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Programming in ISIS

Programming in ISIS. an introduction (by E. de Smet, Univ. of Antwerp). Why programming in a database ?. Extension of functions which are lacking, e.g. in ISIS/DOS : printing first occurrence only, limiting length of output etc.

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Programming in ISIS

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  1. Programming in ISIS an introduction(by E. de Smet, Univ. of Antwerp)

  2. Why programming in a database ? • Extension of functions which are lacking, e.g. in ISIS/DOS : printing first occurrence only, limiting length of output etc. • Solving problems which are a-typical, e.g. GMOD : global changes in database, changing tags of fields, adding subfields in all records etc. • Adding ‘interface’ e.g. more user-friendly ways of dealing with the software

  3. 3 types of ISIS-programming • ISIS/Pascal : as ‘format exits’ or as ‘menu exits’ • format exits : ISIS/DOS and WinISIS, no ‘interface’ • menu exits : only ISIS/DOS • ISISDLL : GUI applications based on pre-programmed ISIS-functions in DLL, running (in- or) outside WinISIS • ISIS-plugins : GUI applications based on any language but with links to running ISIS-environment (open database, PFT..), running within WinISIS (not yet fully implemented)

  4. ISIS/Pascal : Format Exits • small functions for processing not available in Formatting Language, mostly processing database values, e.g. • lenlim : limit output of field to max. length • occ1 : take only first occurrence • simple example : hello.pas Program HELLO(s1:string, lw,occ:real, s2:string)[FORMAT]; Begin s2:=s1; End. • calling in PFT : &hello(‘Hello !’)

  5. ISIS/Pascal : Menu Exits • small, upto full-fledged programs to be run as an option in an ISIS/DOS menu or as ‘R’ in the ‘Advanced Programming Services’ main-menu item (not WinISIS) • e.g. : GMOD (global changes), ODIN (data entry), IRIS (searching), Heurisko… • example : Program HELLO[MENU]; Begin {very beginning of program} Clear; {clears the screen in DOS-window) Cursor(11,11); {puts cursor at position x=11 y=11} Writeln(‘HELLO !'); {writes text at cursorposition} End. {very end of program} (does not run in WinISIS because of ‘interface’)

  6. Exercise : your own ‘hello’ program • 3 steps : • Writing the ‘source’ with text-editor • Compiling the source to ‘binary’ with WinISIS • Running the program from a format • Writing source : beware of small things, esp. interpunction ! E.g. :=, ;, “ vs. ‘ ‘ etc. • Compiling (not on NTFS-disks..) and debugging, using debug-info from WinISIS • Run in PFT : &HELLO(‘your text’)

  7. ISISDLL Programming • ISISDLL : a ‘library’, dynamically linked into other programmes invoking standard functions pre-programmed in the DLL, taking away the need to deal with most complicated ISIS-input/output operations • most used programming environments : • C++ - JAVA • Visual Basic • Delphi (Pascal) • modern programming is ‘object’-based : all parts are objects with properties and ‘methods’ • e.g. PFTText.text is the ‘text’property of the input-object PFTText) • srcMFN.MFN = MFN part of the ‘structure’ srcMFN in which all MFN’s are put by function call IsisSrcMfnMap(a,0,0,i,i,srcMFN)

  8. ISISDLL : the components • programmed and provided for free by : BIREME (and UNESCO) at http://www.bireme.br/isis/l/isisdll.htm • ISISDLL.DLL : the real library file • ISIS001.* (.PAS for Delphi) : constants and structure declarations • ISIS32.* (.PASfor Delphi) : declarations for all DLL functions • current release : v.7 (fall 2001)

  9. ISISDLL Programming (2) • e.g. functions to open a database, read and format a record (in Delphi) : • a:= IsisAppNew; {creates a temporary memory space for an ISIS-application} • h:= IsisSpaNew(a); {creates a new ISIS_DLL space} • r:= IsisSpaMf(h, PChar(PChar(dbText.Text))); {organises memory to contain one record of the database given in dbText and all necessary database-elements} • r:= IsisRecRead(h, 0, srcMfn.mfn); {reads MFN into memory} • r:= IsisSpaPft(h, PChar(pftText.Text)); {puts the whole Formatting Language in memory to work with the PFT as given in pftText} • r:=IsisRecFormat(h, 0, Area, 60000); {actually formats the current record according to the current selected format and puts the output in the memoryspace Area}

  10. ISISDLL programming example • WinIRIS : simple searching in Windows • features : • database selection and PFT selection (file or actual formatting statements) • about box • dictionary consultation while typing search terms with Windows-style Ctrl or Shift-click for multiple selection • immediate results display • only 260 lines of code, thanks to ISISDLL ! Most of them generated by ‘rapid graphical programming environment’ • WinIRIS Delphi project

  11. WinISIS plugins • WinISIS plug-in : executable softwares, inserted in WinISIS-menu’s, knowing how to read the actual database and configuration (PFT, record, IF etc.) • adding into menu (= database MSENDF.MST) FreeText search[CALL freetext.exe]will allow ‘FreeText’ plugin to be invoked from the menu • waiting for the specs (’API’)… still not officially released

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