Augmenting the COBOL File Definition in the FD Form

After you have imported the file definitions into the Relativity catalog, you are ready to use the Catalog Explorer to augment the FD in preparation for creating the table definitions.

As the import process is not capable of providing all the information regarding the meaning and logical structure of the COBOL file definitions, you must manually provide these yourself.

Displaying Data Item Properties
Display detailed information about each data item in the FD form.
Defining Default Column Names
Use the Edit Default Column Names tool to define column names that are compatible with SQL naming standards. During the import process, Relativity also pre-emptively removes any common prefixes applied to the data names in an attempt to maintain compatibility.
Redefining Data Items
Explicitly redefine data items to more accurately reflect what the data represents.
Defining Conditions
Condition variables are data items in your file definitions that contain 88-level conditions. The conditions are used within record types, to determine the columns that should be included in a table. If your imported FD does not already contain such items, you must define them manually.
Defining Record Types
Record types are subsets of a complete file definition, which are useful when the FD describes a data file that contains different types of records. Use record types to only include the data items pertaining to a particular type of record, filtering out the other items.
Defining Record Type Filters
Define the filters that utilize the created record types. These filters are specified as logical expressions composed of factors (containing the 88-level condition-names) and the logical operators NOT, AND, and OR.
Defining Default Values
Define default values used in write operations if an item is not represented by a column in an SQL INSERT statement. The value will be limited to the range of values that is valid for the underlying COBOL data type.
Defining Custom Data Types
Define a common set of column characteristics that can be applied to one or more columns, for any tables in your catalog.
Specifying Treatment of the OCCURS Clause
Use the available techniques for handling the mapping of repeating data items in COBOL to normalized relational tables.
Using Functions and Transforms
Define both internal functions and transforms to act on COBOL data items.
Defining Item Sets
Define items sets, which are composed of two or more data items in a COBOL record that contain identical information, but that have been identified as a set of redundant data items.
Defining Null Information
Define the relationship between COBOL data-item values and the SQL NULL value.
Specifying Comments
Specify comments for data items displayed in the FD form. Tables can also inherit the comments within an FD.
Filtering File Definitions
You can apply a filter to the data items currently displaying in the FD. Populate the Filter items text box with the full or partial name from the COBOL Name column to apply the filter; clear any text from the Filter items text box to remove the filter.
Exporting File Definitions
You can export the file definition displayed in the FD form to a COBOL source file suitable for use by a COPY statement in a COBOL program.

Parent topic: Micro Focus Relativity Designer for Windows