Transcript SIR DataBase Management

SIRxs in Review
aka
The Joys of XS
Presented at SIR-UK Conference
Dublin, Ireland, June 2008
©Tom Shriver, DataVisor 2008
SIRxs in Review
Presented at SIR-UK Conference
Dublin, Ireland, June 2008
©Tom Shriver, DataVisor 2008
Photo Rights Alex
Comfort, M.D.
SIRxs in Review
The Joy of XS
Presented at SIR-UK Conference
Dublin, Ireland, June 2008
©Tom Shriver, DataVisor 2008
Progress of this Presentation
 First,
 Lots

a Show of Hands:
Who’s converted to SIRxs?
of new features I/we haven’t tried
Please join in with your experience
 For
the Un-Converted:
What are you afraid of?
 Thursday
should be a good time to explore details
of conversion and potentials of SIRxs
4
Personal Experience
 Using
for special work since 2005
Import & CSV Save File for long header names
 Converted
First Production database 2007
 At DCC / Columbia U.


New Databases being developed in SIRxs
Slow (methodical) conversions of existing databases
o
o
o
o
13 Total SIRxs databases
7 New
6 Converted
35 To Go
 DataVisor

Conversion of Generic Products: Occassional Surprises
5
Long & Special SIR Names
 At

Columbia still Standardizing on 8 char names
Controlled Testing on New databases
Conversions from other db formats (eg Access, SAS)
 DataVisor


Long names for Output; Short for Database operations
DV Products: DVPainter & DVSchema help enforce
standardization on 8 char names
 General


Experience
Good but not extensive
Amazing number of dependencies (eg PQL)
in local “utility” programs
6
String Length
 New
“Default” STRING LENGTH is 32
 Sometimes
affects existing application definitions
 Similarly:

Treatment of String System Globals
SIR2002 global DBNAME padded to 8 characters
SIRxs
global DBNAME trimmed
7
Master
 During

our Transition Period
Found several “bugs”
Mostly regarding new Journaling Capabilities
Received several Master Updates December-May
 Still Awaiting
“File Based” Concurrency Manager
8
Journaling in SIRxs
 The
Change I was most anticipating
 Later
Presentation & Discussion
9
SIRxs User Environment Settings
 SIR.INI

Now (Windows) stored in \Documents & Settings\...
Great improvement for end users viz a viz permissions
 Additional

Settings
Sizes of things (eg dialog lists)
10
Schema in XS

Common Var Definitions

RECORD SCHEMA 0 CIR

Automatic I/O Column Assignments

WRITE SCHEMA by Variable

BDI “BLANK as UNDEFINED”


Saves a User Defined Missing Value
New Date Formatting: “E” for “Exact” on input
DATE MYDATE (‘EMMiDDiYYYY’)

Standard Vars

Encryption
11
PQL Enhancements (1)
 As
always, many enhancements

PQL Output Procedures

o Standardization of options
o Long Names & “AS” for output names
o XML
PROCESS CASE with expressions (e.g. COUNT, SAMPLE)

Functions
o Mostly to support new Features
o SYSTEM(81) hot off the press “Corruption Flag On?”
o CLIPSET(string_to_copy_to_clipboard)


Interactive Debugger
PQL Forms
o Some added functionality
12
PQL Enhancements (2)
 PQL Dialogs

& Controls
Many new Object Types
SLIDER, TREE, SPIN, ComboBox, PROGRESS



Font & GUI object color control
(EDIT, LABEL, LIST, etc)
BUTTON with IMAGE rather than text prompt
IMAGE: FILL & CENTER
 Demonstration:



Color Coded Fields on Data Screens
Multi-Line Prompts in Screen
Tabbed Page Navigation
13
PQL Enhancements (3)
 WINDOW
(MainMenu)

New Look/Feel to some SIR MainMenu Options

TIMER Control (hot off the press)
o ENABLE TIMER n
o DISABLE TIMER
o Timer Message ID is -999
o No MESSAGE TIMER block (as in PQL dialog)
 PQL
SERVER
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