Autoline is a set of programs that access data files.
Module: Autoline consists of a number of modules. A module, consisting principally of menus and forms, accesses a set of data files (information files) relating to one subject. Data files relating directly to marketing, for example, are stored in and accessed by the CRM module.
Files: A module contains a number of files (or, in relational database-speak, 'tables'). The files hold records relating to a function within the module. A sales ledger transaction file, for example, holds all transaction records (invoices and credit notes) for the sales ledger.
Record: Records of like type are stored in a single file. A record consists of a number of individual fields containing variable information, typically entered by a person at a keyboard.
Fields: A record is made up of a number of fields, sometimes displayed in columns. A sales ledger transaction file, for example, may hold invoice number, invoice date, account code, and invoice value fields among others. Fields are of three basic types, numeric, date, or alphabetic.
Occurs fields: An 'Occurs' field is where one field name is used in place of several, each distinguished by a number in brackets. An example is an address field consisting of five parts; ADDRESS(1) to ADDRESS(5).
Key-paths: A key-path is a field held in an index, enabling fast lookup of records. A file may contain up to nine key-paths, providing you with different ways of rapidly accessing a file's records.
There are four basic types of data stored by Autoline, record fields being of these types:
Numbers are generally of two types; decimal or whole. Example whole numbers include record numbers and invoice numbers.
Tip: When entering a number, do not type a comma to separate thousands. To indicate a negative amount, type a minus sign as the first character.
Almost any character can be included in an alpha field. The characters are stored literally, so enter upper and lower case characters correctly.
Tip: Words constituting proper names, including people's names, should start with capital letters.
Dates are of the form DD/MM/YYYY. Days and months are two characters respectively, thus January is represented as 01.
Tip: Date input does not require you to type in the century. Autoline automatically enters the century as defined by the computer's 'system' date. The cursor skips over the two century characters unless the date is being edited by moving the cursor within the date field.
Times are entered as five characters strings, with a full stop or colon separating the hours from the minutes. Thus 'ten past eleven' would be typed in as 11.10 or 11:10.
