RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

[philosurfer]

Hi, all - new to code400 and to RDI. Whenever I hover the cursor on a field name in the source, I get the field size; does anyone know a way to also get the description? (I can't even find descriptions in the outline, even though that would be less desirable than by hovering over the field name.) Thanks for any help you can give.


Rich

[Scott Klement]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Haha, I love the name 'philosurfer'... very cool.

What do you mean by "field description"? As far as I know, when I code a field definition on a D-spec, I only define the name, data type, length and decimal positions, all of which show when I mouse over a field in RDi 9.

[philosurfer]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Sorry, Scott - I didn't add enough detail (but thanks for responding). When in an RPGLE source I guess I'm expecting RDI to be smart: hover the cursor over a field name and get more than just the size; at least the description. I'm not even getting description in the outline (which would be a PITA second step to find the description of a field used in the source) so I'm hoping it's just a setting somewhere; if not, how do we ask IBM to modernize this?

Rich

[Scott Klement]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Again... what do you mean by "description"?

[philosurfer]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Sorry - flipping back and forth between code and this; wasn't complete (again!). I'm in an RPG IV source I pulled down from the system. PF field on C-spec line; hover over it and only get the name and field size - have to go to 400 to get description ... that just doesn't make sense.

Rich

[tomliotta]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

But what is a "description"?

Are you writing about a column LABEL TEXT, i.e., from a SQL column definition? Or something else? Where is the description defined?

[philosurfer]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Apologies to all (long, long day/night). I'm looking for the field description from a physical file (or any field, even one that's program described and has a comment on its definition); I've used a green screen editing plug-in in the past that provided descriptions for any field - external or internal - that had one, so I'm assuming RDI's got the same capability; if so, I can't figure out how to turn that feature on.

[tomliotta]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

The only "descriptions" that I'd expect RDi to ever handle would be a SQL LABEL TEXT 'description' (or DDS TEXT) and possibly a column COMMENT IS. I haven't looked at RDi 9 to see what it might have available.

[philosurfer]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Thanks - so do you know a way to easily access the DDS TEXT description for a field in the source? If not, do you know of a guide for writing extensions to RDI? (This almost feels as though RDI isn't a "native port" - pardon the oxymoron.)

The only "descriptions" that I'd expect RDi to ever handle would be a SQL LABEL TEXT 'description' (or DDS TEXT) and possibly a column COMMENT IS. I haven't looked at RDi 9 to see what it might have available.

[Viking]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

I don't know that RDi can do that. However, I use Surveyor/400 from Linoma (you can get a free single-user license) and it has a plug-in for RDi. I like Surveyor and use it a lot. Anyway, that will at least make it so that you don't have to go to the green screen when looking up the properties of a file or field.

HTH.

[philosurfer]

Re: RDI 9 and field descriptions ... is there a way to do this?

Thanks - I've sent an inquiry to Linoma and will try it out.

I don't know that RDi can do that. However, I use Surveyor/400 from Linoma (you can get a free single-user license) and it has a plug-in for RDi. I like Surveyor and use it a lot. Anyway, that will at least make it so that you don't have to go to the green screen when looking up the properties of a file or field.

HTH.