Programming in ISIS

an introduction (by E. de Smet, Univ. of Antwerp)

Why programming in a database ?

 Extension of functions which are lacking, e.g. in ISIS/DOS : printing first occurrence only, limiting length of output etc.

  Solving problems which are a-typical, e.g. GMOD : global changes in database, changing tags of fields, adding subfields in all records etc.

Adding ‘interface’ e.g. more user-friendly ways of dealing with the software

3 types of ISIS-programming

1.

2.

3.

– – ISIS/Pascal : as ‘format exits’ or as ‘menu exits’ format exits : ISIS/DOS and WinISIS, no ‘interface’ menu exits : only ISIS/DOS ISISDLL : GUI applications based on pre programmed ISIS-functions in DLL, running (in- or) outside WinISIS ISIS-plugins : GUI applications based on any language but with links to running ISIS-environment (open database, PFT..), running within WinISIS (not yet fully implemented)

ISIS/Pascal : Format Exits

   small functions for processing not available in Formatting Language, mostly processing database values, e.g.

– – lenlim : limit output of field to max. length occ1 : take only first occurrence simple example : hello.pas

Program HELLO(s1:string, lw,occ:real, s2:string)[FORMAT]; Begin s2:=s1; End. calling in PFT : &hello(‘Hello !’)

ISIS/Pascal : Menu Exits

   small, upto full-fledged programs to be run as an option in an ISIS/DOS menu or as ‘R’ in the ‘Advanced Programming Services’ main-menu item (not WinISIS) e.g. : GMOD (global changes), ODIN (data entry), IRIS (searching), Heurisko… example : Program HELLO[MENU]; Begin {very beginning of program} Clear; {

clears the screen in DOS-window)

Cursor(11,11); {puts cursor at position x=11 y=11} Writeln(‘HELLO !'); {writes text at cursorposition} End. {very end of program} (does not run in WinISIS because of ‘interface’)

Exercise : your own ‘hello’ program

    3 steps : – – Writing the ‘source’ with text-editor Compiling the source to ‘binary’ with WinISIS – Running the program from a format Writing source : beware of small things, esp. interpunction ! E.g. :=, ;, “ vs. ‘ ‘ etc.

Compiling (not on NTFS-disks..) and debugging, using debug-info from WinISIS Run in PFT : &HELLO(‘your text’)

ISISDLL Programming

   ISISDLL : a ‘library’, dynamically linked into other programmes invoking standard functions pre programmed in the DLL, taking away the need to deal with most complicated ISIS-input/output operations most used programming environments : – – – C++ Visual Basic Delphi (Pascal) - JAVA modern programming is ‘object’-based : all parts are objects with properties and ‘methods’ – – e.g.

PFTText.text

is the ‘text’property of the input-object

PFTText

) srcMFN.MFN = MFN part of the ‘structure’ srcMFN in which all MFN’s are put by function call IsisSrcMfnMap(a,0,0,i,i,srcMFN)

ISISDLL : the components

     programmed and provided for free by : BIREME (and UNESCO) at http://www.bireme.br/isis/l/isisdll.htm

ISISDLL.DLL : the real library file ISIS001.* (

.PAS for Delphi

) : constants and structure declarations ISIS32.* (.

PAS for Delphi

) : declarations for all DLL functions current release : v.7 (fall 2001)

ISISDLL Programming (2)

 e.g. functions to open a database, read and format a record (in Delphi) : – – – – – – a:= IsisAppNew; {creates a temporary memory space for an ISIS application} h:= IsisSpaNew(a); {creates a new ISIS_DLL space} r:= IsisSpaMf(h, PChar(PChar(dbText.Text

database-elements} ))); {organises memory to contain one record of the database given in dbText and all necessary r:= IsisRecRead(h, 0, srcMfn.mfn); {reads MFN into memory} r:= IsisSpaPft(h, PChar(pftText.Text)); {puts the whole Formatting Language in memory to work with the PFT as given in pftText} r:=IsisRecFormat(h, 0, Area, 60000); memoryspace Area} {actually formats the current record according to the current selected format and puts the output in the

ISISDLL programming example

    WinIRIS : simple searching in Windows features : – – – – database selection and PFT selection (file or actual formatting statements) about box dictionary consultation while typing search terms with Windows-style Ctrl or Shift-click for multiple selection immediate results display only 260 lines of code, thanks to ISISDLL ! Most of them generated by ‘rapid graphical programming environment’ WinIRIS Delphi project

WinISIS plugins

   WinISIS plug-in : executable softwares, inserted in WinISIS menu’s, knowing how to read the actual database and configuration (PFT, record, IF etc.) adding into menu (= database MSENDF.MST) FreeText search[CALL freetext.exe] will allow ‘FreeText’ plugin to be invoked from the menu waiting for the specs (’API’)… still not officially released