XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) RELEASE 2.0.3/U.S.A. COPYRIGHT (C) 1983 RELATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, INC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT (C) 1984 BURROUGHS CORPORATION DETROIT, MICHIGAN 48232 THE WITHIN SPECIFICATION IS NOT INTENDED TO BE, NOR SHOULD SUCH BE CONSTRUED AS AN AFFIRMATION OF FACT, REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, BY BURROUGHS CORPORATION OF ANY TYPE, KIND, OR CHARACTER. THE WITHIN INFORMATION, AND RELATED MATERIALS ARE FURNISHED PURSUANT AND SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF A DULY EXECUTED LICENSE AGREEMENT. THE ONLY WARRANTIES MADE BY BURROUGHS WITH RESPECT TO THE PRODUCTS DESCRIBED IN THIS MATERIAL ARE SET FORTH IN THE ABOVE MENTIONED AGREEMENT. BURROUGHS CORPORATION DETROIT, MICHIGAN 48232 TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- SECTION DESCRIPTION PAGE ------- ----------- ---- 1.0 INTRODUCTION 3 2.0 DOCUMENTATION 4 3.0 SOFTWARE FEATURES 5 4.0 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE 6 5.0 LIMITATIONS 7 6.0 FCF REPORTING PROCEDURE 8 7.0 KNOWN PROBLEMS 10 8.0 SOFTWARE INDEX 11 XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS PAGE 3 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 1.0 INTRODUCTION Welcome to the INGRES ABF (Application by Forms) facility. It is intended as an extension to the INGRES Relational Database Manage- ment System, purchased separately. ABF offers a comprehensive user interface with which you can create, modify, and run fully devel- oped applications, similar to applications that you could create with a programming language. ABF allows you to build applications that use forms as the principal vehicle for interaction between the application and its user. ABF supplies the tools with which you can create, define, test and run applications. How this is done is explained in the documenta- tion which accompanies this release. This release letter describes the technical features of the XE550 INGRES Application by Forms facility. A copy of this release letter can be found in the direc- tory on [D1] labeled: Releasenotes.XE550.ABF. Please read this entire release letter before proceeding to the in- stallation procedure outlined in Section 4.0. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 4 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 2.0 DOCUMENTATION The following document is available as a reference for using INGRES Application by Forms: - XE550 Systems, INGRES ABF (Application by Forms) User's Guide (Doc # 1176013) The following document should be referred to for information regard- ing the INGRES/Keyway interface: - XE550 Systems, INGRES Reference Manual (Doc # 1175967) Some purchasers of INGRES ABF may receive preliminary copies of the ABF manual. Those getting a preliminary version will get a completed manual at a later date. Should the finished manual fail to arrive within a reasonable amount of time, contact your local Burroughs sup- port person and have him/her follow up on this for you. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 5 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 3.0 SOFTWARE FEATURES XE-550 INGRES ABF is released with the following features, described in detail in the associated ABF documentation: - A standard interface for a complete application. - Ability to define frames by means of a high-level language called OSL. A frame is a standard INGRES form, but also contains a menu of operations to perform on that form. - Ability to define and manipulate standard INGRES forms. - Ability to add programming language procedures to perform data manipulation or provide INGRES database access. - Ability to access standard INGRES reports. - Access to the INGRES QBF facility for modifying data in a table. - Ability to combine frames and procedures into an application without requiring extensive knowledge of how to compile and link forms and procedures. - Ability to run an incomplete application. INGRES KEYWAY INTERFACE ABF will work with the Keyway interface, described in the INGRES Refer- ence Manual. The field "ABF Application Name" in the PARAMS function of Keyway MUST be filled in, and should contain the name of the applica- tion you want to create or modify. The function key marked "ABF" will bring up the ABF program, and will allow you to work on the application you named in the PARAMS function. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 6 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 4.0 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE INGRES ABF is installed in two stages. In the first stage of the installation, the System Load utility will copy the INGRES ABF partition to [d1]INGRESABF and append an entry to [sys] CENTIXProducts, naming the partition which contains the INGRES ABF software. (Please refer to the 'System Load Utility' release letter for information regarding the first stage of installation.) CAUTION: INGRES ABF will NOT install if the INGRES System software is not present on your system. The INGRES software MUST be installed BEFORE attempting to install this product! Should the INGRES software not be present, the following error message will appear: INGRES ABF installation failure - unable to find INGRES system files in your INGRES file system. Be sure you have mounted the INGRES file system, and that INGRES is properly installed. In the second stage, INGRES ABF is installed into the CENTIX file system utilizing centrEASE. The following steps should be executed in order to complete this second stage: 1. Boot the system. 2. Initiate centrEASE. (Type 'saf'.) 3. Type a '5', 'Install CENTIX Products', and select the appro- priate number to install INGRES ABF. Once the above has completed, exit from centrEASE if desired by entering the number which corresponds to "EXIT" and pressing GO. ABF should now be successfully installed onto your system. Please note that the entire procedure above should take about three (3) minutes to complete. For a list of files contained with this release, see Section 8.0. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 7 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 5.0 LIMITATIONS The following is a list of limitations for this release (2.0.3) of INGRES ABF: 1.) This version of ABF is only compatible with CENTIX level B3.00 system software and INGRES level 2.0 software. Systems having an earlier release of CENTIX and/or INGRES must upgrade prior to installing this release of ABF. 2.) Frame names can be no longer than 7 characters, and any letters used in a frame name must be in lower case. (This is a UNIX* System V limitation.) Otherwise, the application will not run. The Burroughs INGRES ABF 2.0.3 release is functionally equivalent to RTI's 2.0 release of ABF running on VAXes* and other machines. No release level is displayed by ABF. * UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. * VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 8 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 6.0 FCF REPORTING PROCEDURE All software problems, software deficiencies, or suggestions for im- provements should be reported by submitting a "Field Communication Form 3027057" (FCF), to your local Burroughs Support Personnel. The FCF should be reviewed for completeness and forwarded to the following address: Burroughs Corporation Product Assurance and Support PO Box 235 Downingtown, PA 19335 Attn: FCF Coordinator All information which would be helpful in understanding and analyzing the reported situation should be included with the FCF. This can be in the form of descriptions, computer listings, media containing pro- grams and data, etc. Please include a listing of the file '[sys] Sys.Version' with ALL FCFs submitted. Certain problem situations are given below, together with appropriate information to be submitted for each. For a hang or crash condition: - a printout from an MPlog or the logfile itself. - any observations of abnormal operation prior to the problem. - applicable crash files for FP... crashdump.sys for workstation...ws>crashdump.sys for cp... CPxx.crash where xx is the number of the board. - an indication of front (Dpanel LED status code. - an indication of LED lights on the back of each board. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 9 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 6.0 FCF REPORTING PROCEDURE (CONT) For Execution Conditions: - any data necessary to demonstrate the problem. - a list of erroneous output with the errors indicated and corrections noted. For problems which reoccur but cannot be reproduced on demand: - a clear and detailed description of the situation. - logfile (where applicable). - any data which may be available for this type of problem, including listing, etc. When completing the FCF, please keep the following points in mind: - Only one problem should be reported per FCF. - The FCF form is to be used for reporting system software problems, errors in documentation, or sug- gestions for new software features. Do not use it to ask questions or request information from Product Assurance and Support. - The information should be as clear and legible as possible. - All attachments submitted with the FCF should be clearly marked with the FCF number. If you wish anything to be returned to you, including any media you may have submitted, you MUST indicate so on the FCF form, and the piece of media. If you do not, your media will not be returned. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 10 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 7.0 KNOWN PROBLEMS The following is a list of problems associated with this release of INGRES ABF: 1.) An ABF procedure cannot be in any programming language except C (using EQUEL/C) at the present time. In particular, EQUEL/COBOL programs CANNOT be used with ABF. This is because CENTIX COBOL programs are interpreted on the XE550 system, whereas ABF appli- cations are compiled and linked. 2.) A form used with ABF may not contain any double quotes. If double quotes are used, the CENTIX assembler crashes. 3.) If QBF has been entered through ABF and the user ends a query before it is finished, the user gets the following response: "exiting query...", but the query is never exited. The DELETE key must be hit to get out of the query. 4.) Specifying "printer" in the report frame produces no output and will result in the terminal being hung. To get around this problem, use a unique file name in the 'Output File' field, and use 'lpr' from the shell to send the file to the printer. XE550 BURROUGHS APPLICATION BY FORMS (ABF) PAGE 11 LEVEL 2.0.3/U.S.A.- RELEASE TECHNICAL NOTES 8.0 SOFTWARE INDEX The following is a list of files that constitute the Burroughs INGRES ABF product: /bin/abf /bin/osl /files/UTcom.def /files/UTexe.def /files/abf.opt /files/abf.stb /files/abhappd.txt /files/abhfrmd.txt /files/abhgbf.txt /files/abhobjd.txt /files/abhproc.txt /files/abhqbf.txt /files/abhrepmu.txt /files/abhrqbf.txt /files/abhrw.txt /files/abhufrm.txt /files/abhuproc.txt /files/abhuser.txt /files/abhimage.txt /lib/abflib /lib/abfmain.obj /install /filelist