In the Zim language, the children of an object are represented as having a dot (“.” ) between its name and the name of its parent. For instance, a push button whose name is pButton in the form fAddCustomer in the directory dCustomerRecord will be represented as  dCustomerRecord.fAddCustomer.pButton

The complete reference to the object needs to be unique in a database. In other words, form fields need to be unique within a form, forms need to be unique within a display and also within a directory.

The name of an application directory (Directories); otherwise, the one application directory in which the associated object may exist.

Valid Values

An 18-character string, containing a valid object name

Remarks

In Directories:

DirName is the name assigned to the directory.

In other Object Dictionary entity sets:

In any entity set, the principal object’s DirName must match the DirName of its owner.

If DirName is left blank, the object may exist in any number of application directories.

In DDDescriptions, DirName is where the object being described may be found.

In DisplayForms, DirName is where the owner-display of the associated form may be found.

See Also

ConstName, DDObjectName, DDOwnerName, DisplayName, DocName, EntName, FieldName, FormName, MenuName, OwnerName, RelName, RoleName, SetName, UserName, VarName

A constant is a programming object. Wherever the constant name is used in an application program, the software uses the value assigned to that constant in the Constants entity set.

Establishing a Constant

Call up the Zim IDE, select CONSTANTS from the DataBases menu, and use the tools of the Zim IDE Development  to define the desired constant.

Creation of Constants step by step:

The value of the constant.

Valid Values

A character string or number (up to 256 alphanumeric characters).

The name assigned to a constant.

Valid Values

A valid object name.

See Also

DDObjectName, DDOwnerName, DirName, DisplayName, DocName, EntName, FieldName, FormName, MenuName, OwnerName, RelName, RoleName, SetName, UserName, VarName.

The data type of the constant’s value.

Valid Values

Char, varchar, alpha, varalpha, numeric, int, longint, vastint, or date

Remarks

If ConstType is $Null or blank, the data type of the constant is set to numeric when ConstValue is a number and to char in all other cases.

For more information about data types, consult your User’s Guide.

See Also

Decimals, Length, Type.

A unique identifier assigned by the Development Center.

Valid Values

A 25-character string (DEFAULT = $Null)

Remarks

ObjectKey is a unique identifier assigned by the Zim Development Center if the Object Manager (ZOM) has been enabled. End-users should not modify its value. Refer to the Development Center documentation for more information.

ObjectKey has a defined ListWidth of -1 and is not normally displayed.

For ZOM to know about an object, the object must first be registered. The registration process requires no effort on your part since registration is automatic and occurs when you use a ZOM service. Each ZOM service quickly searches for any unregistered objects and registers them in the knowledge base.

When an object is registered, it is assigned an object key that uniquely identifies it. The object key is used internally by ZOM to track the object during its lifetime, even if the object changes name or location. ZOM also uses the object key to track objects that are maintained at several separate development sites.

After registration, ZOM knows the object exists. However, at this point, ZOM knows very little about the object beyond its name, type, and object key. For ZOM to understand more about the object, you must “touch” the object.

The Zim object definition commands (e.g., CREATE, ERASE, RENAME) operate against a single object at a time. For example, an EntitySet is created using a CREATE command. If you needed to create all of the EntitySets, you need to issue a series of these commands.

ZOM, on the other hand, operates on sets of objects. ZOM enables you to select a set of objects from among the universe of objects in your application and apply an operation against that set of objects. For example, recreating all EntitySets is as simple as executing the command:

ZOMReCreate +t Ent

The “+t Ent” syntax is an example of the powerful selection criteria available for retrieving objects. In this case, “+t Ent” indicates that the Type of the object must be EntitySet. As you read in the following subsections, there are many other selection criteria, as well as operations for combining sets of objects in various ways.

When you “touch” an object, ZOM performs an in-depth analysis of the object and records the resulting information in its knowledge base. Objects are “touched” using a special ZOM service, ZOMTouch. For example, the following command touches the Contracts object :

ZOMTouch Contracts

ZOMTouch determines the object’s current state and discovers any dependencies between the object and the other objects it references. The source of the dependency information is Zim’s standard dependency tracking database. Zim maintains dependency information for all objects and updates this information when an object is created or a program is parsed or compiled.

Once ZOMTouch has finished processing, ZOM has a complete picture of the object and any interdependencies with other objects. This in-depth information enriches ZOM’s knowledge base and is the foundation for the powerful object analysis and manipulation you can perform with other ZOM services.

As you make changes to your application objects, this information is updated automatically if you use ZOM services. As you edit the program code, the ZOM’s knowledge of dependencies between the program object (ie document) and the objects referenced in the program becomes out of date. To update the ZOM knowledge base, “tap” the changed document objects.

Note: For more information on Zim’s dependency tracking, see SET DEPENDENCY.