Introduction to Data Management

Managing Records With ENSCRIBE
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When writing applications, remember that calls to ENSCRIBE procedures can coexist
in the same program with NonStop SQL statements. This feature gives you great
flexibility in developing applications to support your relational database.
Developing Simple
Applications with
ENABLE
Using the ENABLE program generator, you can produce simple OLTP applications
based on ENSCRIBE files. If you are a business professional or other end user, you
can use ENABLE to solve simple business problems. If you are a programmer, you
can use ENABLE to build prototypes for portions of more complex applications or to
create small production applications. The ENSCRIBE files that support your
application are based on record structures and data fields previously specified in a
DDL data dictionary.
ENABLE reduces the time you need to develop a simple application, greatly
decreasing your development costs. To write such an application in a conventional
programming language could take days or even weeks. But with ENABLE, you can
generate the same application much more rapidly. ENABLE is so easy to use that it
does not require you to learn programming techniques or a source program language.
It allows you to create your application with just a few simple commands.
ENABLE applications run in a PATHWAY environment, based on the interaction of
requesters and servers as explained in Section 2. ENABLE automatically produces the
requesters and servers for you, according to the specifications that you enter.
The applications best suited for ENABLE are those that only need to display, alter,
delete, or insert records in one or more files. To create such applications, ENABLE lets
you use DDL data descriptions to generate screens that display database fields on a
user’s terminal or workstation. When multiple files are involved, ENABLE helps you
to establish relationships between the files and access records based on those
relationships.
Although ENABLE gives you enough flexibility to create and tailor simple
applications, this product is not suitable for all applications. ENABLE cannot, for
example, create applications that perform mathematical calculations or ensure
database consistency. For these and other more complex functions, you must use
PATHMAKER or PATHWAY.