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Chapter 5: Populating the Worksheet

In this session, you use the worksheet to list all the points of interest, together with analysis details.


Please see the Tutorials Map to check that you have run all necessary previous sessions.


5.1 Overview

The worksheet looks like a spreadsheet, but in fact is a database that contains all the POI's you've found, together with comments about them. You can populate the worksheet from sets created using the analysis tools, or from the result sets of other browsers and tools in Revolve Enterprise Edition. When fully populated, it serves as a list to guide you or other programmers in what needs to be changed and how and why. You can categorize entries to help break up and size the problem. You can also produce reports from it, so that you can track the work and produce estimates of the work involved in the planned update.

5.2 Preparation

This session uses the project you created in the chapter Finding Points of Interest.

  1. If you have closed Revolve, open it as before.

  2. If this Populating the Worksheet session has been run before and has created a worksheet in the project folder, delete the worksheet as follows:
    1. Make sure the project is closed.

    2. Delete the worksheet, using Windows. The worksheet file has the same name as the project, with extension .mdb, and it is in the Enterprise folder under the project folder. So if you are using the default folder names, it is \projects\order\Enterprise\order.mdb.
  3. Open the Order project by selecting it from the "recently used files" list at the bottom of the Project menu.

5.3 Preparing the Worksheet

To check that the settings of the worksheet are as required for this session:

  1. Click Enterprise > Open Worksheet.

    This creates and opens the worksheet for the Order project. It is empty at the moment.

  2. Click the Options button Options on the worksheet, and make sure that Show information bar is checked.

    All the chapters in this book assume that you have this setting.

  3. Click OK.

5.4 Adding a Set to the Worksheet

In the chapter Finding Points of Interest, you created a set of POI's called "Potential monetary data items". To add this set to the worksheet:

  1. If the Named Sets window is not displayed, click Enterprise > Named Sets.

  2. In the Named Sets window, double-click Potential monetary data items to display it.

    This set contains 109 data items.

  3. If the Analysis Tools window is not displayed, click Enterprise > Analysis Tools.

  4. Drag the "Potential monetary data items" set in the same way as before onto Worksheet channel in Analysis Tools.

  5. Click the Add Options tab. At the top, there is a Notes checkbox and two fields:

    Check the Notes checkbox and type a new note in the lower entry field - for example, "Potential monetary data item".

  6. Check the Categories checkbox and click the browse button, then select A-Poss from the list.

  7. Click OK to close the Categories dialog box.

  8. Click the Operation tab and ensure that Add candidates and All items from the source set are selected.

  9. Click OK.

    The 109 data items in the set are added to the worksheet, as shown in Figure 5-1.

  10. Tidy up by closing the "Potential monetary data items" set.



Figure 5-1: Worksheet

5.5 Exploring the Worksheet

Before continuing, take a look at some of the features of the worksheet:

  1. Click the Data Items tab if it is not already displayed.

    Notice that a count of 109 data items shows in the information bar towards the top of the worksheet.

  2. For explanation of what's in the columns, click the Help button on the worksheet.

  3. Notice that the Category column shows the category A-Poss that we assigned to this set of items.

  4. Click the column heading Name to sort the data items in alphabetical order. You can sort any column similarly.

  5. Widen the Name column by dragging the divider between its column heading and the next column's heading. You can also press Ctrl+F2 to size all the columns to fit the information in them.

  6. Click one of the data items and click the View Source Code button at the top of the worksheet.

    This displays the source view in the bottom pane, as it did in the Set View, so that you can explore the source in the same way.

  7. Close the Source View by clicking View Source Code again.

  8. Right-click one of the data items and click Properties. This shows a two-pane window:

  9. Close the Properties dialog box.

5.6 Adding a Second Set to the Worksheet

In the chapter Finding Points of Interest, you created a set of called "Monetary constants". To add this set to the worksheet:

  1. In the Named Sets window, double-click Monetary constants to display it.

    This set contains 66 data items.

    Some of the entries are gray. These are entries that are already in the worksheet. All statements are in black, because they are not yet in the worksheet, but only two data items are black. One of them looks like it could be a monetary item: VAL-P-AND-P-LIMIT. This item was not originally found as a potential monetary item, because it is only two digits long and the minimum size searched for was four digits (in the section Searching for Data Items by Format in the chapter Finding Points of Interest).

  2. Using the Worksheet channel analysis tool, add this set of statements and data items to the worksheet, in the same way as before. This time use the following settings:

    1. In the Notes field, specify "Associated with a constant that might be monetary".
    2. In the Categories list, uncheck A-Poss and check B-Constant, which indicates that the point of interest involves a numeric currency constant that needs converting.
    3. On the Operation tab, make sure that Add candidates and All items from the source set are selected, so that any data items in the set that are already in the worksheet are updated with the new note and are assigned an additional category.
    4. Click OK.

    The information bar towards the top of the worksheet shows there are now 111 data items, two more than before. The new data item VAL-P-AND-P-LIMIT is now in the worksheet, with a category of B-Constant.

    Notice that some items in the Category column have more than one category. If you can't see them, widen the Category column by dragging the divider between the Category and Notes columns headings.

  3. Confirm that the B-Constant category has been added to the data items that were already in the worksheet. To do this, look at the Category column of VAL-P-AND-P-COST, which was in both sets. You should see its two categories, A-Poss and B-Constant.

  4. Go to the Statements tab of the worksheet

    The information bar towards the top shows there are 57 statements in the worksheet.

  5. Tidy up by closing the "Monetary constants" set.

The worksheet now contains 111 data items and 57 statements.

5.7 Exploring the Worksheet (2)

Take a look at some more features of the worksheet:

  1. Right-click the first statement, which starts ADD VAL-P-AND-P-COST, and click Show contained data items to display just the data items that are used in that statement and that are in the worksheet.

    Go to the Results(1) tab and click the + by ADD VAL-P-AND-P-COST.

    Three data items in the worksheet are used in that statement.

  2. Right-click the data item VAL-P-AND-P-COST and click Go to details.

  3. Right-click on the selected line and click Show statements containing, to see the statements involving that data item in theResults(2) tab.

  4. Right-click inside the Results(1) tab and select Delete tab.

  5. Right-click inside the Results(2) tab and select Delete tab.

5.8 Adding Data File Information to the Worksheet

Files that contain data representing monetary values might also need to be modified. Once you have identified monetary data items, you can examine them to see if they are within file records. Any file that contains a record containing a data item of interest is a file that might need attention; it is a file - or data store - POI.

In practice, it might be worth initially considering all files of interest and adding them to the worksheet. The worksheet reports can then list all the files and show the ones that contain data items of interest and the ones that don't.

To find the data files used by the application and the statements where those files or their data items are used:

  1. Double-click Files and file-related statements from data items in Analysis Tools.

    This searches the application source and produces a set containing 39 entries - 7 data files and 32 statements.

  2. Add this set to the worksheet, using Worksheet channel. Specify the note "File related" and the category A-Poss.

  3. Go to the Data Stores tab of the worksheet and confirm that there are seven files in the worksheet.

  4. Go to the Statements tab of the worksheet and confirm that the statements involving file items were added to the worksheet. There should be 89 statements (57 plus 32) in the worksheet. You can sort the Category column, so that all the statements with the A-Poss category are together.

  5. Tidy up by closing the set created by Files and file-related statements from data items.

The worksheet now contains 111 data items, 89 statements and 7 data files.

5.9 Adding Screen-Related Data Items to the Worksheet

Finally, there is one other type of item that might need converting. These are items that are passed to and from screens.

To find the BMS screen fields in the application:

  1. Open the "Potential monetary data items" set in the same way as before.

  2. Drag this set onto BMS-related data items in Analysis Tools to find data items associated with BMS fields on BMS screens.

  3. Ensure that Show group items only is unchecked and click OK.

    The resulting set contains 51 data items.

  4. Click Sort Ascending to sort the data items into alphabetical order..

    You can now see that these are the COBOL data items generated from the BMS screen map. The fields in the BMS screen map might need modifying and so you might need to regenerate the COBOL data item definitions. Alternatively, COBOL data items themselves might need modifying.

    Notice that all the data items in the set are gray, which means they are already in the worksheet, by virtue of being used in the right way and having the right format and name. However, we need to update the categories of these items, so that you can distinguish them as BMS-related fields.

  5. Add the set of BMS-related items to the worksheet, using Worksheet channel. Specify the note "BMS-related field" and select the category B-BMS_Field.

  6. When you have added the items to the worksheet, confirm that B-BMS_Field has been added as a third category, by examining the Category column of one of the data items whose name starts with OE01.

  7. Tidy up by deleting the BMS set containing 51 items.

The worksheet now contains 111 data items, which is the same as before since no items were added.

5.10 Exploring the Worksheet (3)

Take a look at some more features of the worksheet:

  1. Go to the Data Items tab of the worksheet.

  2. Right click on CAT-END-VALUE and click Show statements containing..

    This function displays data items together with the statements that use them, provided those statements are in the worksheet. If a data item is not used in any worksheet statements, the data item does not appear here, even though the data item is itself in the worksheet and appears in the Data items tab.

  3. Go to the Results(1) tab.

    The Results tabs show the relationships between data items and their corresponding statements and vice versa. Among other things, this view provides a reliable and quick way of removing data items and their corresponding statements at the same time.

  4. Expand the data item CAT-END-VALUE to see the statements that use it, by clicking its "+".

    This shows that CAT-END-VALUE is used in four statements, all of them MOVE statements.

  5. Go to the Data Items tab.

  6. Hide some of the columns that are not of interest in the tutorials, by right-clicking in one of the column headings and clicking Customize columns on the popup menu. Click Size in the list of columns, then press the Ctrl key and click Modified By, and Modified.

  7. Click Remove and then OK.

    The columns you selected are hidden, but their contents are still stored in the worksheet.

  8. Reorder the columns, so that the Location column is first.

    You can do this on this dialog box by selecting a column in the right-hand list and using the Move up and Move down pushbuttons, then clicking OK. Alternatively, you can change the column order directly on the worksheet by dragging the header bar of the column you want to move to its new position.

    Either way, your selection of columns and their order stays set from one session to the next, until you change it again.

  9. Hide the information bar at the top of the worksheet, by clicking Options and unchecking Show information bar.

  10. Display the information bar again, since you need it for later sessions.

5.11 Summary

In this tutorial, you:

5.12 Before Continuing

The worksheet is persistent and is continually saved, and so it is automatically up to date if you shut down.

However, it is good practice to save a backup of the worksheet, so that you can go back to a previous copy. For example, you might want to return to the current worksheet if you make a mistake in a later session.

  1. On the worksheet, click Save Backup to File.

  2. Specify the filename EndofPop for the backup worksheet for this Populating the Worksheet chapter.

    If you already have a backup with this name, use a new name such as EndofPop-1.

If you want to take a break before going on to the next session, you can close the project; or you can close Revolve, with or without closing the project.

Return to the Tutorials Map and choose which session to go on to next.


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