Hello all,
I am new to webFOCUS and wanted your ideas on what would be the best way to prompt for data input fields, then print those fields on a report/HOLD file. I am not good at coding, but have been using the devloper studio for report painter and htm files. I was thinking of creating an htm input form but not sure how to load those values to the report fields? Then I need to merge this Hold file with other hold files to create a consolidated report.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

We need to start on a small scale because you need to learn how to do some things before you can creaate your consolidated report.

Since you've already used the Report Painter and the HTML Layout Painter, I will assume you are familiar with amper variables because these are the things that create the prompt controls for the HTML Layout Painter.

Amper Variables are a subset of a WebFOCUS command language known as Dialogue Manager. You can find documentation on this in the "Developing Reporting Applications" manual which you can download from the doc link in the right-hand corner of this page. Read up on -WRITE. -TYPE is useful as well to see what was entered.

You will also need to be familiar with APP FI (or FILEDEF) and you will have to have a master file description for your file so that you can use TABLE to combine it with other files.

I hope I haven't offended you by speaking in simplistic terms but I don't know what kind of training you've had. Me thinks we'll have to build this application a piece at a time.

Anyway, let me know if this helps or if you need more information.

No offense taken. I am familiar with amper variables and have used them for passing parameters to drill-down or in where/if. My problem is I have always used a "master" file in the past, but now there is no master, so I'm kinda lost on where to start. I want to write 5 fields (seg1, seg_desc, current, prior, and lastyr) to a hold file so I can merge it with other hold files I have created. The data for these 5 fields is not available for webfocus, but I can get it from another hardcopy report. So I thought if I could data enter these 5 fields for several records, write these records to a hold file, then merge it with my other hold files top get a consolidated report.

You'll have to -WRITE the values to a file and write a master file description (you can use an editor to do this) and then do an APP FI or FILEDEF to hook them together so that you can TABLE it.

Read up on -WRITE then do a sample to see if you can write the file. Baby steps.