Downloading Multiple PICK items

The PICK.DOS.ALL command creates one DOS file from an active select list or from an entire PICK file. The DOS file contains all the selected PICK items and their real keys in an internal format specific to HostAccess. To upload the records in the file, use the DOS.PICK.ALL routines.

TDUMP (see The TDUMP Command) can also download multiple PICK items, but will create a DOS file for each record. However, TDUMP has the advantage that it is capable of quickly uploading specific records.

PICK data is downloaded in the PICK internal format. Dates and numerics are stored as integers; for example, “24 AUG 94” becomes “9733”. See PASS.TO - Passing PICK Data Directly into DOS or Windows Products for details of this format.

The PICK.DOS.ALL Command

PICK.DOS.ALL may be invoked from the TCL command line as follows:

PICK.DOS.ALL {DICT} PICKfilename {itemname1... itemnamen} TO dosname {(options)

Where:

DICT	Use this literal to specify the dictionary of PICKfilename.
PICKfilename	Is the name of the PICK file to transfer from.
itemname1 ... itemnamen	Are the names of the items to be sent to DOS. If not specified, either the active select list or the entire PICK file will be downloaded.
dosname	Is the DOS file name to be created or overwritten, optionally containing a drive letter and DOS path. If no path is specified, dosname is created in the current HostAccess runtime directory.

To find the status of the file transfer, the status record (as described for PIX.PICK.DOS) is written to the file PIX.CONTROL.F (see File: PIX.CONTROL.F) with a key of nn.FT.LOG, where nn is the port number.

Options Available With PICK.DOS.ALL

Anything following the open left bracket in the PICK.DOS.ALL command is treated as an option. Multiple options can be specified with or without a delimiter. These options are:

A	Append to the existing DOS file. This is useful for building up one large DOS file from a number of PICK items. If this option is not specified, the DOS file will be overwritten, or created if it does not already exist.
Z	Suppress all file transfer output including the status window. It is generally used from applications so that the file transfer takes place completely transparently and without the user needing to press a key to acknowledge completion.
B	Binary file - override default. i.e. no conversion of Attribute Marks CHAR(254) to CRLF and no conversion of value and sub-value marks to spaces.
L	Local option - for a locally connected PC - this will speed up the transfer by performing simpler error checking. If HostAccess detects that you are running over one of its supported resilient networks, it will use the L option by default.
R	Remote option - use this to tell HostAccess not to automatically use the L option when running file transfer over non resilient networks. You should specify this option if you know that your network may be non-resilient at any point (e.g. if you are using non-error checking modems). Use this option if you are experiencing file transfer errors when communicating over a network.

Using PICK.DOS.ALL

To download selected records from the PICK file STAFF into a single DOS file called STAFFILE.ALL, use the following commands:

SELECT STAFF WITH AGE > "65"

PICK.DOS.ALL STAFF TO C:\FILES\STAFF\STAFFILE.ALL

To download all programs in the BP file into a single DOS file called PROGS.ALL, enter:

PICK.DOS.ALL BP TO PROGS.ALL