How to:
Reference: |
Visual Discovery creates graphs using a tab-delimited data file as input. The first record of the data file contains the column titles for the data values. The next record can contain the Visual Discovery field formats. If this record is not present, Visual Discovery attempts to determine the formats of the data fields by reading the first 50 records from the data file, a process that is not guaranteed to create accurate representations of the WebFOCUS formats.
The FORMAT VISDIS option creates a tab-delimited output file with the extension .txt in which the first record has the column titles and the second record contains Visual Discovery formats based on the field formats of the data. A .fex with PCHOLD FORMAT VISDIS can also be created and used the same way as the .txt file.
FOCUS Format |
Visual Discovery Format |
---|---|
Integer |
I |
Decimal/Packed |
R |
Alphanumeric |
S |
Date format (smart date) |
D%format%format%format (for example, D%Y%m%d). If the year is not a four-digit year, the format returned is S. |
Other |
S |
In the Name field, specify the destination path and name for the file, using the Browse (...) button to navigate the path. This option saves the output as a text file to a physical location on the disk.
This option saves the output as a .fex, which uses live data. Only .fex files that have been saved with PCHOLD FORMAT VISDIS can be used as data for Visual Discovery controls.
A new browser window opens with information similar to the following, where 581 is the total number of rows in the data source, and 5 is the total number of rows in the Visual Discovery file:
0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 581 LINES= 5
[ON TABLE] HOLD [AS filename] FORMAT VISDIS [ON TABLE] PCHOLD [AS filename] FORMAT VISDIS [ON TABLE] SAVE FILENAME 'application_name/filename.txt' FORMAT VISDIS
where:
Creates the results in memory, but does not save them to a text file unless you specify the Dialogue Manager command, APP HOLD application_name, in the report request.
For details on HOLD, see the topics on saving and reusing report output in the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual.
Presents the results as output to a browser. When accessed by Visual Discovery, the procedure is initialized by the ActiveX control using the URL of the procedure. The ActiveX control then interprets the output. Visual Discovery uses a live data pool and does not require a physical output file.
Creates a physical output file for use when the Visual Discovery page points to a static data pool.
Is the name of the output file.
Note: A Master File is not created for format VISDIS.
Using the CENTURYSALES data source, the following request creates a Visual Discovery output file named AUDIOSYSTEMSSALES.TXT, which is stored in the Visual_Discovery application folder in Developer Studio.
TABLE FILE CENTURYSALES SUM QUANTITY LINEPRICE AS 'Revenue' BY PRODUCTCATEGORY BY PRODUCTNAME WHERE SALESREP EQ 'Web'; WHERE PRODUCTCATEGORY EQ 'Audio Systems'; ON TABLE SAVE FILENAME 'VISUAL_DISCOVERY/AUDIOSYSTEMSSALES.TXT' FORMAT VISDIS END
The following file is created. For clarity, the tab characters in the file are displayed as a greater than sign (>) surrounded by blanks. Note that the first record has the column titles and the second has the Visual Discovery formats.
Product Category > Product Name > Quantity > Revenue S > S > I > R Audio Systems > Home Theater 5.1 System > 2087 > 4171913.00 Audio Systems > Home Theater 7.1 THX System > 243 > 728757.00 Audio Systems > Home Theater Surround System > 703 > 702297.00 Audio Systems > Micro 5.1 System > 857 > 427643.00 Audio Systems > Micro HiFi Stereo System > 2096 > 836304.00
WebFOCUS |