A transaction is a package of data resulting from a processed form or set that FORMS transfers to another system after the form or set is processed. A transaction consists of one record.
A transaction description, which you create using the Manager, is a template for the output data. It specifies:
Which data is transferred (usually not its actual contents), such as:
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Type of data: |
Help topic containing more information: |
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Data from the processed forms or sets |
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Process-related data such as time and date (represented by system variables) |
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Your own data such as user name, project name, separators, headers, or any other information you find useful |
The format of the data:
Whether the data is text, digits or other characters
The length of each record
How data is justified and signed
The layout of the data:
Where the data appears in the record (in a new line?)
How the different data items are separated (by commas? tabs? not at all?)
Note: If you will be using SPSS statistics analysis program to examine data from the transaction, read more about this before creating your transaction description.
Three ways you can use transaction descriptions
Using a common layout for your transaction descriptions
The components of individual transaction descriptions
Standard transaction descriptions
Archive transaction descriptions
Start and stop transaction descriptions
Editing a transaction description
Specifying the format of the output data
Inserting and editing fields from forms
Inserting headers and other text
Including batch information in transactions