Spring cleanup for your Inmagic databases. Part 2: rationalizing textbase elements

In Part 1 of this series of blog posts on spring cleaning your databases,we wrote about the various files created by DB/TextWorks and what was safe to delete.

Now that you have successfully cleaned up the various folders with your textbases, it’s time to turn your attention to the textbase elements, i.e. the query screens, forms and saved sets within your textbases. 

Hopefully you have these!  We hate to find that clients are using the default basic query screen and basic forms when it is possible to create your own very easily. We have watched in horror as clients scroll down long edit screens to add information to a new field they just created which of course appears at the end of their data structure.  We recommend designing query screens and forms with fields placed side by side, grouped under logical headings to allow everything to be viewed at once without any need for scrolling. Additional text boxes can easily be added to all screens to provide helpful search or data entry hints.  So no excuses – try designing some forms – it’s not hard!

On the other end of the spectrum are clients who have created so many forms it’s not obvious which are the ones in common usage.  So they may have Report-Test or Label3 or QBE_Susan etc.  Regular users of the textbase may know which ones are appropriate, but think about our succession planning motive – how can you make it obvious to a new user which they should use?

You can see a listing of all the query screens, report forms and saved sets for a textbase under Maintain > Manage Textbase Elements (or Display > Textbase Information to view a printable list).  This list may show more forms than from clicking the Select Form icon, as some may be for printing or web use only.  Most will say (public) after the name – any that do not are visible to you only, and are stored in your personal user file (see Part 1of this spring cleanup series).

Caution:  if you are using WebPublisher PRO you will want to make sure you know which forms are being used in your web interface before any deleting or renaming.   If you are using menu screens or script buttons in your textbase, these too may be set to use specifically named forms. However it’s probably safe to delete ones with names such as test, report1 etc. but if in doubt, before actually deleting forms, we suggest simply renaming them.  They can then be renamed back if it is found they are still in use.   Under Manage Textbase Elements there is a Rename option.  We recommend keeping the same name prefaced with an x.  This means they will drop to the bottom of the list and it is clear that that they are pending deletion at some point.  You can also create a backup of all your forms first by selecting all of them (Shift click) and choosing Export to create an .xpf file.

It is good practice to note additional information in the Description line when you save a form, such as how it is sorted, if it is designed for a specific label size or for a particular function.  This can be invaluable when trying to ascertain years later why a form was created. We also recommend naming your forms consistently starting with an indication of how they are used, i.e. print only forms prefaced with Print as in the screenshot above.

For more information, check out the Help file built in to DB/TextWorks, or the printable PDFfor version 13. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this cleanup yourself or would like assistance designing forms or query screens, contact us and we can help you on a consulting basis.

Our next post in this series will cover maintaining your textbases in good health.