HP Data Entry and Forms Management System (VPLUS) Reference Manual (32209-90024)

24 Chapter1
VPLUS Overview
Product Overview
The collection and reformatting capability, either singly or combined, provide a method of
adding interactive source data collection to existing batch applications.
Features
The primary features of the VPLUS system are:
• A forms design program (FORMSPEC) that allows quick and easy interactive forms
design using menus.
• Batch mode management of forms files, through FORMSPEC, that allows a forms file to
be updated, compiled, and listed in a background job.
• Advanced forms design, through FORMSPEC, that provides for editing, formatting,
movement, and computation of data when the form is executed, using the user's native
language for alphabetic information and the local customs for numeric and date
information.
• A set of intrinsics that manage the interface between:
— an application
— the terminal
— the FORMSPEC definitions
— the data displayed and entered on the terminal
These intrinsics manage the interface from applications written in any of the supported
programming languages.
• A ready-to-run data entry program (ENTRY) that provides immediate use of forms for
data entry and modification with no programming effort.
• A flexible data reformatting design program (REFSPEC) that specifies reformatting of
data collected in a batch file.
• A batch program (REFORMAT) that reformats the collected data according to the
REFSPEC formatting specifications and writes it to a file for use by an application.
• Run-time data transformation capability (Application-Ready Buffer, or ARB) that
allows data to be entered on the screen in an order and format the user understands,
while the application receives the data converted and reordered to match the format of
its storage record.
Figure 1-1. shows an overview of the VPLUS system.