SuperFile to DCT
S.H. Parkerby Unlicensed user
A few tears ago, I investigated Topspeed “SuperFiles.” I wrote about their internal design, how to make them in a dictionary, how to use NAME() with them and how to create a new SuperFile out of existing single-table-files.
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The first step is to locate the SuperFile. For this oversize, I selected a four table SuperFile, the SuperFile that drives my WebBuilder FAQ app:
[ ExistingSuperFile.png]
Figure 1: shpFAQ.TPS
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Click the down arrow on the “Add Table” button in the Dictionary Editor:
[Begin File Import.png]
Figure 2: Beginning the file import process
This calls the Synchronizer window.
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This is where I've always run into trouble. I've never quite grasped what “Select Server” referred to. Pressing the down arrow produces a drop box:
[Synchronizer First Screen.png]
Figure 4: “Select Server” dropped
“Clarion Dictionary” is the default selection but clearly not helpful in the current exercise. Scrolling down the list reveals something much more useful:
[Select the SuperFile.png]
Figure 5: TopSpeed file as “Server”
The remaining prompts are not relevant for the import of a file, so I press “Next.” So, it appears that “Select Server” is “source.” If so, the next window:
[Select Files (Ellipsis).png].png?version=2&modificationDate=1383061319651&cacheVersion=1&api=v2)
Figure 6: Select source
must be for selecting the files to import. The drop list is useless (empty, as I recall) so I pressed the ellipsis. This produced the standard Windows file dialog. So, I selected the SuperFile:
[Select the SuperFile_2.png]
Figure 7: Source TPS file selected
Step 5
Et violá, a list of the tables inside the SuperFile!
[Files Available.png]
Figure 8: Select file(s)/tables to import
Press the “select all” (“>>”) button and
[Select all.png]
Figure 9: Files/tables selected for import
Step 6
Time to celebrate, all of the tables show up in the dictionary:
[ThereTheyAre.png]
Figure 10: Dictionary after import
Step 7
Every time I ever imported a file into a CDD dictionary, the FullPath Name prompt (NAME() attribute) contained the fully qualified DOS specification of the source file:
[PropertiesNeedHelp.png]
Figure 11: Table properties
This is almost never correct and needs to be edited. I might want a variable in the NAME() attribute, I might want a standard string (“shpFAQs\!DEVELOPERS” was in the dictionary which originally created the SuperFile for this oversize). But I almost never want the fully drive and path in the NAME().
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SuperFiles really are just ordinary TPS files. Or, as I previously demonstrated, all TPS files are actually SuperFiles and everything I can do with a single-table-TPS file, I can do with a multi-table-TPS file.