Field Maintenance Screen

The Field Maintenance Screen is where you can view, change or add attributes for any given field ID. Some of those attributes are shared between Data Layouts for the same field ID and others maybe unique per Data Layout for the same field ID. If you change or add attributes you will have to rebuild the files using Regenerate.

To access the ActionWare Main Menu, from a command entry line:

Type AW4LM

Press Enter

To access the the Configuration Menu:

Option 5 Configuration Menu

Press Enter

To access the work (prototype) screen:

Option 1 Define database layout

Press Enter

The initial screen display is a work screen (prototype) of the most current database design layouts from the FIEL file. The current contact record layout for Data Layout 1 Panel 0 and Panel 1 is displayed first. The screen displays the labels for existing fields along with the data field ID's. To move to Data Layout 2 use F14, to Move to Data Layout 3 use F15, F13 will take you back to Data Layout 1. F11 rotates through all the panels on any given Data Layout.

To change a particular field attribute or to view attributes, position your cursor on the desired field and use F10.

A display of the field attributes for that particular field will display:

Sequence: 360 . .. . . Field Name: . US3 . . . . Type: . A . . . . . File start . .415. . . ... End: 434
  Length: 20 . . . . . . . .Dec: . . Edit: . . . . . . . . . . Case: L . . . . . .. Entry Field: Y . ... . .Copy Clear: Y . . . . ....................................................................................................................................................Propagate: . 0

------- DATA . LAYOUT . 1 --------

  Panel#: __

_______________________

label . data

Row : . __ .. . __
Col: . .. __ .. . __
Lth: . . . __
Attr: ... .__
Color:. __ . .. __
Rev I:...__ .....__
Help label: . US3A

------- DATA . LAYOUT . 2 --------

  Panel#: __

_______________________

label . data

Row : . __ .. . __
Col: . .. __ .. . __
Lth: . . . __
Attr: ... .__
Color:. __ . .. __
Rev I:...__ .....__
Help label: . US3B

------- DATA . LAYOUT . 3 --------

  Panel#: __

_______________________

label . data

Row : . __ .. . __
Col: . .. __ .. . __
Lth: . . . __
Attr: ... .__
Color:. __ . .. __
Rev I:...__ .....__
Help label: . US3C

 

 
Col Heading 1: ______________________________
Col Heading 2: ______________________________
Col Heading 3: _______________________________

Notes 1: ____________________
Notes 2: ____________________
Notes 3: ____________________
Notes 4: ____________________  

Field text: ________________________________________________

F3=Exit F5=Refresh F12=Cancel

How to read the Field Maintenance Screen:

The first 3 lines of information is field attributes for the selected field and are the same for that field regardless of whether or not they appear on any Data Layout.

Attribute:

Value:

What happens:

Sequence

4 digits

Sequence value expresses where this particular field ID will appear on a list of all field ID's. Once created you can resequence any field to have it appear on the Database Definition Module screen. This is very handy because you have the opportunity to alphabetize field ID's so that when displayed for external products such as Microsoft WORD or IBM Query for the iSeries you can easily locate a field ID.

Field Name

3 characters

The unique field ID (name) of the field

Type

1 character

There are 5 types of fields, A = alphanumeric, N = numeric, D = date, T = time, Z = date and time. We recommend that you using the type of field in your naming convention for new fields, A01, A02, etc for alphanumeric, N01, N02, etc. for numeric fields and so on.

File Start

3 characters

System generated and can't be changed.

File End

3 characters

System generated and can't be changed.

Length

3 digits

Length of this particular field regardless of which data layout.

Dec

2 digits

This is used only for numeric fields. It indicates how many decimal

positions there are, that is, how many digits to the right of the
decimal point. It may be zero, indicating the numeric field is an integer,
or 1 thru the length of the field. Note that field length indicates the total number of digits in a field, this value indicates how many of that total are to the right of the decimal point.

Edit

1 character

 For numeric fields only, this determines the appearance of a numeric field,
 on both screen and printouts, according to the table below.

Edit
Code

  Leading
  Zeros
Suppressed

  Decimal
  Point Displayed

Commas
Displayed

  Zero
  Value Displayed

 Negative
 Value
 Sign

1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

None

2

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

None

3

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

None

4

Yes

Yes

No

No

None

A

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

CR

B

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

CR

C

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

CR

D

Yes

Yes

No

No

CR

J or N

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

-(trailing/leading)

K or O

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

-(trailing/leading)

L or P

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

-(trailing/leading)

M or Q

Yes

Yes

No

No

-(trailing/leading)

Z

Yes

No

No

No

None

blank

No

No

No

Yes

{,J-R

Y

Edits a 6 digit numeric date field

 

Case

1 character

 L allows entry of lower or upper case data as determined by your use of
  the keys on your keyboard. Valid for Alpha fields only.
 
 U means that all characters keyed will be forced to upper case.
 
 $ is a special entry used with numeric fields to specify that the field is
  to be displayed or printed with a leading $ sign.

Entry Field

1 character

This value determines whether the user is able to enter data into this field. Y = Yes entry and N = No entry

Copy Clear

1 character

This code is used to specify if this field is to be cleared when a new
record is added to the database which is based on another existing record.
This is normally the case when the user does an Add Above or Add Marked.
 
Normally the majority of fields would be copied, such as address information,
telephones numbers etc. But you will normally have some fields which you
require to be blanked (or zeroed for numeric fields) in this situation.
 
N = No, field will be copied from the based on record to the new record.
Y = Yes, field to be cleared.

Propagate

1 digit

This code is used to define the fields to be propagated through all the contact records with the same Primary ID (PID).
 
Up to 4 groups of these fields can be specified, they are identified by
using codes 1-4. The default responses to these prompts are defined in the ActionWare System Options

The next section of information contains three separate groups representing how the field is displayed on Data Layout 1, Data Layout 2 and Data Layout 3. These field attributes are NOT shared across Data Layouts and maybe defined as exactly the same or as different as necessary on each Data Layout. These field attributes require values for both label and data in the field. For example, you make choose a different color for the label from the color of the data in the field.

Attribute:

Value:

What happens:

Panel#

1 character

One value for each Data Layout, 0 = Not displayed on a Panel, 1 = Panel 1, 2= Panel 2, 3 = Panel 3, 4 = Panel 4, 5 = Panel 5, 6 = Panel 6

Label for field

20 characters

The label is what appears on the screen to describe the field data, normally it immediately precedes the data in the field. There can be 3 labels, one for each 3 Data Layouts. The maximum length of the label is 20 characters. It is not mandatory to have a label. For example, if you have 3 related fields, you may wish to have a label to the left of the first field, and to then just have the data contents of the 3 fields adjacent to each other, that is, no labels on the second or third field. However, it is recommended that you always type a label for each Data Layout regardless if it is displayed. To omit a label, specify the label row as zero. If zero the label is ignored and not displayed. If the field is available for use on one or more Data Layouts it is suggested that you update the label as OPEN.

Row

3digits

Row values specify exactly where on the screen a label, and its data, are displayed. Fields on panel 0 must start after row 3 column 2, and end before row 10 column 79. Fields on panels 1 thru 3 must fall between row 12 column 2, and row 21 column 79. Row is a cursor position measurement. It is the 1st set of numbers in the lower righthand corner of the ActionWare screen. The second set of numbers indicates column position.
 
A panel number of N, or a row number of 0 for either label or the field specifies that no display is to be generated.

Column (Col)

3 digits

Column values specify exactly where on the screen a label, and its data, are displayed. Fields on panel 0 must start after row 3 column 2, and end before row 10 column 79. Fields on panels 1 thru 3 must fall between row 12 column 2, and row 21 column 79. Column is a cursor position measurement. It is the 2nd set of numbers in the lower righthand corner of the ActionWare screen. The first set of numbers indicates row position.
 
A panel number of N, or a row number of 0 for either label or the field specifies that no display is to be generated.

Length (Lth)

3 digits

This is a display of the Field length as defined by the length of the field and the length of the label for that field. Field length may be 0, or 1-256 for an alpha field, or 1-30 for a numeric field, a Date field is 10, Time is 8, Timestamp is 26.
 
0 is a special value which allows you to define all the other characteristics of a field, yet not include it in the database files right now.

Attribute (Attr)

2 characters

Special attributes define the characteristics of the displayed label or data. They are:

Valid LABEL attributes

Valid DATA attributes

BL Blinking field

BL Blinking field

CS Column Separators

CS Column Separators

HI High Intensity

HI High Intensity

ND Nondisplay

ND Nondisplay

UL Underline

UL Underline

 

PC Position Cursor

 

PR Protect (Do not allow entry)

HB Hi Intensity + Blink

HB Hi Intensity + Blink

HP Hi Intensity + Position Cursor

HP Hi Intensity + Position Cursor

HR Hi Intensity + Protect

HR Hi Intensity + Protect

It is strongly suggested that you use these special attributes with great care so as not to drive your users crazy. Just because the attribute is available doesn't mean that it should be used repeatedly.

Color

3 characters

This attribute specifies the color of the label or data. The values are:

GRN

Green

WHT

White

RED

Red

TRQ

Turquoise

YLW

Yellow

PNK

Pink

BLU

Blue

Reverse Image (Rev I)

1 character

This attribute specifies whether a label or data is to be displayed in
Reverse Image. The values are Y = Yes or blank = No

Help label:

10 characters

System generated and can't be changed. One for each Data Layout.

The last grouping of prompts on the screen relate to how external programs will read the label descriptions. There is also space for the System Administrator to make notes about the creation or maintenance of this particular field.

Prompt:

Value:

What happens:

Col Heading 1:

20 characters

Column Headings stored in the iSeries (AS400) Database Definition, and it is used as the default heading in Query for Data Layout 1.
 
If you leave this prompt blank, it defaults to the specified label description for each of the 3 Data Layouts. Note that if the labels are identical, only one is used as a column heading.

Col Heading 2:

20 characters

Column Headings stored in the iSeries (AS400) Database Definition, and it is used as the default heading in Query for Data Layout 2.
 
If you leave this prompt blank, it defaults to the specified label description for each of the 3 Data Layouts. Note that if the labels are identical, only one is used as a column heading.

Col Heading 3:

20 characters

Column Headings stored in the iSeries (AS400) Database Definition, and it is used as the default heading in Query for Data Layout 3.
 
If you leave this prompt blank, it defaults to the specified label description for each of the 3 Data Layouts. Note that if the labels are identical, only one is used as a column heading.

Notes 1:

32 characters

Notes are just descriptive information to help the System Administrator why
they used an attribute or for whom the data field was created and when. Normally note entries are not made. Notes are not used for any purpose other than to be displayed on this maintenance screen.

Notes 2:

32 characters

Notes 3:

32 characters

Notes 4:

32 characters

Field text:

50 characters

Field text is the label description of the field, unless updated to something different, manually. It is stored as field text in the iSeries (AS/400) database. A semi-colon ; is used between Data Layout types, ie, 1, 2 and 3. or xxxxxx; yyyyyy; and zzzzzz. This is a very important prompt to maintain should you change the label of a field, make sure that the field text is also changed.