Description Tables - DataKinetics

Description tables provide part of the text that appears on the various screens in tablesONLINE. There is only one Description table per application Id. By editing a Description table you can alter some of the text that appears on the screens. Not all of the screen content is provided by the Description table. For example, in the case of a menu screen, text also comes from the Menu table.

In Figure 174, the highlighted text indicates descriptions that can be edited using a Description table. To edit a Description table, select Option 6 – EDIT DESC TABLE from the Application Developer’s menu.

Figure 174. Modifiable Parts of a Typical Screen

There are nine fields used to define each row in the Description table (see Figure 175).

The Application's Descriptions Table - Edit-Row Screen — Figure 175. The Application’s Descriptions Table – Edit-Row Screen

The first four fields form the key for this table and provide the information that indicates the type of screen to which the description text applies. The other fields provide the information about the display and contents of the description text.

The first key field can be one of two classes: Program or DBtype. This key determines how the remaining fields will be handled (the variations are detailed later in this section).

The Program class has seven possible values and the DBtype class has one value (see Table 176).

Table 176. Program Class and DBtype Class Values
Class Values		Description
Program Class Values	TBONLINE	Description text for all the tablesONLINE screens. For more detail see TBONLINE.
	HELP	Description text for Help and Tutorial screens. For more detail see HELP.
	MENU	Description text for Menu screens. For more detail see MENU.
	MSGR	Description text for Message screens. For more detail see MSGR (Message Screen).
	PFKS	Description text for PF Key functions. For more detail see PFKS (PF Key Screens).
	ERRORCHK	Description text for data conversion error messages. For more detail see ERRORCHK.
	NO-DESCR	Description text for the message that is displayed after a failed description table lookup. For more detail see NO-DESCR (No Description).
DBtype Class Values	TABLE	Description text for Table Identification, Edit-Table and Edit-Row screens. For more detail see Program/DBtype for DBtype Class Value.