Map Design Considerations › Preliminary Information Gathering › Application-specific Information

Application-specific Information

To generate efficient maps, the developer should be aware of the following information about the application:

• The amount and type of information the entire application will request through mapped displays. Applications generally require more than one map to request and/or present information efficiently.
• The records needed by each map and any attendant information:
  • The name of each record element within the record that the map displays or updates as data fields.
  • The external picture (if any) defined for each record element. The length of a data field is determined by the external picture of the associated element.
  • The name of the edit table (if any) stored in the data dictionary for each record element and the values/ranges that the table defines as either valid or invalid.
  • The name of the code table (if any) stored in the data dictionary for each record element and the conversions that the table performs.

  Note: External pictures, edit tables, and code tables are discussed in "Automatic Editing and Error Handling".

The developer can determine how many maps need to be designed and can begin to place fields on each map based on the information summarized previously.