BTFILER


A Btrieve file recovery, viewing and editing utility
Version 1.20



















By

Access Microsystems Inc.
404 Midstreams Road
Brick, NJ 08724-3838

(908) 892-2683
CIS: 74040,607





TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Who made BTFILER? Why?

2. What does BTFILER require?

3. What does BTFILER do?

A. Intended actions
B. Unintended actions (dare we say BUGS?)

4. Details...

A. Starting BTFILER
B. The Main Menu
C. The File Sub-menu

1. Browsing/Editing a BTRIEVE file

a. Moving around
b. Editing a record
c. Deleting a record
d. Adding a record
e. The File sub-menu in the Browse/Edit
main menu
f. The View sub-menu in the Browse/Edit
main menu
g. Special problems re: variable length
records

2. Cloning a Btrieve file
3. Packing a Btrieve file
4. Test/Rebuild a Btrieve file

a. DOS Read test
b. Index test
c. Rebuild

5. Import/Export
6. Misc. Btrieve Functions

a. Set Owner
b. Clear Owner
c. Statistics
d. Btrieve Version
e. Create file from BTB file

7. Exiting BTFILER

D. The Options Sub-menu

1. Set Colors
2. Set Misc. Parameters
3. Reset Btrieve
4. REGISTER BTFILER

E. The Help Sub-menu

1. List Error Codes
2. List Operation Codes
3. About BTFILER

5. Getting help/making suggestions/future directions



1. Who made BTFILER? Why?

BTFILER is a product of Access Microsystems Inc. We do
programming in C and C++ under DOS and UNIX, often
using Btrieve as a file manager. (If you have a
project we might be able to help with, contact us at
the phone or Compuserve number on the first page of the
documentation or throughout the software.)

We have used several programs for looking at,
recovering data from, and editing Btrieve files. We
have been disappointed by the results. Some crashed,
others worked but punished us in the process. We
thought that there must be a better way, and set out to
design such a product. BTFILER is not quite that
product, but what we hope will be the first step in the
creation of a line of software for Btrieve users. We
have ideas about automating the Btrieve file creation
process, allowing the import and export of comma
delimited files, as well as allowing editing in a user
friendly way (for instance, dates in mm/dd/yy format,
binary and packed information in ASCII form, etc.)

We can't do all that just now, and so we made what we
consider a good first step. If you become a registered
user, you can help us mold future products and future
updates to BTFILER. Shareware works as a way to ensure
that you can try software before you buy only if you
support shareware authors. If BTFILER meets a need,
please register! Also, think about the possibility of
getting a distribution license and making BTFILER part
of your Btrieve application.

DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT

Users of BTFILER must accept this disclaimer of
warranty:

"BTFILER is supplied as is. The author disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without
limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of
fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no
liability for damages, direct or consequential, which
may result from the use of BTFILER."

BTFILER is a "shareware program" and is provided at no
charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share
it with your friends, but please do not give it away
altered or as part of another system. The essence of
"user-supported" software is to provide personal
computer users with quality software without
high prices, and yet to provide incentive for
programmers to continue to develop new products. If
you find this program useful and find that you are
using BTFILER and continue to use BTFILER after a
reasonable trial period, you must make a registration
payment of $29.00 to Access Microsystems Inc. The
$29.00 registration fee will license one copy for use
on any one computer at any one time. You must treat
this software just like a book. An example is that this
software may be used by any number of people and may be
freely moved from one computer location to another, so
long as there is no possibility of it being used at one
location while it's being used at another. Just as a
book cannot be read by two different persons at the same
time, a single copy of BTFILER cannot be used in two places
at once, unless the license is being violated.
.

Commercial users of BTFILER must register and pay for
their copies of BTFILER within 30 days of first use or
their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements
may be made by contacting Access Microsystems Inc. or
by filling out the registration form found in
REGISTER.DOC or produced by BTFILER. See the
Options/Register BTFILER menu option.

You are encouraged to pass a copy of BTFILER along to
your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to
register their copy if they find that they can use it.
All registered users will receive:

A copy of the latest version of the BTFILER
system.
A printed manual.
Notice of future upgrades.
Information on future products.
A copy of our BU partial BUTIL replacement
program. This program STOPs, RESETs Btrieve,
shows BTRIEVE version and CLONEs Btrieve files.
You may distribute this freely.


2. What does BTFILER require?

BTFILER requires:

An IBM PC or compatible with 512 K (640K
recommended for large variable length records).

MS/PC DOS version 2.0 or better. Version 4.00 is
a known problem, so if you have a problem and you
have version 4.00 of MS/PC DOS, UPGRADE DOS FIRST!

Btrieve version 4.0 or better. Make sure to
tailor your Btrieve start-up parameters (See "Set
Misc. Parameters" in the File Sub-menu).

BTFILER also requires and is shipped with the
following files:

BTFILER.DOC This file

BTFILER.BER A file with Btrieve Error
codes listed

BTFILER.BOP A file with Btrieve Operation
codes

BTFILER.MNU A Menu Control File

BTFILER.HLP A Help file.

BTFILER.MSK Formatting information -
PROPRIETARY FORMAT!

BTFILER.CF1 A configuration file

BTFILER.EXE The executable file. Run this
to use BTFILER.

REGISTER.DOC A file with a BTFILER registration
form. (Registration can be
printed by the program itself
as well.)

SAMPLE.BTB A sample BTrieve Build file. An ASCII
file used to describe a Btrieve
file to be created.

AMIMAP.EXE A BONUS utility program that
lists the amount of memory
taken up by resident
programs like Btrieve

BTFILER may, from time to time, create the
following files:

BTFILER.CF2 A second configuration file.

TMP?????.$$$ Temporary files created to

save the state of the screen, etc. These may
be deleted if you are SURE that no copy of
BTFILER is running on the system or on a
network the system is connected to.

CINSTALL.DAT A Color configuration file.
This file contains a single line of text.
The line has 7 sets of 3 digit numbers, each
3 digit number representing one of the types
of colors used by BTFILER. The file should
look like this:

rrrmmmooodddsssbbbnnn

Where:

rrr=decimal "regular" color.
mmm=decimal "menu" color.
ooo=decimal "selected menu option"
color.
ddd=decimal "active data entry field"
color.
aaa=decimal "status line" color.
bbb=decimal "box" color.
nnn="Hot" letter in menu option


3. What does BTFILER do?

A. Intended actions

BTFILER allows you to TEST and RECOVER data from
Btrieve files. In addition to standard sorts of
Btrieve testing (Test for consistent prev/next
links, etc.) BTFILER also has a DOS File test
which reads the entire file and reports if a DOS
Critical error (ABORT, RETRY or FAIL) error
occurs.

BTFILER allows you to view, edit, search and
delete records in a Btrieve file.

BTFILER allows you to Clone a Btrieve file (That
is, create an empty Btrieve file with the same key
structure and record size as the original).

BTFILER allows you to Pack a Btrieve file (That
is, create a copy of a Btrieve file less the space
left by deleted records).

BTFILER allows you to Import and Export records in
a straight ASCII format or a format like BUTIL,
Novell's Btrieve Developer's Utility.

BTFILER allows you to create a Btrieve file with a
BTrieve Build file (.BTB).

BTFILER allows you to Set and Clear owners of
Btrieve files, displays Btrieve version
information, and shows file statistics and key
structure.

BTFILER lists Btrieve Error codes (arranged
numerically) and Operation codes (arranged
alphabetically). You may also get details on
Btrieve error codes.

BTFILER lets you choose from 4 different color
sets.

B. Unintended actions (dare we say BUGS?)

As of this writing date, there are no known bugs.
(Kind of reminds us of the compiler that reports,
after a successful compile, "None of the errors
were found").

Previous versions had some problems displaying
Btrieve error codes, and problems in the display
some menus. Previous versions also had minor
problems when you tried to Set Misc.
Parameters. These problems have been cleared up.
Improvements in existing features include the
ability to edit records 256 bytes at a time. The
HOME and END keys now work while viewing a Btrieve
file to move you to the first and last records
(respectively) in the file.

It is likely that VERY large variable length
records will cause problems with memory (but we
have not tested it with very large (>25K) variable
length records). Please let us know if you run
across any problems. See section 5, Getting
help/making suggestions.

4. Details...

In the following sections, we detail actions required
to make BTFILER do work for you. This assumes you have
placed the files mentioned above (What does BTFILER
require?) in your "PATH".

For instance, if you type in PATH from the
DOS prompt (commonly "C:\>>") and you see the
following:

PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\UTIL

you should place the BTFILER file in the C:\, C:\DOS or
the C:\UTIL directory. You must also have Btrieve
loaded, or if so configured, Btrieve or Brequest must
be available on the PATH.

A. Starting BTFILER

At any DOS prompt (or from the directory that
BTFILER files reside in, if not on your PATH)
type:

BTFILER

If you wish to browse or edit a particular Btrieve
file, you may enter that on the command line as
well. For example:

BTFILER filename.ext

BTFILER will then take a few seconds to load.
Depending upon the settings on the "Set Misc.
Parameters" screen (under the "Options" menu)
BTFILER may also load Btrieve or Brequest. If you
get a message indicating that BTFILER is unable to
load Btrieve, load Btrieve from the command line
and then go to the "Set Misc. Parameters" screen
and ensure that the default Btrieve start up
parameters are set correctly.

As BTFILER is loaded a screen will appear briefly
to list the registered owner of this copy of
BTFILER (Thank You!) or to remind you that you are
currently using an unregistered copy. This screen
will remain on the screen for a few seconds, and
then you may press any key to continue. Note that
the status line (the bottom line on the screen)
will almost always tell you what BTFILER is doing
or what you should do next.

B. The Main Menu

The Main Menu is a menu bar running across the top
of the screen. This menu has three options:
File, Options, and Help.

You can maneuver around the menu by using arrow
keys and the ENTER key, as well as ALT-Letter
combinations. (For instance, if no sub-menu is
"dropped," you may press the ALT and the H key to
get to the Help sub-menu.

To exit BTFILER, you can press ESC (or press ESC
twice if a sub-menu is "dropped") and you will
return to DOS. You may also exit by pressing ENTER
while the Exit option of the File sub-menu is
highlighted.

C. The File Sub-menu

The File sub-menu includes four options:
Browse/Edit Btrieve File, Clone Btrieve File, Pack
Btrieve File,and Exit.

1. Browsing/Editing a BTRIEVE file

When ENTER is pressed (or ALT-B is pressed)
in the File sub-menu, you will be prompted to
enter a file name. The default is "*.DAT"
If you supplied a file name on the command
line when starting BTFILER, or if you have
already browsed/edited a Btrieve file, that
will be the default. If you press ENTER with
a filename containing '?' or '*' (an
"ambiguous" file name) BTFILER will present
you with a menu of files like the file name
entered. If the menu is presented, use the
arrow keys to get to the correct file and
press ENTER. You may also press ESC and re-
enter the file name. If you press ESC while
entering the file name, you will return to
the menu.

Once the Btrieve file selected is opened and
some of the records are loaded, you will be
presented with a screen with three parts:

The Browse/Edit Main Menu bar
The Scale
The Data area.

The Browse/Edit Main Menu bar works very much
like the main menu described earlier. One
difference is that the menu here is not the
focus of activity. When you start
browsing/editing a file, no options on the
Browse/Edit Main Menu are highlighted. The
focus is on the data below. To get to the
Browse/Edit Main Menu, simply press ALT and F
(to get to the File sub-menu) or ALT and V
(to get to the View sub-menu).

The Scale lets you know what offset within
the record you are looking at. The right and
left arrows will move you 10 positions to the
left or right.

The Data area of the screen is a straight
listing of the data in the records in the
file. Note that there may be some strange
characters on the screen. This is perfectly
normal if the Btrieve file contains binary or
packed data.

a. Moving around

Use the arrow keys and the Page-up and
Page-down keys to move around. When you
enter the screen, the top line will be
highlighted. Use the down arrow to
highlight another record, and use the
left and right arrows to view the rest
of a record that is larger than 80
characters.

b. Editing a record

To edit a Btrieve record, use the arrow
keys to highlight the record you wish to
edit and press ENTER. You will be
presented with a menu asking if you want
to Edit this record, Delete this record,
Add a record like this one, or Continue
Browsing. With Edit this record
highlighted, press ENTER.

You will be presented with a window on
the screen that will allow you to edit,
256 characters at a time, the record
that was selected. By default you will
be doing a HEX edit. To switch back and
forth between HEX and ASCII editing,
press the TAB key. Use the cursor
movement keys to move around the data.

To exit the editing screen, press ESC.
If you make changes, a Yes or No box
will appear reminding you that the data
was changed, and asking if you wish to
save changes. Press 'Y' to save
changes, or 'N' to abandon. It is
possible to make changes that Btrieve
won't allow (creating a duplicate record
in a key that does not allow duplicates
or trying to modify a non-modifiable
key) and if you do that you will get an
error message.

c. Deleting a record

To delete a Btrieve record, use the
arrow keys to highlight the record you
wish to delete and press ENTER. You
will be presented with a menu asking if
you want to Edit this record, Delete
this record, Add a record like this one
or Continue Browsing. With Delete this
record highlighted, press ENTER.

You will be asked if you are sure you
want to delete the record. Press 'Y' to
delete it, or 'N' to not delete the
record

d. Adding a record like the current record

To add a Btrieve like the record you are
currently editing (using an existing record as
a model ), use the arrow keys to highlight the
record most like the one you wish to add and
press ENTER. You will be presented with a
menu asking if you want to Edit this record,
Delete this record, Add a record like this
record, or Continue Browsing. With Add
a record like this record highlighted,
press ENTER.

You will be presented with a screen very
much like the editing screen. Make
whatever changes you wish. When you are
done, press ESC. You then will be asked
if you wish to save the changes. Press
'Y' to save the new record, or 'N' to
abandon the changes. It is possible to
try to add a new record that Btrieve
won't allow (creating a duplicate record
in a key that does not allow duplicates)
and if you do that you will get an error
message.

e. The File sub-menu in the Browse/Edit main menu

This menu allows you to select a new
file or exit to the Main Menu. To get
to the Files sub-menu in the Browse/Edit
main menu while browsing data, press the
ALT and F keys.

f. The View sub-menu in the Browse/Edit main menu

To get to the View sub-menu in the
Browse/Edit main menu while browsing
data,press the ALT and V keys. The View
sub-menu in the Browse/Edit main menu
has four options: Key Only, Set Key
Number, Begin View With, and Search.

Key Only allows you to switch from
viewing the entire record to a key only
browse. To use the check-box, press the
space bar and a check mark will appear
and disappear. If the check mark
appears when ENTER is pressed, only the
key will be displayed.

Set Key Number allows you to set the
order you wish to view the data. The
field where you enter the key number
will default to the current key number.

Begin View With allows you to jump to a
particular key value in the file.

Search allows you to search out a record
in the file looking for a particular
string of text. The search can be
global or starting from the top line on
the screen, and it can be case sensitive
or insensitive to the case of the
characters entered (upper an lowercase
treated the same). If the string is
found, the first record with the string
will be displayed with the matching text
flashing.

g. Special problems with Variable length records.

Variable length records present a
special problem when building a generic
Btrieve file viewer. The only limit to
the size of a Btrieve variable length
record is 64K. Most Variable length
records are MUCH shorter. If you work
with variable length records, please
make sure you set your "Largest variable
record" under "Set Misc. Parameters"
under "Options" on the Main Menu to a
value bigger than any record you might
expect to read in

If you edit a variable length record, it
will be written back at the same length.

2. Cloning a Btrieve file

With this option, you can make an empty copy
of an existing Btrieve file. You must enter
the name of the Btrieve file as well as the
name of the "clone" file to be created.

3. Packing a Btrieve file

Like most DOS files, Btrieve files get bigger
as records are added, but do not shrink as
records are deleted. This can be especially
noticeable if you have a transaction file
that grows and grows until some month or year
end procedure, and then is purged. The space
where the deleted records were is still in
the file. This space will eventually be used
again, but what if you can't wait?

That is where Packing comes in. Simply
supply the name of the file to be packed, and
BTFILER will rewrite it without the space
where the deleted records were. The original
file is saved with an extension of .BAK.
Please ensure that the packed file is good
and then you may delete the .BAK.

4. Test/Rebuild a Btrieve file

This menu allows you to test a Btrieve file
to ensure that DOS can read the entire file
without a DOS Critical error (Abort, Retry,
Fail...), tests that all indices (keys) of a
Btrieve file are correctly linked, and allows
you to rebuild a damaged file. The
explanations for these options follows.

a. DOS Read Test

This option allows you to test a file to
ensure that DOS can read through the
entire file. The file in question need
not even be a Btrieve file.

b. Index Testing

This option tests a Btrieve file to
ensure that the links in the file (in
both directions for each key) are
correct. A record could be written to
disk in such a way that it points to
itself, or to some other record that is
not the correct record. This test will
look for such problems.

c. Rebuild

If you don't normally read
documentation, PLEASE READ THIS! This
is a "last resort" procedure that should
be used only if no recent backup exists.
While there is little chance of damage
occurring to your Btrieve file since the
original is opened in read-only mode,
and the original is saved as a .BAK
file, backups are the best bet! There
is no guarantee that this procedure will
get all records, although it is likely
that almost all records will be
recovered.

This procedure uses physical positioning
(not logical positioning, going through
the file via a key) to read from the
first physical record to the last. If
an error occurs while proceeding from
beginning to end, the program tries to
step directly to the last record, and
tries to read from end to beginning. If
there is only one record that has a
problem, all but that one record should
be recovered.

5. Import/Export

Select Import/Export from the File menu under
the Main Menu and you will be presented with
a menu that allows you to import or export
records to or from a Btrieve file. Upon
selecting Import or Export. you will be
presented with a screen that allows you to
specify the Source and Destination file. You
will also be allowed to choose between a
BUTIL style ASCII file or a straight ASCII
file, without the length specifier required
by BUTIL. If you choose to NOT use the
BUTIL format, the file in question should be
a fixed length record with NO binary data.
The length of the record for ASCII files not
in the BUTIL style is the number of bytes
until the ASCII CR/LF characters are found.
In a binary file, it is possible that these
characters might naturally occur, causing
BTFILER to think that the record ends in
the middle of a field of binary data. This is
clearly not a good thing.

The format of the BUTIL style ASCII file is
as follows:

29,this is a 29 character record

That is, each record should contain the
decimal length followed by a comma, followed
by the record, padded with spaces if needed
to make it the length specified, followed by
CR/LF (hex 0D0A).


6. Misc. Btrieve Functions

a. Set Owner

Btrieve allows users to set "owners" for
files. By setting an "owner," a Btrieve
user can choose to allow no access to
the file without the owner name or allow
read-only access, and the user can
choose whether the file will be
encrypted or not. It is important to
remember that if you set an owner for a
Btrieve file, any program that is to
access it (including BTFILER) must know
that user name, and the user must
remember the user name if s/he wishes to
Clear the owner (see below).

When the File/Misc. Btrieve
Functions/Set Owner menu option is
selected, BTFILER displays a box with
three fields. In the first field, enter
the name of the file for which an owner
name is to be set. In the second field,
enter the string that will become the
new "owner." In the third field you
will be presented with a menu that will
allow you to choose whether or not to
allow read-only access without the owner
name, and whether or not the Btrieve
file should be encrypted. Highlight the
appropriate option and press ENTER. If
you have selected an option that calls
for encryption, some time may be
required. Please be patient.

b. Clear owner

When the File/Misc. Btrieve
Functions/Clear Owner menu option is
selected, BTFILER displays a box with
two fields. In the first field, enter
the name of the file for which an owner
name is to be cleared. In the second
field, enter the current "owner." If
you have selected a Btrieve file that
had an owner name set with encryption,
some time may be required. Please be
patient.

c. Statistics

When the File/Misc. Btrieve
Functions/Statistics menu option is
selected, BTFILER prompts for a file
name to be entered. If the file name
entered exists and is a valid Btrieve
file, BTFILER will display information
about the file, including the number of
records and number of keys, the record
length, the file length, and some
information on the actual space used, on
average, for each record in the file and
the % utilization. Information on the
keys will appear in a box on the lower
portion of the screen. If more keys
than will fit on one screen are present,
use the arrow or page down keys to see
the rest of the key information.

d. Btrieve Version

When the File/Misc. Btrieve
Functions/Btrieve Version menu option is
selected, BTFILER displays a small box
that gives Btrieve version information,
for instance "Btrieve Version 5.10 for
Networks." Press any key to continue.

e. Create file from BTB file

Select this option to create a new Btrieve file.
You will need to supply the name of a
BTrieve Build file (BTB) and a name for the
new file. This option is similar to BUTIL's
-CREATE option, but with much better error
handling. Please see the sample BTB file
called SAMPLE.BTB provided with BTFILER
system and listed in Appendix A.

7. Exiting BTFILER

Choose this option to exit BTFILER and return
to DOS. You may also exit by pressing ESC
(or by pressing ESC twice if you are in the
File, Options, or Help sub-menu).


D. The Options Sub-menu

1. Set Colors

Choose from the four color sets mentioned.

2. Set Misc. Parameters

Choose this option and you will be presented
with a screen that looks like this:

Set BTFILER Misc. Options

[_] Load Btrieve?
[_] Load Brequest?

Btrieve load options: ________________________

Brequest load options: ________________________

Memory to save for Btrieve: ______

Owner name for Btrieve: ____________________

Largest variable record: _____

Print report to (LPT1, etc): ________________________

The first two questions ask if you would like
to load Btrieve and/or Brequest. It might be
better (from a memory control standpoint) to
have Btrieve loaded BEFORE you run BTFILER,
but it is often convenient to allow BTFILER
to load it for you.

The next two questions allow you to specify
Btrieve and/or Brequest start-up (load)
options. Please see your Btrieve or Brequest
manual for specifics. Also, note that it is
possible to give invalid load options to
Btrieve that will prevent Btrieve from being
loaded. In that case, load Btrieve BEFORE
you enter BTFILER and then correct the
Btrieve load options.

The amount of memory to save for Btrieve is
dependent upon the version of Btrieve you are
using, the load options you specify, and the
availability of extended (or is that
expanded...) memory. Run Btrieve with the
load parameters you expect to use and then
run AMIMAP.EXE (a utility that reports on the
space taken up by resident programs) and note
how much space is taken up by Btrieve. Add
several thousand bytes to this for good luck,
and this will reserve enough memory for
Btrieve. 130000 is a safe number to use if
this is too much for you to figure out.

Owner name is the owner name to use when
opening up Btrieve files that require an
owner name. If you don't know what this
means, you probably don't need to fill this
in.

Largest variable record is important if you
are going to read variable length record
Btrieve files. If you have too small a
number here, you might get an error 22
(buffer too short). If you have too large a
number here, you may have memory problems.

Print report to specifies where reports
(currently only the registration form and printing
this documentation) should print. This should
almost always be LPT1 or PRN. Try those if
in doubt.

3. Reset Btrieve

Issues a RESET command to Btreive.

4. REGISTER BTFILER

If you like what you see, and would like to
make sure that shareware programs like
BTFILER are produced, you must
register and pay for the use of the program.
The $29.00 requested (for a single copy) is a
steal, and to further entice you, we even
made up this neat utility to print out the
registration form for you. Simply fill in
the requested information and the form will
be printed. Fill in the number of single
user or site licenses, the size disks you
wish to receive,and mail it to the address on
the form. You can always just jot down your
name and address and mail that in with a
notation that you are registering for
BTFILER, but what the heck, that's what
computers are for!

If you register, you will get:

A copy of the latest version of the
BTFILER system.
A printed manual.
Notice of future upgrades.
Information on future products.
A copy of our BU partial BUTIL
replacement program.
This program STOPs, RESETs Btrieve,
shows BTRIEVE version and CLONEs
Btrieve files. You may distribute
this freely.



E. The Help Sub-menu

These options are self explanatory (and non-
threatening if you just try them out).

1. List Error Codes

2. List Operation Codes

3. About BTFILER

5. Getting help/making suggestions/future directions

If you are a registered user, or if you are having a
problem getting started, PLEASE contact us at:

Access Microsystems Inc.
404 Midstreams Road
Brick, NJ 08724-3838

(908) 892-2683
CIS: 74040,607

We generally work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. We
may not always be here when you call, but we will try
to return calls if you leave a SPECIFIC message. We
monitor Compuserve (CIS) messages daily for support
purposes, but understand that not everyone is ready for
E-Mail.

We seek your advice on future directions for this and
other products. We expect (if the interest in BTFILER
warrants) a follow-on product that will add some more
advanced editing, as well as more powerful utilities
for doing things like importing and exporting data and
creating files. We would love your advice.




APPENDIX A - Listing of SAMPLE.BTB

The following is a listing of SAMPLE.BTB, An ASCII file that
describes a BTRIEVE file to be built with BTFILER's
File/Misc. Btrieve Functions/Create File from BTB file menu
option. Please modify this file to create the type of file
YOU need. Keep the BTB file you create on line to rebuild
the file you create as needed.

#
# This line (and all lines beginning with '#') are COMMENTS.
#
# This is a sample BTrieve Build (BTB) file. It allows for the
# creation of Btrieve files in BTFILER. It does the same thing
# as the BUTIL -CREATE function, but with one significant
# difference: Error diagnostics are clearer. This removes (I
# think) the most significant problem with the BUTIL -CREATE
# process. Someday an interactive create utility will be part
# of BTFILER, but until then, this will have to do...
#
# Case is not important, and some fields are optional (as
# noted in comments).
#
# These are the fields possible listed in order of appearance
# in the file level settings section:
#
# RECORD LEN=n
# PAGE SIZE=n, multiple of 512
# VARIABLE=
# BLANK TRUNCATION= OPTIONAL!
# DATA COMPRESSION=
# FREE SPACE THRESHOLD=<10, 20 or 30>
# ALTERNATE FILE= OPTIONAL if no alternate key
# INCLUDE DATA= OPTIONAL!
# NUMBER OF KEYS=n
#
#
# These are file level settings, with more details...
#
RECORD LEN=131
#
# In the Help menu, see "Calculate Page Size" to find optimal size.
#
PAGE SIZE=1536
VARIABLE=NO
#
# BLANK TRUNCATION is only meaningful with variable length
# records, so this BLANK TRUNCATION= line is optional.
#
BLANK TRUNCATION=NO
DATA COMPRESSION=NO
#
# FREE SPACE THRESHOLD=n, where 'n' is 10, 20 or 30 ONLY!
#
FREE SPACE THRESHOLD=20
#
# ALTERNATE FILE=fname, where fname is the name of a file like
# UPPER.ALT. This line is optional IF no ALTERNATE=YES
# key segments exist.
#
ALTERNATE FILE=UPPER.ALT
#
# INCLUDE DATA= is used to determine if the file is key only
# Data only, or key and data. INCLUDE DATA= line is OPTIONAL!
#
# For KEY ONLY: INCLUDE DATA=NO
# NUMBER OF KEYS=1
# and key length is == to record length.
#
# For DATA ONLY: INCLUDE DATA=YES
# NUMBER OF KEYS=0
#
INCLUDE DATA=Yes
#
# NUMBER OF KEYS= is used as a cross check of the segments
# passed below. In case of a conflict, the option is given
# to accept the key count reflected in the segments, or
# abandoning creation of the file.
#
NUMBER OF KEYS=2
#
# END OF FILE LEVEL SETTINGS!
#
# This marks the beginning of key segment level information.
# If I were you, and I were creating BTB files, I would
# place a large comment band between each key segment
# to remind myself what I think I am doing. Just a
# thought...
#
# The lines for each key segment are in the following order:
#
# START=n, where 'n' is the starting position of the key
# LEN=n, where 'n' is the length of the key
# MODIFIABLE=s, where 's' is Y or N (or YES or NO or Yes or...)
# Allows Modifications to be made to the key?
# DUPLICATES=s, ditto above...Allows Duplicate keys?
# ALTERNATE=s, where 's' is as above. Alternate Collating Sequence?
# DESCENDING=s, like above. Sorts Hi to Lo?
# TYPE=t, where 't' is EXACTLY one (case difference OK) of the following:
#
# "String",
# "Integer",
# "Float",
# "Date",
# "Time",
# "Decimal",
# "Money",
# "Logical",
# "Numeric",
# "Bfloat",
# "Lstring",
# "Zstring",
# "Unsigned Binary",
# "Autoincrement",
#
# NULL=n, where 'n' is the decimal NULL value (commonly 0 or 32) OR
# NULL=N/A to explicitly state no NULL value.
# NULL= is OPTIONAL.
# SEGMENT=s, where 's' is Y or N (or Yes or N0...). The number of
# segments with a SEGMENT=No value should be the same
# as the number of keys you declare.
#
#
# Key 0/Segment 1
#
START=1
LEN=11
MODIFIABLE=n
DUPLICATES=n
ALTERNATE=n
DESCENDING=n
TYPE=STRING
NULL=N/A
SEGMENT=NO
#
# key 1/segment 1
#
START=12
LEN=30
MODIFIABLE=y
DUPLICATES=y
ALTERNATE=y
DESCENDING=n
TYPE=STRING
NULL=N/A
SEGMENT=YES
#
# key 1/segment 2
#
START=1
LEN=11
MODIFIABLE=y
DUPLICATES=y
ALTERNATE=y
DESCENDING=n
TYPE=STRING
NULL=N/A
SEGMENT=NO
#
# That's all, folks!
#