Introduction › Tools for Designing and Developing Applications › CA IDMS/DC Mapping Facility

CA IDMS/DC Mapping Facility

The CA IDMS/DC mapping facility is used to define the layout of the terminal screens (that is, maps) used for communication between the application and the user. A map definition, in addition to determining the appearance of the screen, associates fields on the screen (map fields) with record elements in the data dictionary, and defines display attributes (such as color and intensity) for map fields. All map definitions are stored in the dictionary.

Because maps are defined in the dictionary as separate entities, an CA ADS dialog can use a map simply by naming it on the appropriate CA ADS Dialog Compiler screen; the dialog itself does not perform any screen formatting.

At runtime, the mapping facility can perform automatic editing and error handling. When these facilities are enabled, input is validated automatically and output is formatted on the basis of dictionary-stored information on record elements (that is, internal picture, external picture, edit table, and code table). When a map is defined, the developer can specify different editing criteria for any field. The developer can also define stand-alone edit and code tables as modules in the dictionary. During map generation, these tables can be associated with map fields and external pictures can be defined for the fields.

For further information on the CA IDMS Online Mapping Facility and the automatic editing and error-handling capabilities available to the application, refer to CA IDMS Mapping Facility Guide.