plots
· Histograms
· Bar charts
· Pie charts ( on high resolution devices)
· Scatter diagrams

    FEATURES FOR THE APPLICATION DEVELOPERS
· The MODIFY environment for loading and maintaining files
· The DIALOG manager environment for building reusable Focus requests, (Focexecs)
including facilities for variable substitution, and branching, and reading from and writing to the
terminal.
· Facilities for designing   full screen data entry forms including a screen painter facility.
· Facilities for designing menus and windows to select , enter, and display data .
· An on-line , interactive full screen data base editor (FSCAN).
· File security features that offer security at every level from the file itself down to
specifying   protection for specific values within fields.
· Interfaces to other types of data bases , including ADABAS, IDMS, DB2,   Oracle etc...
· A host of user written routines that reduce the need to code these every time.
· Host Language Interface (HLI )   for reading FOCUS files from   programs in other languages.

    DATABASE MANAGEMENT : MODIFY
       This environment provides facilities for the following data base maintenance activities
· Collecting data .
· Performing Validation tests.
· Establishing a position in the file by matching data against existing records.
· Performing maintenance actions such as adding records, deleting records, etc...
· Logging file maintenance activities.
DIALOG MANAGER The Focexecs can include variable substitution and   various prompting sequences,
This is similar to macros or CLISTS.

The tools to build these procedures are a series of Dialog Manager control   statements, or key words that perform actions such as :

· sending prompts to the operator, which request for variables
· Typing messages to the operator.
· Branching to other areas of the procedure or executing nested procedures.
· Reading from or writing to the terminal.

FULL SCREEN DATA ENTRY FORMS : FIDEL.

In dialog manager procedures and file maintenance , Full screen data entry forms are needed
to enter information to update files.

The facility for describing screen forms is the FIDEL for Focus Interactive Data Entry Language.

The screens that can be designed can have windows on screens, and have forms larger than
screen size that are activated by PF keys.

The Screen Painter that is entered via TED, shows the generated FIDEL code
which is very useful when developing complex screens with many attributed and labels.

WINDOW PAINTER This is used to create a series of menus and windows. This can then be incorporated into dialog manager -WINDOW statement. This then displays the designed Screens and
is used for collecting the desired data.
DATA BASE EDITOR : FSCAN This enables us to edit the FOCUS databases as if they were flat
files on a full screen. Similar to OLQ of IDMS data Base except that FSCAN also provides the facility to edit the database.

Click here to learn on Master File Definitions