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| DTFSPECS is a database documentation and analysis tool. If you are converting from Q&A to Sesame or some other product, DTFSPECS will help you tremendously. For example, you can print out all of the programming in one listing. This listing also contains other important information, such as whether a field is a text field or a date field. See the second screen shot below. Clearly this is much better than looking at the information on various screens and in tiny windows. |
| The basic strength of DTFSPECS is its powerful display features which let you see various specifications in a DTF. For example, it has a display that simultaneously shows you programming and navigation specs field by field, as well as the associated help text, initial values, templates, format, and so forth. |
| For those developing with Q&A for Windows, it supports the automatic creation of FORMVIEW databases, which are Q&A for Windows databases that permit you to see database specifications right in the data entry forms, as you do with Q&A for DOS. |
| Here is a screen shot that shows you the initial information displayed for a DTF when you open it using DTFSPECS. You can see some important information, including calculation mode, enty and exit fields, number of records, and how much programming space is available. Most of this information is of course available via Q&A, but not so conveniently. And Q&A does not tell you how much programming space is available. |
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| The second screen image shows how you can use DTFSPECS to see many specs and other information at once in an easy to understand format. The screen image was created with the terminal in 50 line mode. There are two windows. The first shows part the "ALL Specs" format, so called because it shows you virtually all the specs for each field together in the same display. You can see that field #993 is speedy, its name is "TextField", the label on the screen is "Text Field", the initial value is "C", the restrict specs are !A, B, C, and so forth, the template is $, the help text is shown in its entirety, and the program and nav specs are shown also. (Whew!) |
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| The second window shown in the screen image is part of the data dictionary. This is a listing of critical information for each field, including its type (text or numeric), its program number and its nav number, its size, which screen it's on, whether it's speedy, and so forth. This display can be sorted by field name, by program number, or by nav number. In this example, the fields have been sorted by name. |
| DTFSPECS is a highly interactive program, allowing you to have multiple windows open with information about one or more Q&A databases. For example, you can open a window showing the programming specifications for an important field in database A, then open another window for a closely related field in database B. You can tile the windows, so that both are visible on the screen at the same time. |
| DTFSPECS has the ability to extract information from databases in various formats, allowing you to accomplish various tasks. For example, you can extract the specifications for a report in a highly readable form, allowing you to see retrieve specs and derived column specs together (and in the order they will appear on the report). |
| DTFSPECS can also transfer reports from one database to another. |
| It is unsurpassed as a Q&A database analysis and documentation tool. |
| A free demo is available. Click here to download. |