Getting Started with TRANSACT (32247-90007)

Chapter 3 61

Using VPLUS and IMAGE

Adding Data to a Dataset

form, and the parallel data items have compatible data types and lengths. All of the forms

in our formsﬁle are shown in appendix H. The form vcustomer is also shown below:

Figure 3-2. VPLUS Form for Adding Customer Data

The program below causes the VPLUS form vcustomer to be displayed on the terminal.

After the operator ﬁlls in the blanks and presses [[ENTER]], the data is added to the

customer dataset.

Figure 3-3. Program accessing a VPLUS form

1 The option VPLS= on the SYSTEM statement speciﬁes that the name of

our formsﬁle is formﬁle.

3 GET(FORM) displays the form on the terminal, initialize the ﬁelds, and

accepts the data entered by the user.

The example above shows how simple it is to code a program for data entry. However, it

only allows someone to enter data one time and then it quits. As we have seen in previous

sections, there are several ways to get this program to loop until we are done entering

data.

First, we can make this a command-driven program. Figure 3-4 illustrates this. If the user

enters the command REPEAT ADD instead of just ADD, the program will execute lines 3-5

forever. Just as the special key ] is used to stop processing in character mode, so the

function key [[ F8 ]] is used to stop processing in block mode. Thus this program will

continue to execute until the user presses [[ F8 ]].

vcustomer add a customer

number [ ]

name [ ]

address [ ]

city,state [ ]

zipcode [ ]

1 system ex20,base=orders,vpls=formfile;

2 list(auto) customer;

3 get(form) vcustomer,init;

4 put customer;