Naming Application Entities

Naming Conventions › Naming Application Entities

Naming Application Entities

Naming conventions make it easier to keep track of application components as they are created and maintained. While mnemonic names can work well for less complex applications, mnemonics are inadequate when handling the large volume of complex applications that typically exist at most sites. Adhering to a naming convention eases the construction of component names, eases the reconstruction of component names if one is forgotten, and eases the use and maintenance of an application.

Naming Convention Standards

The following table lists the naming convention standards used for the sample application in this manual.

Position	Value	Meaning
1	C	CA IDMS product
2-3	EM IS FS MS SY	Type of application: Employee information Information system Financial system Manufacturing system System activities
4	D F M P H R S T U	Component type: Dialog Function Map User-defined program Help module Report Report Subschema Table Menu
5	A C D E I M U	Component functions: Add operation Encode/decode (column 4 indicates table) Delete operation Edit operation (column 4 indicates table) Inquiry operation Modify operation Update operation
6-8	xxx	Component designator: Three characters used as unique identifiers for the component

Assigning Names

Names in an application can be assigned in the following manner:

Dialogs, maps, tables, programs, help modules, and reports can use the conventions in preceding table as follows:

Dialog:         CEMDILIS

Map:            CEMMILIS

Code table:     CEMTCLIS

Edit table:     CEMTELIS

Menu:           CEMUILIS

User program:   CEMPILIS

Help module:    CEMHILIS

Report:         CEMRILIS

Dialog premap and response process names can be the concatenation of the dialog name and the suffix -PREMAP or -RESPONSE, as in the following examples:
```
CEMDILIS-PREMAP

CEMDILIS-RESPONSE
```
If there are multiple response processes, the suffixes can be structured to reflect the function of each response process, as follows:
```
CEMDILIS-ADDRESP
CEMDILIS-DELRESP
```
Names for subroutines included in the premap and response processes can be made up of a meaningful name of up to 6 characters with a 2-digit suffix, as follows:
```
PASSDT05
MESSGE97
DBERR99
```
The numeric suffixes can be assigned and incremented as the subroutines appear in the dialog. This numbering convention makes it easier to locate a subroutine in the dialog listing. For example, MESSGE97 is located near the end of the listing while PASSDT05 is located near the beginning.