4.4 DATA ENTRY
WORKSHEET
You
will
enter data into the database using a
worksheet, rather
like an input form. Whereas in the DOS
version of CDS/ISIS you had to specify a lot about
the
layout of the form, in
the Windows version you
need to do very little. The main
choice is which fields you want to
be on the worksheet. If you
only
have one worksheet
then
normally
you will want them
all,
and
you need only to
click the button with the double arrow to effect this. If you
want to be more choosy, or
to change the order of fields on the worksheet, you
can
select fields one at a time and either double- click the field
or click the button with
the
single arrow. The order does
not have to be by ascending tag number.
You can make the worksheet do more by highlighting one of the Data Entry Fields
(when you have moved some onto the worksheet) and clicking the button showing
a pencil and paper.
This brings up a dialog
box with some further options:
Description. This
allows
you
to use a different
name on the worksheet
from
the
name you have used
in the
FDT.
In an integrated database of books and research projects you might have a field for corporate name, used for the corporate
author of a
book
or the host institution of a project. You could have two worksheets, one describing the field as
“Corporate author” and the other describing it as
“Host institution”.
Default value. If the field will nearly always contain the same value, e.g. ‟eng‟ for language
‟English‟, you can
put this in as a default value. It will then
already be filled when you use
the
worksheet,
but you
can
alter the
value when it does not apply.
Help. You
may
enter a ‟Help‟
message for this
field
that
will be displayed at the bottom
of the data entry window when the user is entering data in
that
field. It is often useful to
give
an example, e.g.
Enter
surname, comma, initials, e.g. Walton, C.J.
Validation
format. You can put
in a
rule to check
the
format of the data entered, e.g.
the
length must be a certain
number
of characters,
or the field may only be present
if
another field is
absent. The rule is written
using the formatting language described in Chapter
5 and an example that might be used
in the specification for
field 110 is shown below:
if p(v100) and p(v110) then ’You cannot
have two main entries’ fi
The if expression
p(v100) tests for field 100
being
present and field 110 being present. It will
cause a message box to
appear after the user tries
to enter data in field 110
if there is already a field
100 present. Data entry cannot proceed
until the data are removed
from field 110.
Another easy kind of validation is to test that the contents of a field are the right
length, e.g.
if size(v8) > 40 then ’Field 8 is too long’ fi
However,
if you
make a mistake in writing a validation
rule it may be impossible
ever
to satisfy it and you
will never be able to
get beyond this
field in data entry. It is
therefore not recommended for
beginners.
Pick-list definition. A
pick-list
enables the user to display a list giving a choice of
values for a particular
field during data entry. In the
pick-list definition box you enter choice followed by two colons and a format
that will produce the list.
The first line produced
by
the format will appear
as the title of
the listbox during data entry. For example:
choice::’Languages’/’English’/’French’/’German’/’Spanish’
The values
here
are all unconditional
literals.
„Languages‟
will be taken
as
the title and „English‟,
„French‟, „German‟, and „Spanish‟ will be the choices displayed
as shown in Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.2 Example of a pick-list
The first box below the title is to allow the person
doing data entry to search
for a desired value: he/she
can enter the term or the beginning
of the term and click the
button with the magnifying glass.
You can allow the user to select
more than one item from the list by using the
multi keyword and
repeat puts
each value into a separate
occurrence of the field:
choice:multi:repeat::’Languages’/’English’/’French’/ ’German’/’Spanish’
Unfortunately at
the
time of writing there is a small
bug in this part of the program and you may have to
enter the data twice during data entry to get the desired
result. An alternative is
to specify that each
value
is enclosed in angle
brackets:
choice:multi:<>::’Languages’/’English’/’French’/’German’/ ’Spanish’
You will then need
to index the field with Indexing Technique 2.
If you follow
a standard format
for bibliographic records,
you may wish to hold the
language as a code but display the full name in the pick-list. This can be done using
the firstdescribe keyword: each entry consists of its name
followed by its
code:
choice:firstdescribe::’Languages’/’French’/’fre’/
’Portuguese’/’por’/’Spanish’/’spa’
There are other
more sophisticated
possibilities in creating pick-lists,
thanks to the list being
generated by the CDS/ISIS formatting language. However, we will mention one final one: you
can keep the list in a separate text file
and give the file name here. Each line in the text
file is treated as an entry in
the
list.
choice:files::’Languages’/’langs.txt’
The possibilities described here can be combined, i.e. you can use several keywords separated by colons and
the order does not matter, but remember
to put two colons before the list
values or file name.
Pick-lists are not recommended for long lists (hundreds or thousands of terms) because of the processing time and memory limitations: a better solution
is to develop a plug-in application using ISIS_DLL.
OK. Click the OK button to go
back
to the Worksheet
definition screen.
If you have entered
any Data Entry Fields by mistake, you can remove
them using the button with the left-pointing arrow.
You can alter the order of fields
on the worksheet by selecting the field to be moved and clicking
the (or
( button. A validation
rule applying to the record, rather than an individual
field, can be entered by
clicking the Record Validation button. For example
in Format you could have:
if a(v200) then ’Record must contain a title.’ fi
This
will generate an error message if the
user has entered a record
without any data
in field 200 and then tries to save it. Again
caution is advised: a badly written
rule may mean
that you
can
never save the
record. The use of Begin code
and End code allows editing to
be done automatically on the record when it is
opened or closed in the worksheet,
e.g.
today‟s date could be entered
in one of the fields, but it is beyond the scope of
this Handbook.
When
you have set up the worksheet, click the button
with the green arrow
pointing right.
Source: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/3077/5/whandbk.pdf
