Introduction to Data Management

Managing Records With ENSCRIBE
15873 Tandem Computers Incorporated 4-11
Creating an
ENABLE Application
Once you have created your ENSCRIBE database and its data dictionary through FUP
and DDL, as discussed earlier in this section, you can access the database through
ENABLE. An ENABLE application can access all types of structured and
unstructured ENSCRIBE files. Creating the application generally involves:
1. Supplying specifications that describe the application, plus a request to generate
the application, in the form of commands to ENABLE. The specifications define
the attributes of the application by supplying configuration information. They also
define certain file-handling characteristics, such as how the application displays
data on the terminal screen, and the types of I/O operations that the application
can perform on a file. ENABLE combines these commands with the DDL
descriptions to produce SCREEN COBOL source code for your requester. This
code defines and controls the screens that will appear on the user’s terminal, and is
compiled into object form by the SCREEN COBOL compiler. ENABLE also
produces necessary information for PATHWAY on the PATHWAY configuration
file.
2. Establishing a PATHWAY system to execute the application. This step involves
entering commands to PATHWAY that create the PATHMON monitor process,
create the PATHCOM command interpreter process, and submit the configuration
file produced by ENABLE to PATHCOM. PATHCOM passes this file to
PATHMON, which uses the information in the file to define:
a) The requester program generated by ENABLE
b) A PATHWAY terminal control process (TCP) that acts as a requester process by
running your requester program along with other TCP code; the TCP controls
the screen and sends instructions to the general server on the basis of the
actions requested by your program
c) The general server process supplied by ENABLE to open the database files and
service the data-handling requests received from the TCP
Using and Maintaining an
ENABLE Application
Once you have generated your application, it is ready to run and use. When someone
uses the application, that person is mainly involved with entering or changing data on
the display screen, using function keys to transmit the data to the server, and
retrieving other data from the database.
At any time after this point, you can optionally refine your application by tailoring it
in various ways. For instance, you can customize your requester screen to improve its
usability or enhance its appearance. Or, you can specify restrictions on the operations
that your application can perform, to further safeguard your database. You
accomplish these tasks by entering commands to ENABLE.
You can also perform certain application maintenance tasks. For example, you can
move the application to another system, disk volume, or subvolume. Or you can
reclaim disk space used by old versions of the application. These tasks often require
using the SCREEN COBOL Utility Program (SCUP) as well as FUP.