Document Directory

This topic provides an overview of the user documentation provided with Reality.

There are three kinds of documentation provided:

• On-line documentation for display in a web browser.

• On-line documentation that can be displayed on a terminal using the Reality MAN command.

• Acrobat versions of printed manuals that provide additional information not included in the main documentation. Although these are included with the main documentation, they are not integrated with the navigation systems (contents list, index and search).

Online Documentation (Web Browser)

The Reality online documentation is divided into sections, which you select from the top level of the contents list, as follows:

The Reality Documentation

This section gives general information about the documentation, including how to use the on-line documentation, general conventions, and a glossary of terms and abbreviations.

Installation Guides

This section contains the installation guides for Reality on UNIX and Windows, and the Reality External Components.

User's Reference

This section contains the main documentation for the Reality database. It is divided into five subsections:

• General. This provides general user information that is not specific to the operation or administration of the Reality environment, including an overview of and introduction to the Reality environment, a description of database file structures, details of file-related TCL commands and procedures, an introduction to TCL, and detailed descriptions of general TCL user commands.

• Operation. This provides the information required to perform routine operating procedures within the Reality environment. Includes descriptions of the spooler, how to save and restore Reality files, how to operate magnetic tape units from Reality, and the terminal independent process handler (TIPH).

• Administration. This provides information for administering Reality databases. This requires tasks to be carried out in both the Reality and host (UNIX or Windows) environments. It includes descriptions of the Reality and host environments, and the tasks that must be carried out in each. There is also a section on dealing with system problems.

• TCL Commands Summary. This contains a quick reference list of all TCL commands.

• MultiValue compatibility. This describes Reality commands that provide compatibility with other MultiValue systems.

English Reference

The English Reference section provides a detailed description of English, a powerful data retrieval and report generating inquiry language. It is intended for users with some knowledge of Reality principles and contains a comprehensive explanation of how to create associated data definition items. To make full use of it, it would be helpful to have completed the tutorials provided in the Beginner's Guide to English.

Proc Reference

The Proc Reference section provides a detailed description of the Proc job control language. It is intended for users who are familiar with the Reality environment.

DataBasic Reference

The DataBasic Reference section provides in-depth information on the DataBasic programming language. It is written for programmers who are familiar with the Reality applications environment.

Editors

The Editors section explains how to use the different Reality editors (line and screen editor) to create and maintain Reality non-binary items.

Resilience

Resilience describes Reality Transaction Handling, Transaction Logging, Rapid Recovery, Shadow Database, FailSafe and Disaster Recovery features.

SQL for Reality

SQL for Reality is a standard feature of Reality, which enables any PC application that is compliant with ODBC version 2.0 or JDBC to access and update a Reality database. You can also create and update SQL catalogs on a Reality database.

The SQL for Reality section describes how the host/database administrator can set up and manage user access to a Reality SQL catalog. It also describes the procedures to be followed in order to create and update a Reality SQL catalog, and details the functions supported by the Reality ODBC and JDBC drivers.

UNIX-Connect

The following describe Reality networking on a UNIX host:

• UNIX-Connect User Guide. This describes how to: perform remote logon between UNIX and Reality environments; send print jobs in a UNIX environment to a printer in the Reality environment; transfer files between UNIX and Reality environments; and perform commands on a remote UNIX system.
• UNIX-Connect System Administration. This is intended for system administrators who need to understand how the UNIX-Connect product works in order to configure it. It assumes a working knowledge of UNIX.

External Interfaces

This section contains documentation for features that provide external access to Reality, including web features. It is divided into seven subsections:

• PCi Standard Network Interface. This section describes how to connect to Reality from a client PC. It is intended for system administrators who need to understand how the PCSNI product works in order to install and configure it. It assumes a working knowledge of MS-DOS, Windows and Reality.

• RealWeb. This feature provides the Web developer with access to data held in a Reality database, by making it possible to call a DataBasic subroutine directly from a Web browser by simply specifying a URL. Subroutines that will be called from RealWeb must be specially written using the supplied DataBasic API - this allows the programmer to fetch arguments passed to RealWeb, and to construct an HTML page that is returned for display in the browser.

  The RealWeb section describes the DataBasic subroutines supplied with RealWeb and how to use these to construct HTML pages.

• HTML from English. This feature allows you embed an English report in a web page for display in browser.

• Reality Java Interface. This section provides advice for the Java programmer wishing to enquire upon or update a Reality database via one of the following methods:

  • Calling a Remote Basic subroutine.

  • Writing Java servlets to access a Reality database via RealWeb.

  • Writing a Java application or applet to connect to a Reality database via the Reality SQL/JDBC interface. The Java program constructs SQL commands to execute queries or update the database.

• Remote Basic ActiveX Control. This section describes a Visual Basic component that can be used in PC programs to run Remote Basic subroutines on a Reality database.

• XML Support. This section describes a feature that allows DataBasic programmers to extract data from and export data to XML documents.

• Reality Web Services. Reality's incoming web services feature allows you to expose your DataBasic subroutines as web service operations. Reality's outgoing web services feature allows you to access any suitable third-party web service by using a collection of DataBasic function calls.

Other Documents

This section contains Acrobat versions of manuals that do not form part of the main documentation, but that you may need or find useful. Some of these are historical documents.