PixieEditor Documentation

PixieEditor Documentation

1. Using PixieEditor
   • Startup Screen
   • Logon to PICK-etc
   • PICK-etc Explorer interface
   • Editing interface
   • Handling 2 environments: PICK-etc and WINDOWS
   • Export PICK-etc data to MySQL or Microsoft Access
2. Installation and Setup
   • BackServer Program: PX.BACKSRV
3. Exporting Data with PixieEditor
4. Uploading Data with PixieEditor

Using PixieEditor

PixieEditor is designed to bring to PICK programming (incl. ADP Systems), data item viewing and editing, a "look and feel" close to the style that has become standard for Windows text and word processors.  The most obvious difference on startup is that a lot of the file commands are duplicated with a "PICK" version and a "PC" version.  Text can be opened, edited and saved in Windows or in PICK and what you are seeing on the file menus is PixieEditor's ability to live in 2 worlds.

Startup Screen

To start with access to PICKetc, the fastest way is by clicking the "Open Button" which is the 2nd button on the toolbar.  You can also open "File" and select the "PICK Open" option.

Logon to PICK etc

Fig 2: Connect to Server

Begin by entering the computer name or IP address of your MV server, then click "Connect" or press "Enter".  
TimeOut may need to increase for older systems, eg AP. 
Input buffer size may vary: some common sizes are:

The Logon Box then expands to become a simple terminal emulator.  You type commands in the one-line upper box and PICK responses appear in the large lower box.  Work through whatever sequence you need at your site to get yourself logged on to TCL in the PixieEditor home account.  When you have achieved that, click "Next" or press F12.

Fig 3: Logon: entry of User ID which in this example is "auckland1"

The "Direct Terminal" window is a plain teletype-style terminal emulator which displays raw server output in its "Response" area.  Other features:

• Commands are retained for reuse in a drop-down list.
• "Char" button (Hotkey F11) transmits the character whose numeric ascii code you enter.
  eg enter 24 and press F11 to send a "Ctrl-X".
• By default, PixieEditor adds a Carriage Return, CHAR(13) to whatever you type in "Command".
  Some PICK programs expect occasional inputs with no CR.  To achieve this, add "{NOCR}" to
  your command.  eg    X{NOCR}

PICK Explorer interface

Fig 4 : "Tree View" style navigation and selection
Accounts are shown with green/purple mini-icons; click on them or their "+" signs to see files their files as tree branches with orange/red mini-icons. Q-Pointers and PICK Super-Q files have "Q" and "QS" icons.

Fig 5: Selection of a file with the normal left-mouse click causes all its items to list.  If there are a lot of items, eg as in this file of 21800 books, displaying them all can take a long time (1 minute) and produce a less-than-useful list.  So we provide a "filter" which you can call up with a  Right-click or Shift+Click on the file.  Or you can set an options "switch" to always display the filter.

Fig 6: Result of filtered enquiry shown in fig 5 above.
Note that if you scroll down the item list, you will find no more details!  This is because they are a little slow to load so we only automatically give you the first 20 which should be enough to get the general idea of what the file is about.  Click on the top bar where it says "Sample Details: Click here for more" to get more filled in.  You can escape from that listing process with the Esc key or the Cancel button. 
OR a mouse Right-Click or Shift+Click on any item will fetch its sample detail.

To select an item for editing, use Double-Click on it;
OR select by Single-Click or arrow keys, then Enter

Editing interface

Fig 7:  Note the multiple document interface which allows you to display 2 or more items to compare.  You can easily copy and paste text between them.  You get this effect from the "Window" command on the menu bar.

Handling 2 environments: PICK and WINDOWS

Fig 8: Menu bar: File Open/Save

NOTE how PICK items and WINDOWS text files are labelled and accessed.
The usual Open/File/Save commands are doubled up; with a PICK group and a PC group.
When editing or referencing PC files, the full DOS PATH is given, appearing in window title bars and in any most-recent-files lists as in the above Fig 8.

When you save a PC file as  "PICK", PixieEditor will look for the file name after the last backslash and strip any ".txt" extension of it to nominate a PICK item name.
It will then present the "PICK Save" screen which looks almost the same as the "PICK Open" explorer-style screens shown above but with a reddish background.  Any current account and file you have been working in will be nominated for this item, but the process pauses for you to check / re-select / edit account, file and item names before you click "Save".

Data export to MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MS Access

The Explorer Window now has a new item on its Menu, "Export", which promises to become the most popular part of PixieEditor, it certainly is at its home here at Pixie Partners. 

Select MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Access as the target database.
PixieEditor comes with a blank Microsoft Jet/Access file to give a default destination for the Access option.  
The "script" option allows you to do bulk exports by writing a list of files as a text file named "script.txt" placed in the same folder as "PixieEditor.exe".

You are also asked to make another selection: "PixieEngine" or "General"

• "PixieEngine" copies data files AND dictionaries as-is to produce a PICK-emulating result.  You can then use our PixieEngine product or some of its components to continue working with the data in a PICK like way in its new environment.
• "General" scans the dictionaries for column labels, and also reads conversion codes like "d2/" and "mr2" and applies them during the export.  For example, a PICK data attribute "11840" can appear in Microsoft Access etc as "31 May 2000".  This process is quite automatic except where an attribute has more than one dictionary item pointing to it.  The dictionary items are then presented to you in the format of a multi-choice question for your selection.

Installation and Setup

PX.BACKSRV is supplied as PICKBASIC source code in the format of a windows plain text file.

Experienced PICKies have their methods for loading it into PICKetc eg Super-Q-pointer, Type 1 File, DOS Services Gateway, Kermit transfer. If you are new to PICK go here for instructions on loading PX.BACKSRV into PICK - Uploading Data with PixieEditor

On PICK D3 NT, we recommend standard compilation for PX.BACKSRV rather than "Flashbasic".  
It does run faster when "flashed" but we have observed loss of data from some records and this problem has disappeared when we have recompiled as standard PICKBASIC.

Defining start and end of transmitted data

We recommend that when doing your own custom TCP/IP programming, eg with our PixieWeb tool, that you wrap your data in <TX> and </TX> as start and end-of-transmission marks.  So the question comes up, why does PixieEditor use <TXA> and </TXA> ?  The answer is so that you can use <TX> , </TX> in your other program writing without any problem of PixieEditor confusing this program data with its own control marks.

NOTE that this does mean that to enable PixieEditor to "edit itself", its reserved tags need to be "tricked".  
PixieEditor reserved tags are "<TXA>", "</TXA>", "<TXB>", "</TXB>",.  These need to appear differently in code eg "<T":"XA>".  Thanks to this trick you can with this latest version view, compile and catalog PX.BACKSRV, and even edit it if you are feeling brave.