One of the principal functions of tablesONLINE is the creation of tables that can subsequently be used by tableBASE. The Application Developer’s menu contains an entry, D – DEFINE TABLE pointing to the Define Table and View menu Figure 133 that contains all of the options necessary to create and edit tablesONLINE tables.
In the Define Table and View menu, there are four options used to create a table (see Table 138).
|
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Define View |
describes the row layout of a Data Table |
|
Define View Supplementary |
describes table access controls |
|
Define Data Table |
describes the physical table attributes |
|
Edit Display Order |
allows you to change the order in which table fields are displayed to the user |
As mentioned earlier, a tablesONLINE table is actually made up of two separate tables. The first is the Data Table and the second is the View of that Data Table. The Data Table is defined by assigning the physical table attributes. If a table is to be used exclusively by tableBASE, only these physical table attributes need be defined. However, to browse or edit the table using tablesONLINE, you must also provide the row layout information. This information is stored in the table View. The View indicates to tablesONLINE how the information in the Data Table is to be displayed for editing and browsing purposes.
The table access controls and field display order provide additional control over the table. This information is not mandatory for either tableBASE or tablesONLINE, but can be used to refine the display of data for users.