DET and DEF FAQ & Features

Now Supportsg Clarion 5.5 And Clarion 6.0 (DET)

    This page contains answers to common questions asked by our users, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful and presented here as questions.

  1. What exactly does DET/DEF do?
  2. What is a DSA?
  3. What triggers are supported in DEF?
  4. What's a field pool, and how does DEF support it?
  5. How much do DET and DEF cost?
  6. How do I contact you?

    7. Where can I purchase DET or DEF?
    Download the latest version


What exactly does DET or DEF do?

DET and DEF share a common purpose: To give the Clarion developer as much power as is possible in the data dictionary. The Clarion data dictionary is, in reality, a file definition repository. In other words, it is used for declaring files only. This is changing with the introduction of global data and field pools in Clarion5, but the dictionary still has a long way to go. DET and DEF let you put much more functionality in the dictionary, making for a lighter coding load. 





Another purpose of DET and DEF is to demystify the job of multiple application development. The secret comes from understanding multi-application development. When developing a multi-application system, you need a single application, compiled to a DLL, to contain your file and global data declarations. All of the other applications simply need to reference the files and global data as EXTERNAL, located in the core application. With the stock Clarion templates, this is quite a chore. With DET and DEF, multi-app development is accomplished using only two prompts. One tells the application if it is the core "Dictionary Support" application or an "Add-On" application, and the other prompt tells add-on applications the name of the dictionary support application.




Here's a list of the functionality provided in DET and DEF...

Function In DET In DEF
Multi-application development Yes Yes
GROUPS in the dictionary Yes Yes
QUEUEs in the dictionary Yes Yes
INI files in the dictionary Yes Yes
CONFIG files in the dictionary Yes Yes
EQUATES in the dictionary Yes Yes
Field Pools in the dictionary No Yes
Triggers in the dictionary No Yes
Control templates Yes No
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What is a DSA?




A DSA (Dictionary Support Application) is the core application of a system. In a single application system, it is the application itself. In a multi-application system, it is the core application that contains file declarations, global data, relational integrity code, standard functions, base classes, and all of the other boilerplate shared code.




In a multi-application system, the DSA is the only application that contains the shared system code.

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What triggers are supported in DEF?

There are several triggers supported in DEF. These are:

Trigger When the Trigger Is Called For Files For Fields
PreAdd Before the Insert method is called from TopSpeed's FileManager class. Yes Yes
PostAdd After a successful call to the Insert method of TopSpeed's FileManager class. Yes Yes
PrePut Before the Update method is called from TopSpeed's FileManager class. Yes Yes
PostPut After a successful call to the Update method of TopSpeed's FileManager class. Yes Yes
PreDel Before the Delete method is called from TopSpeed's RelationManager class. Yes Yes
PostDel After a successful call to the Delete method of TopSpeed's RelationManager class. Yes Yes
OnAccepted When a control for the trigger field gets the ACCEPTED event. No Yes
OnSelected When a control for the trigger field gets the SELECTED event. No Yes
Validate Before the write of a record is done to disk. You can supply an error message if validation fails. Yes Yes


The code that is triggered can be provided in the dictionary, or you can write functions in the Dictionary Support Application (DSA) and use these for trigger code.

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What is a field pool, and how does DEF support it?




A field pool is a group of fields that act as templates for other fields. To use the OOP terminology, a field can derive some attributes from a field pool definition. For example, let's say that you have a large number of date fields. In your system, all date fields should have a common entry picture, for example. Without a field pool, if your users wanted to change the date field entry picture, you would need to go to every window to change the picture of date fields. With a field pool, you can define a date field "template" in the pool, with the entry picture you want to use. All of the date fields then are told to use the date template field to get the entry picture attribute. If your user changes their mind about the entry picture they want, change the date template field's picture, and the changes will be cascaded to your applications, at runtime. You don't need to recompile all of your applications, just the DSA.




The nice thing about this approach to field pools, as opposed to the design-time approach used by TopSpeed in Clarion5, is that DEF field pool attributes are set at runtime, so the user can, if the programmer wishes, change field pool attributes themselves. This means that things like Prompt text fonts and colors, can be assignged pool field attributes and set at runtime by your end user.

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How much to DET and DEF cost?




DEF can be purchased  for $149.00. The upgrade price from any previous version of DEF to DEF55 is $50.00.

 Download Page

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How do I contact you?




    Contacting Mitten Software
E-Mail
Mitten@MittenSoftware.com
jimkatz@ix.netcom.com

Snail-Mail
Mitten Software
1865 West Wayzata Blvd.
Long Lake, MN 55356

Voice 
800.825.5461
612.745.4941

Fax
612.745.4944

Web Site
http://www.mittensoftware.com
 

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Where can I purchase DET or DEF?




Contact Mitten Software.

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