Systems Architects and Engineers specialising in the effective use of Systems Architecture, Methods and Tools since 1982

The Evaluation Version

When you use the evaluation version the limited demonstration project is immediately available. Other projects can be started but the limited life of the evaluation version means that these may be terminated before completion. If you use the demonstration project for capture of real data which you later wish to use in a full size schema, the test project can readily be copied using the project transfer facility. See the projects controller form to illustrate this.

The Fully Authorised Version

The complete version of Strategy SAVIŽ allows you an unlimited number of projects, defined as necessary. On entry, the defaults are the last user id and the last project used. To change your User ID, enter the new value in the User field. It will be utilised as soon as you move to the projects table or use the Begin button. (User Identities are for recording purposes in Strategy SAVIŽ and are not checked. However, they appear on all updates of the details of each project and should be used consistently.) To choose a project different from the default, click any of its fields in the Projects table. To initiate a new project, move to the first empty record in the Projects Table and give it a Project Name and Project Path.

When you click the Begin button to enter a new project, its necessary tables will be created in the directory indicated by the Project Path. If necessary, a new directory will be created. Now go to the Main Menu by clicking the Begin button.

Locking

The standard version supports multi user access and controls the access rights given to the current users at any time. This is achieved by locking the set of tables each user wishes to use at any time and copying them to his local environment. When you finish using your current tables by returning to the Main Menu, the main copies of the tables are updated and unlocked and the local versions are removed. You may abort updating through a dialogue which is presented on return to the menu. Note that if you abort the update process, the local tables will not be deleted and you may carry out the update the next time you enter the project. This allows you to reserve your updates in case of any doubt about their validity, to check off line and to action them later. If the link between the central database and the local user is broken during table manipulation, you may continue to use the local versions but return is inhibited until either the link is restored or you decide to abort the session. This is controlled through another simple dialogue. The sets of locked tables are:

Sphere The single Sphere Table
Sphere The single Sphere Table plus the two Diagram Tables
Sphere The single Sphere Table plus the two Flow Tables
Relations Manipulation The two Sphere Tables and the joining Relations Table
Schema Definition All current Sphere Tables and all current Relations Tables
Project Transfer All current Sphere Tables and all current Relations Tables in the two projects
Matrix Manipulation The two Sphere Tables and the joining Relations Table
Matrix Import The two Sphere Tables and the joining Relations Table

Although locking of the relation tables is not required by the system it is carried out to protect users who may wish to use Paradox for Windows to operate directly on the tables. Within the system there are no functions which operate on relations tables without also using the base sphere tables.

Resilience

If a session is interrupted while local tables are in use or if you have aborted the updating of the project tables, when you next start the system it will detect that the local tables have not been uploaded and will give you the options of performing the upload or emptying the local tables. Your choice will depend on whether another user has updated the same tables since your aborted session.