It's important to know what areas are safe to work in. Here's a quick rundown of where you can store your scripts and data.
Websites and Macros
When you create a new website from the "Web -> New Website..." menu, it gets created in root.websites. This is where all your websites should go.
If you start to write macros to use in your webpages, you can put them in one of two places. If the macro is specific just for that site, you can keep it in a subtable of your website called #tools. (This table is automatically created when you make a new website.)
You can also keep more general macros in user.html.macros.
Note that macros are handled hierarchically. When Frontier finds a macro on your web page, it first checks your local #tools table, then user.html.macros, and then finally the built-in macros, which are kept at html.data.standardmacros.
Scripts and Data
The workspace table is a good place for miscellaneous things that don't seem to fit elsewhere. It's a good workshop type area for building scripts. But you can keep all kinds of information here. I have a couple to-do lists here, as well as outlines for current projects.
I also develop scripts in the workspace area.
The Personal Suite
I develop scripts in the workspace table, but eventually, if I find the script useful enough to keep, I add it to my personal suite. Usually suites are groups of scripts that act as a min-application. But I'm going to put my personal scripts and data into the suites table.
Why in the suites table? Because the suites table is a "blessed" table--that is, you can refer to objects in the suites table without having to type 'suites.' before it. Frontier automatically checks here (among other places) for addresses it doesn't find at the root level of the database. We'll look at this in more detail on the next page.
In my personal suite I keep menu commands that I've customized, utility scripts, and note to remind me of the changes I've made. This is something that you may not do right away, but it's a good example of one of the many potential uses for Frontier's database.
Here's a look at what I have in my personal suite.
| To make a personal suite: Choose "Main -> Suites -> New Suite..." from the menu bar. You'll be prompted to enter a name for your suite. I recommend using your initials, although it can really be whatever you want.
You can organize your personal suite however you want; I have subtables called 'utils', 'commands', and 'notes'. Utilities contain scripts I use to maintain my desktop and files--some of those scripts run nightly. Commands are scripts that I've attached to my Custom menu bar. And notes are just personal scribbles and outlines. One outline I recommend everyone make is something called "Modification Notes"-- an outline to keep track of how you've changed Frontier to make it work better for you. |
Next, a little word about database names and addresses.
Page 1: Frontier's Database Defined
Page 2: The Advantages of Frontier's Database
Page 3: What's in the root?
Page 4: Navigating the Root
Page 5: Where do I keep my stuff?
Page 6: Database Names and Addresses
Page 7: Database Care and Feeding
Page 8: Object Database Tech Notes
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