Dictionary/3000 Reference Manual (32244-90001)

Appendix D 339

How HP INFORM Links Files to Generate Reports

Default File Access

prompt when adding an element from the ﬁle CATALOG to the group. We would like to

pick an element which will allow HP Inform/3000 to link CATALOG directly with other

ﬁles to retrieve as many elements from the group as possible. The elements “call-no” and

“borrower” are our two possibilities since they are search items. The data element “call-no”

links CATALOG and BOOK, where “title” and “author” can be retrieved; the data element

“borrower” links CATALOG and BORROWER, where only “phone” can be retrieved.

Hence, we pick the element “call-no”.

After linking CATALOG and BOOK through the element “call-no”, HP Inform/3000 will

try to use the element in the group with the next highest priority link value to directly link

CATALOG or BOOK with BORROWER - assuming “phone” was requested for the report.

To make this most efﬁcient, we can give “borrower” a link value of 2. Thus, we could add

elements to the BOOKS OUT group as follows:

>ADD GROUP

GROUP> books out <

ELEMENT> title <

ELEMENT ALIAS> ! <

ELEMENT> author <

ELEMENT ALIAS> ! <

ELEMENT> phone <

ELEMENT ALIAS> phone number <

FILE> ! <

ELEMENT> call-no <

ELEMENT ALIAS> call number <

FILE> catalog <

VALUE AS A LINK> 1 <

DISPLAY ELEMENT ON MENU (Y/N)?>!

ELEMENT> borrower <

ELEMENT ALIAS> <

FILE> <

VALUE AS A LINK> 2 <

DISPLAY ELEMENT ON MENU (Y/N)?>!

ELEMENT> <