Information Tables

Overview Information Tables

With the Information-Tables (short: Info-Tables) you can add additional information to the SWISSLOG database and associate them with SWISSLOG fields. Info-Tables can be used for many purposes. The most common is to add the descriptions for abbreviations used in awards like IOTA, US-States, US-Counties, DOK or the Callsign and name of DIG or TEN-TEN members.

Information from the Info-Tables can be used:

to display detailed information in the statistic views
to look up details while entering QSOs:
- press Ctrl-I
- double click or
- press the button,
and if an Info-Table is assigned to the field it will be displayed. You can then select the correct entry and copy the information into the QSO-entry.
to generate reports containing detail information. The Info-Tables are stored in the SWISSLOG DB; so you can use them in the report generator and design individual reports.

Note: If you create your own information tables we and all the SWISSLOG users would appreciate it if you send them to us for general distribution. Currently we have information tables for DIFM, DIG, DOK, IOTA, MF and US Counties and more. Look in the ..\Info directory.

The association (link) between an Info-Table and a SWISSLOG field can either be defined indirectly in a Statistic Definition or directly with the Assign Info Table function. The preferred way is the association via the Statistic Definitions.

The following functions are available from the Tools | Information-Tables menu:

Create / Delete (an information table)
Export / Import / Edit (add additional data)
Assign Info-Tables (directly associate a SWISSLOG field)

IMPORTANT: Swisslog implements a function to update existing information tables from internet. Please read Update Award Information

Create an Information-Table

The creation of an Information-Table consists of the following main steps:

Create a text file which contains the detail in formation. This file is normally created with help of a text editor
Create a layout definition file. This can be done with SWISSLOG
Load (create) the Information-Table in the SWISSLOG DB. This must be done with SWISSLOG

In many cases you only have to perform step 3 because the needed files are already available in the ..\Info directory or can obtained from the internet.

1.) Create the Text File

The first step consists of preparing a simple text file which contains the detailed information. The file must at least contain the 'key' values and the description of the keys. The key values are the values stored in the logbook. Examples are the DXCC, the IOTA, the Ten-Ten number, the DOK and so on. The description describes the key in more detail. For example the name of the DXCC country for the DXCC or the name of the Island and the continent for IOTA.

The file is usually created with the help of a simple text editor like the Notepad editor available in Windows. The fields must be separated by a delimiter character. Common delimiters are:

, ; : tab

The file for the DOK for example looks like this:

A01,KONSTANZ
A02,BRUCHSAL
A03,BADEN-BADEN
A04,BÜHL

The first field is the DOK (Key) which is stored in the logbook and the second field is the name of the city to which the DOK belongs. Here the fields are separated by a comma.

Another example. The text file for the IOTA information table looks like this:

AF-001;3B6;Agalega Islands
AF-002;FT/Z;Amsterdam & St.Paul Islands
AF-003;ZD8;Ascension Island
AF-004;EA8;Canary Islands
AF-005;D4;Cape Verde, Leeward Islands
AF-006;VQ9;Diego Garcia Island
AF-007;D6;Comoro Islands

As you see, it contains 3 fields separated with a ";". The first field is again the key field, the IOTA abbreviation. The second field is the DXCC abbreviation and the third field the name of the island.

2.) Create the layout definition file (.lot)

The layout definition file is used to describe the format of the entries in the text file. You can create the layout definition file with help of SWISSLOG or manually with a text editor.

To create the layout definition file with SWISSLOG select:

Tools | Information-Tables | Create / Delete

This opens the following dialog:

The dialog contains the definition for the IOTA text file. The following information must be entered:

Field

Contents (in our example)

Explanation

Source

C:\Swisslog\Info\IOTA.TXT

The name of the text file

Table name

INF_IOTA

The name of the information table in the SWISSLOG DB. You can select the name yourself but it is always prefixed with INF_

Key field

This the position of the key field. In our example the first field is the key field

Delimiter

;

; is used to separate the fields in the text file for this example

Grid fields (this is the detailed description of the text file; and is what your table will look like)

Field name

IOTA

This is the name of the field in the SWISSLOG DB. You will use this name when you define a Query or a report with the report generator

Data type

Varchar

Here you define the data type of the field. You can select from the following list:

Data type	Description
Char	Alpha-numeric type values with a fix length.
Date	Date values. No scale or precision are specified
Decimal	Decimal numbers.
Float	Floating point numbers.
Integer	Integer values.
Smallint	Small integer values.
Numeric	Floating point numbers.
Varchar	Alpha-numeric type values. Maximum length of column capacity is specified

Field Length

length of the field in the SWISSLOG DB

The "Decimal Positions" field is not used in this example; it is only used to work with numbers.

You can also create the layout definition file with a text editor. The format of the file is very simple:

Table=INF_IOTA
KeyField=1
DelChar=;
Field1=IOTA,Varchar,6,0
Field2=DXCC,Varchar,10,0
Field3=NAME,Varchar,80,0

Note:
In case you have entries which are flagged as deleted, for example deleted DXCC entities, you need a field in your information table with the length of one byte and it should be called 'DELETED'. The contents should be either 'D' for deleted or 'N' for an active entry.

3.) Load (create) the Information-Table in the SWISSLOG DB

Once you have prepared the text file and the layout file you can press the button to create the info table in the SWISSLOG DB.

You can verify the SQL that was generated to create the table by pressing the button.

If something goes wrong an error list is displayed. To examine the errors press the button.

"Duplicate keys" means that the Key-Field is not unique (there are two or more entries with the same key value)

Arithmetic exception, numeric overflow, or string truncation error can occur when a field is too small to contain the data.

Export / Import / Edit Information Table

SWISSLOG allows you to export / import and edit the information tables stored in the statistic database SWLSTAT.MDB.

Hint: Swisslog implements a function to update from internet some information tables in the Tools menu. New versions of Swisslog are being released periodically and include all information tables updated. So it's not neccesary to edit them manually. It's explained for advanced users.

To edit Information Tables proceed as follows:

Select Tools | Info-Tables from the main menu and then Export / Import / Edit. This brings up the Edit Information Table window.
Select the table you want to edit from the list of tables.
Edit the records you need.
If you click on the column title you can sort the list in ascending / descending order.
Just below the column title of every column there is a filter field. Just type anything and the view will show the matching records (case sensitive!!). In the image below the INF_IOTA table is selected, the view is sorted by IOTA in ascending order (note the small arrow) and there is a filter applied so that only IOTA with DXCC beggining with EA are listed:

With buttons in tollbar you can perform the following actions (from left to right):

Go to First record
Go to Prior record
Go to Next record
Go to Last record
Insert a new record
Delete a record
Edit a record
Confirm the edition of a record
Cancel edition
Refresh data to see the changes

As you can see the included editor offers good tools to edit information tables. However, you may also export the information table and edit it with an external editor (such as WordPad, included in Windows) and afterwards import again the information table. Use the method you prefer.

If you get an updated file of any information table (which keeps the same field structure and data format) you may import and update manually all the information table:

Press the button besides the From field and select the information table file to import. In the next dialog double click on the file name or select the file and press Open
Press the Import button.

On the contrary, if you have updated any information table and you wish to share it with other users, you can export it this way:

Select the information table you wish to export
Press the button besides the In field and select the folder where you want to export the information table.
Press the Export button. The information table (.TXT) and the table definition file (.LOT) will be exported in the selected folder.

Assign Information-Tables to Fields

Information-Tables can be associated (linked) to fields. If an Information-Table is associated with a field then the contents of the Information-Table can be displayed by:

Pressing Ctrl-I when the field is selected
Double-clicking on the field.
Pressing the button when the field is selected

The association (linking) of Information-Tables to fields is either defined in

The Statistic Definitions

or with the

Tools | Information-Tables | Assign Information Tables function.

The association in the Statistic Definition is the preferred way to associate Information Tables to fields. Please read Define Statistics for details. This method of association has priority over the association with the Assign Information Tables function.

If you can also directly associate information to a field with the Assign Information Tables function. If you select this function, the following dialog is displayed:

For each listed field you can select the information table which should be directly associated with it.

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