Studio/Building Applications
Lab: Building Applications
Chapter 1 Basics
Introduction
This lab covers the various steps taken to build a typical application in J. The final application can be run directly from a desktop shortcut.
The lab is self-contained. However, it uses several facilities such as the Form Editor, Plot, and Project Manager for which there are separate labs or help files, and which are therefore not described in this lab.
The application scripts will be stored in user directory:
user\projects\first
If you are re-running this lab, you may wish to delete any scripts previously created in this directory.
Application
The application will create a Windows form to read and plot a data file:
system\examples\data\sales.dat
To view this file, you can use the file and view utilities that are included with J.
The next section uses fview to view the file. Press Esc to close the viewer.
load 'files jview'
fview jpath '~system\examples\data\sales.dat'
The file is a table of sales data. Each row contains a name, followed by 12 months sales results.
The application will be a Windows form that lists the names, and displays a barchart of the sales results for the currently selected name.
Reading the data
First, read the file into the J session, and separate the names from the sales data.
It will be convenient to read the file as a matrix. The next section does so, assigning the result to DAT.
The result is a character matrix with 50 rows.
DAT=: 'm' fread jpath '~system\examples\data\sales.dat' $DAT 50 132
To split off the names, find the index of the first column that is entirely blank.
Use this to select the names; then drop off the names to get the sales.
ndx=: 1 i.~ *./ ' ' = DAT
NAMES=: ndx {."1 DAT
SALES=: ndx }."1 DAT
The names data is a character matrix. Use list to view the matrix across the page.
list NAMES SYMONS DONOHOE MACDONALD KELLY ROBERTSON WEESE GENEREAUX YATES BILOKRELY MILLS KOEBEL CLARKE WELLER WALLIS KELLER GEROW WILLIAMS MILLER TWA MCCLINTOCK FOSTER HILL BLAMIRE CHARBONNEAU KEATING TERRY GORDON MCBRIDE FOBEAR BRADY DENNY POST VANDERWILP DOWNS NEWTON GRIFFITHS DILWORTH ALGAR PILLING POWER ANDREWS DUTHIE DINGEE GLANCEY TAYLOR GREEN BUGG PENNELL LOWE DAWE
The sales data is still character, and should be converted to numeric.
Use ". (do) to convert to numeric. The result should have 12 columns.
NSALES=: 0 ". SALES $NSALES 50 12
Plot
Now let us plot one of the sales results.
The next section loads the plot package, and draws a barchart of row 5 of the sales data.
Resize the plot window if necessary, then press Esc to close it.
load 'plot'
'bar' plot 5 { NSALES
Add the name of the salesman to the plot.
name=: 5 { NAMES
('bar;title ',name) plot 5 { NSALES
Close the plot window before continuing with the lab.
Chapter 2 Scripts
New Script
Now lets create a script with this code, plus a verb to draw the plot for a given row.
The next section creates the script.
require 'files plot'
DAT=: 'm' fread jpath '~system\examples\data\sales.dat'
ndx=: 1 i.~ *./ ' ' = DAT
NAMES=: ndx {."1 DAT
SALES=: ndx }."1 DAT
NSALES=: 0 ". SALES
showsales=: 3 : 0
name=. y { NAMES
data=. y { NSALES
('bar;title ',name) plot data
)
Click on the script window to give it focus, then use the File|Save As menu item to save it in the following file in your user directory:
user\projects\first\defs.ijs
You may have to create the "first" subdirectory.
To load the script, click on it to give it focus, then select menu item Run|Window, or press Ctrl+W.
Once the script is loaded, you can experiment with the showsales verb, for example, in the ijx window, try:
showsales 10
showsales 15
load 'd:\math\j602-user\projects\first\defs.ijs' showsales 15
Before continuing, close the defs.ijs script window, and the plot window.
Form
The next step is to create a form which has a listbox to show the names, and an isigraph control to show the plot.
The next section creates such a form (you would normally use the Form Editor to do so).
WP=: 0 : 0
pc wp;pn "Sales for Year";
xywh 159 3 34 12;cc cancel button leftmove rightmove;cn "Close";
xywh 5 10 40 9;cc label static;cn "Names:";
xywh 4 19 60 98;cc names listbox ws_vscroll rightscale bottommove;
xywh 67 19 126 98;cc g isigraph ws_border leftscale rightmove bottommove;
pas 4 4;pcenter;
rem form end;
)
wp_run=: 3 : 0
wd WP
wd 'set names ',,NAMES,.LF
a=: conew 'jzplot'
PForm__a=: 'wp'
PFormhwnd__a=: wd 'qhwndp'
PId__a=: 'g'
wd 'pshow'
)
wp_cancel_button=: wp_close=: wd bind 'pclose'
wp_g_size=: 3 : 'psize__a 0'
wp_names_select=: 3 : 0
index=. ".names_select
name=. index { NAMES
data=. index { NSALES
('bar;title ',name) plot__a data
)
wp_run''
Click on the script window to give it focus, then use File|Save As to save the script as file:
user\projects\first\form.ijs
Then close the script window.
Scripts
At this stage, there are two scripts containing the code for the system. If you were loading them from scratch, you could run this system by entering:
load '~user\projects\first\defs.ijs'
load '~user\projects\first\form.ijs'
Try running these commands now. The form should load. Select one of the names to display the barchart.
Ensure the form is working before continuing with the lab.
load '~user\projects\first\defs.ijs' load '~user\projects\first\form.ijs'
Chapter 3 Project Manager
First Project
We now create a project file for the application.
1. Press Ctrl+B to bring up Project Manager.
2. Run menu File|New and create a new project file in your user directory:
user\projects\first\first.ijp
3. Click the Add button and add in the two scripts: defs.ijs and form.ijs. Several more scripts will appear in the Files list.
4. Press Close to close Project Manager, saving changes.
Now press Ctrl+B to reload Project Manager. It should show the "first" project.
Requires
The application requires the library scripts "files" and "plot", plus supporting scripts (these are the extra scripts seen in the Files list). It is best to let Project Manager take care of these requires. To do so:
1. Open the "defs" script, and remove the first line with the require statement. Close and save the script.
2. In Project Manager, select the Library tab, then move "files" and "plot" to the Selected window. If one or both is already selected but with a (d) tag (meaning development only) use the Options|Mark as Dev Only menu item to switch off the (d) tag.
NB. require 'files plot'
If you now switch back to the Source tab, and run menu File|Refresh Tabs, the Files list should now show only defs and form.
File build
Now create a single file containing the application, as follows:
1. Select the Project tab.
2. Use the Add button to add a Target file in your user directory of:
user\projects\first\run.ijs
3. click Build to build the file.
Next open the run.ijs file in the Project tab.
Click on the run.ijs script window, and select menu Run|Window or press Ctrl+W to run the application.
load 'd:\math\j602-user\projects\first\run.ijs'
Before continuing with the lab, close down the run.ijs script window.
Chapter 4 Standalone Application
The next step creates a standalone application that includes all required files.
In Project Manager, run Project|Build Options...
In the Include Files box, select all three Includes, i.e. Project source, Project libraries, Standard libraries.
Click Build Now to build the file, then close the Build Options dialog.
Try viewing the target file, run.ijs. This time the file may be too large to be viewed by the Windows editor, though you can view it in Notepad or other external editor.
However, you can load it into J, as in the next Section.
load '~user\projects\first\run.ijs'
Now create a new J shortcut in the Desktop (you may find it easiest to copy the existing J shortcut), and enter a Target line as below.
The target consists of the path to the J executable, followed by a parameter of the path to the run script.
Use the correct pathnames. If either path has a blank in the name, surround the path with double quotes.
On Windows, this will be something like:
c:\j\j.exe user\projects\first\run.ijs
On Linux/Mac, the executable will be something like:
/home/dave/j/bin/jwd
and the script file, like:
/home/dave/user/projects/first/run.ijs
Click the shortcut to load J and run the file.
A new J session should start with the form displayed. Click on the form to give it focus and try it out.
Ensure the form is working before continuing with the lab.
Next, change the command line in your new shortcut to load J without a session. Again, use the correct pathnames:
c:\j\j.exe -jijx user\projects\first\run.ijs
Click the shortcut to load J and run the file.
Congratulations - you have completed your first J application.
All the scripts defining this application are in the directory user\projects\first. You may find it instructive to browse through this directory and review the files that were created.
Note that the application reads data from a file in the J directories. If you want to try setting up the application outside those directories, you must either copy that file, or define another way of reading the data.
End of lab
See Also