Introduction

PALDOM developed the Data Base Management System (DBMS) to make custom application software development and maintenance more cost effective and efficient.

The DBMS does the many routine functions of data management, so that the programming effort for each application can concentrate on the non-routine functions.

Over 380 programming commands have been developed to speed software development. These commands perform functions that may take several hundreds of commands in a traditional programming environment. Since these commands are fully tested and in use in other systems, the testing time for new applications is greatly reduced.

Data Base Management System Benefits

• Software development and maintenance tasks take much less time than with traditional programs.

• Software is more reliable, since routine functions are performed by the DBMS and not written from scratch for each program.

• Operators can perform some functions, such as developing simple reports, without resorting to program modifications.

• System development, reporting, operator instructions and system maintenance is standardized by the design of the DBMS.

• Systems are more transportable between operating systems because the applications are written in the DBMS language. Although the underlying DBMS programs may require some modification to change operating systems, that effort is much less than if every application program had to be re-written

• Fewer bugs are found because so much of the applications use existing DBMS commands and procedures that are fully tested.

Primary Functions

• Menu Management

• File Management

• Report Generation

• Entry Screen Management

• Utilities

• Data Import and Export

• Access Security

PALDOM's DBMS Design Overview

The PALDOM data base management system has separated the underlying general information management capabilities from the specification of information structure, operator displays, procedures, and business rules that govern the way the information is processed.

For example: the data base management software performs the detailed functions of saving data to the hard disk. It does this by referring to specifications of the data format which are setup for each file of information. So, the same data base management procedures are used to save and retrieve customer records as for inventory records, and all others. It can do this because it loads the specification for each file from a user defined file (likely a text file) which is maintained outside the data base program.-

Because of this general design concept, the programmer can write instructions that tell the system “what” to do, and the system knows “how” to do it for each file.

This is an oversimplification, but it may help explain why so many efficiencies are achieved with the PALDOM DBMS.

Selected Features

Some of the many features of the DBMS are:

• File Management with automatic indexing for rapid retrieval of data during processing and inquiry activities.

• Dictionary files describe all information about data files, thus providing a standard way of building data files which is independent of the application software.

• Retrieval capabilities are supported for on-screen display and review of data in any file. Search criteria may include selecting on data ranges, complete or partial string patterns, and key items which have been automatically indexed for more rapid retrieval.

• Reports are described, setup and generated by procedures which are independent of the software and which make report setup and modification a much easier task than when older traditional programming methods are used.

• The Data Entry Form management system supports set-up and processing of data entry forms in an efficient and standard manner.

• Utilities are included for maintaining the data files, index management, file compressing, and importing and exporting data.

• Menu Management is provided by the software to allow easy addition and modification of menu options as the operator's needs change and the overall system is modified or augmented.

• A Fourth Generation Application Programming Language is included for developing each application. This separates the applications from the data base software and provides a flexible and efficient system for setting up and maintaining applications. Over 380 Commands are recognized by the system, thus making it unnecessary to interface the system with a programming language such as BASIC or the C Programming Language.

• A built-in calculator can be accessed by the operator at any time.

• Access to LINUX commands is possible without ending the current program.

• The system has many self-documenting features which printout the set-up parameters, dictionary, application commands and menu options which define the various applications.

• Text files may be linked to any data item in the data base. This provides the operator the flexibility of including as much descriptive information about an entry as is required. The text is also printed automatically when reports include the data item. Text files may also be used in the headers and trailers of reports and form printouts to provide greater flexibility in formatting reports. Text files, like letter files, can also pull data from other parts of the data base and include it when the file is printed.

• Password protection extends to several levels:

-Access to the data base system.

-Access to various menu options.

-Access to various files.

-Access to various data items within files for data entry, modification, display and deletion functions.

-Access to various data items withing files for report generation and printing.

-Access to, and execution of, commands set up in the dictionaries for various application modules.

• The Custom report generator supports high level command specification for more complicated reports such as: check printing, invoice printing, statements, tabular data (such as cash flow forecasts or analytic reports), and others. High level commands provide the same report generation capabilities a skilled programmer would have, but do not require programming and are specified much more efficiently.

• Self Documenting features support printing out dictionary, data selection sorting, report format and menu specifications at any time by the operator.