Rational Programming Patterns for System z

Category definition

A category is a group of consecutive Data Elements, Screen calls, and labels in the table. These elements can be positioned in any manner, according to the overall logic of the processing. You must specify the type, position, presentation and repetitions of the category.

To display the contents of this section, you must click Add category or select a category line in the table.

A Screen can be made up of three categories:
  • The heading of the Screen (Screen-top category), initialized when the Screen is created.
  • The repetitive section of the Screen (repetitive category), optional.
  • The bottom of the Screen (Screen-bottom category). optional.

Each category can be defined only once in a given screen.

For each category, you can define:
  • A position,
  • A presentation option which applies by default to all the elements of the category,
  • For the repetitive category, a repetition number and the number of lines for each instance in the repetition.

The presentation of the Screen is defined by the distribution of the Data Elements within the different categories

The distribution also gives the processing order of the Data Elements in the generated program (Screen-top Data Elements; the Data Elements from the repetitive section, as many times as they are repeated; and the Screen-bottom Data Elements).

Type
Select the category type:
  • Top category (required)
  • R: Repetitive category (optional)
  • Z: Bottom category (optional)
Code
In this field, you enter a code, on six characters, for the category. It indicates the beginning of the category and is displayed in the call tree on the category line.

Position

Position type
In this field, you specify the positioning of the Screen element:
  • Relative positioning
    The specified line and column numbers correspond to a move from the Data Element located just before in the list. The positioning of the preceding Data Element is calculated according to the nature of this field.
    • Data Element call (for an elementary or repeated Data Element, whatever its presentation): The starting point of the positioning is calculated from the top right corner of the contents (and not the label) of the preceding Data Element.
    • Screen calls: The positioning is calculated from the lower right corner of the called Screen in the calling Screen.
  • A: Absolute positioning: In this case, the line and column numbers correspond to the absolute address of the element on the Screen.
Notes on position: The position defined by the position type, the line, and column numbers, is the position of the first character of the:
  • Contents if the presentation type is: Data Element only, or Data Element with a column label.
  • Label otherwise.
Line
Enter two numeric characters here. You specify the line number which determines the position of the element.
  • In a relative positioning, it is the number of lines between two elements. If the presentation type corresponds to a column heading, the number of lines in the column heading is automatically added, upon generation, to the indicated number.
  • In an absolute positioning, it is the line number on the Screen.

Line overflow is automatically controlled.

If both the line and column numbers equal zero, the element is automatically moved to the next tabulation point available.

Column
Enter three numeric characters here. You specify the column number which determines the position of the element.
  • In a relative positioning, if the line number is zero, the column number corresponds to the number of spaces between two elements on the same line. If the line number is greater than zero, the column number corresponds to an absolute positioning.
  • In an absolute positioning, the column number is the address of the element on the line. A zero value corresponds by default to column 2 upon generation (column 1 being reserved for the attribute). If the value is 1, the attribute is on the preceding line.

Any line length overflow and field overlapping are automatically detected. However, the presence of a space in front of each field is not verified.

If both the line and column numbers equal zero, the element is automatically moved to the next tabulation point available.

Repetitions
The number of horizontal repetitions of the first Data Element in the repetitive category is used to determine the number of lines for each occurrence.
Lines per repetitions
All the Data Elements and labels of the repetitive category, which might contain more than one line, are repeated vertically. Column headings are displayed only once.
Presentation
Select the label associated with each Data Element on the Screen.
There are four possible labels:
  • The long label (36 positions), entered on the Data Element Definition tab.
  • The short label (18 positions), entered on the Data Element -D Lines tab.
  • The relational label (18 positions), entered on the Data Element -D Lines tab.
  • The column heading label, entered on the Data Element -D Lines tab.

The values of the field correspond to the association between the Data Element and the presentation characteristics for these labels (left-aligned...).

Table 1. Values for the display of the Data Element label
Value Comment
Default value Defaults to the value specified in the Dialog.
F: Data Element only The Data Element is displayed without any label.
L: Data Element with long label, left-aligned The Data Element is preceded by the Data Element label, left-aligned, on 36 positions.
M: Data Element with long label, right-aligned The Data Element is preceded by the Data Element label, right-aligned, on 36 positions.
N: Data Element with long label, left-aligned, trimmed right The Data Element is preceded by the Data Element label, left-aligned with the deletion of blanks on the right.
R: Data Element with long relational label, left-aligned The Data Element is preceded by the relational label, left-aligned on 18 positions.
S: Data Element with short label, left-aligned The Data Element is preceded by the short label, left-aligned, on 18 positions.
T: Data Element with short label, right-aligned The Data Element is preceded by the short label, right-aligned, on 18 positions.
U: Data Element with short label, left-aligned, trimmed right The Data Element is preceded by the short label, left-aligned, with the deletion of blanks at the end of the string.
1: Data Element topped by a single line column label The Data Element is topped by the column label on one line.
2: Data Element topped by a 2–line column label The Data Element is topped by the column label on two lines.
3: Data Element topped by a 3–line column label The Data Element is topped by the column label on three lines.
Note: The ':' character is generated for the Data Elements preceded by a long, short, or relational label. For the Data Elements topped by a column label, the greatest length of the Data Element label and content is taken into account for the relative positioning in the Screen.

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