Reading Selection Sets

Tue Apr 4 06:41:41 PDT 2006

Doug Luurs wrote:

> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Keith' Weatherhead [mailto:keithw at ddltd.com] 
>>Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 9:02 AM
>>To: Doug Luurs
>>Cc: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com; fPWishList
>>Subject: Re: Reading Selection Sets
>>
>>
>>Doug Luurs wrote:
>>
>>
>>>When you are running a report, is there a way to get the fields and 
>>>values defined in the selection set you are running currently?
>>>
>>>(Short of reading the selection set of course-but that may be 
>>>different due  to the person changing the values by 
>>
>>hand-which is what 
>>
>>>I want to
>>>catch)
>>>
>>>Douglas Luurs
>>>  Systems Programmer
>>>  Borisch Mfg Corp
>>>
>>>Voice: 616-554-9820 x143
>>>Fax: 616-554-9180
>>>
>>>If replying to this email, please attach whole message for 
>>
>>reference. 
>>
>>>- Thank You.
>>>
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>>
>>Doug,
>>
>>This question has been asked or the process attempted so many times 
>>over the years that I cannot believe that it has never been 
>>addressed by TPTB thru all the variations from The Small Computer 
>>Co. to FPTech.  I know of know way "to-date" to do this other than 
>>to read the actual Selection Set off the HD.  If you know that the 
>>process needs this info, do it in a @once or some early event and 
>>pass the Selection Set name into one of the @p? parameters on 
>>the command line.  What would be very hard to do, unless it 
>>has happened 
>>lately and I just haven't looked at I haven't had the need is to see 
>>if a new @ system variable already contains the name of the 
>>Selection Set used.  The question is can it capture the Set Name if 
>>you manually go thru the Selection Set->Extended Selection and 
>>either enter criteria or Load an Existing Set?
>>
>>Anyway, now, especially since the 5.x version and having System 
>>Arrays... why can't the current Selection Set, in-use be a 
>>System Array?
>>
>>Why can't a variable be set @SS for example, that contains the 
>>Selection Set name from the command line -OR- Loaded from an 
>>existing set?
>>
>>Why can't it contain a fixed string that cannot be a normal filename 
>>name, such as '*USER*' if you entered an Extended Set data, but have 
>>not saved it to a file for future reference?
>>
>>Why is there NOT a command set to build, save, and remove Selection 
>>Sets from within processing?  Yes you can do it with file I/O, but 
>>why does FP itself not make it available to the programmer? This 
>>would let you walk the user thru a selection process, store it... 
>>use it thru multiple steps (reports, updates, etc.) and then remove 
>>it when finished... you could do your own naming for the series to 
>>prevent it from hitting any previously existing Set name.
>>
>>If the example @SS was non-blank, then maybe a @SSDATA array would 
>>exist which would be 13 elements long, just the like Selection 
>>Criteria Screen... the widths are already known... would not be a 
>>big deal to do at all... I would think any FPTECH C-coder would have 
>>MORE than enough ability to implement ! ! !
>>
>>Feature ver 1 - @SS and @SSDATA
>>Feature ver 2 - Be able to update @SSDATA and essentially be able to 
>>do the equivalent of a "RESET" command.
>>
>>The results could be very interesting ! ! !
>>
>>Regards,
>>Keith
>>-- 
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> 
> I can, like you say thru file I/O, create / read / delete selection sets
> via processing as it is.
> That's not a problem.
> 
> My problem lays in the fact that users change a 'base' selection set
> with their data, and then
> Come to me and say something doesn't work, when they screwed something
> up.  I'd like to me
> Able to read that selection set they used on the report, then dump it
> into a filepro file
> Somewhere for a day or 3.  Then when they come back to me and say 'your
> @#$@ program doesn't work'
> I can go to the selection file, and say 'it does work.. You messed it
> up'. *GRINS*
> (That and other thing I could use it for)
> 
> I would like to see the System Array for the selection sets available
> for us.
> It has to exist already .. I mean how else does the rreport/dreport
> program know what to do.
> 
> Just give us READ access to it.
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Doug,

If it is a static Selection Set... make it Read Only !

If it is a known Selection Set, but the data can be changed,
you may want to immedialtely copy it to a subdirectory with the name 
of an ID your report assigns and simply put that ID code in the 
Header or Footer of the report, as another option.

You can have a CRON or other scheduled process go clear out the Sets 
after they are some "n" days old to prevent the subdirectory from 
running away with wasted disk space on you...

Just a couple of thoughts to get you thru while waiting for FPTech 
to provide a solution...

Keith
-- 
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Keith F. Weatherhead                   keithw at ddltd.com

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