FreeCEN Administration Tools—FCT

The FC-TOOLBOX

FC-TOOLBOX provides an interface to the FCTOOLS diagnostic and administration routines.

It is suggested that a desktop icon be created and its properties set for “Run - Maximised” and “Close on Exit”; alternatively the programme may be started by “RUN \FCTOOLS\FCT” or double clicking on the FCT.BAT program.

All routines are resident in the \FCTOOLS\ folder, and working files are established in sub-folders \FCTOOLS\FCTWKG\ and \FCTOOLS\WKG\.

Each unit has been constructed on a minimal “prompt and reply” basis to assist those who are unfamiliar with ‘command-line’ procedures, or for those who will use FCTOOLS only occasionally.

The first time it is run (only) it will ask you for the install hard drive letter (which drive you put \fctools on) and your floppy drive letter.

Then FC-TOOLBOX Main Menu is the gateway to the program functions.

Abridged instructions within each unit are mainly self-explanatory.

Units 1 & 2 can be operated reliably as preliminary functions by persons who might claim “no special skills” Persons attempting any advanced functions will need to be properly aware of census matters as relevant to FreeCEN, and confident and competent to undertake potentially complex work. FULL Technical Specifications and Instructions are accessed through Unit 8 “HOWTO”.

“MINIMAL SKILLS” OPERATIONS

All units of FC-TOOLBOX explain the results achievable and it is always possible to Quit routines before a commitment has been made.

• 1 QCHK — Basic file examination. We are finding that, for various reasons (some operator-induced and some software-induced), FreeCEN files may contain errors or corruptions that can interfere with subsequent FreeCEN processing. It therefore becomes necessary that all co-ordinators shall test every file received from any volunteer.

  QCHK does not alter files in any way but checks and reports on any errors found within the data files. Hopefully there will normally not be any errors but, if found, they MUST BE FIXED before that census piece is further processed. (Co-ordinators should accept responsibility for running QCHK on FreeCEN files, but may choose to delegate the “fixing” to a suitable reliable volunteer.)

  NOTE: QCHK is designed to be used with genuine IN-CENS ZIP files and expects to find standard contents with unchanged names. Use on any other files at your peril.

• 2 CSV2DAT — Conversion: Spreadsheet to FreeCEN. In its “no-skills” mode this unit will convert .CSV data files (prepared by volunteers using SS-CENS) into a format acceptable as inpout to the FreeCEN checking routines. An error-report is produced and any errors should be fixed by the co-ordinator or a deputised volunteer before further processing. Even in this "NO-SKILLS" mode, it would be worth skimming the CSV2DAT documentation as it tells you what file names are allowed etc.
• 4 FIXPARMS — While primarily designed for salvage of work-in-progress, this unit enables credit to be recorded on file to a transcriber who has used SS-CENS data entry. This can be achieved by editing any relevant county file (ctyPARMS.DAT) on a “prompt and reply” basis. See the FIXPARMS documentation for a an overview of what to expect.
• 5 ZIPIT — Rebuild FreeCEN files for checker input. The first-stage unit of ZIPIT defines the files which must be assembled for checker input, and provides prompts to build the necessary .ZIP file.
• 6 VALCONV — No longer distributed, contact the project if this function is required.

Full tutorial—This is intended to be printed.

ADVANCED REMEDIAL WORK

Needs skills and competence. An understanding of the “Detailed Specifications and Instructions” is necessary to succeed with advanced applications of FC-TOOLBOX.

To avoid confusions only one “piece” should be undergoing editing at a given time, and the Working Folder “CLEAN”ed after work is completed. QCHK may be safely run at any time without interfering with editing work as it uses a separate self-clearing working folder.

• WARNING — Each unit bears a warning message concerning the important safety of original data and disks. Since each routine must eventually write back to a FreeCEN Disk, it is STRONGLY URGED that users should always use a copy data disk to familiarise with the action of particular routines. The “master” disk can be substituted for the final creation of the necessary .ZIP file output.
• DATA IMPORT — FC-TOOLBOX routines can accept an input from a floppy disk, or the file must already be present in the \FCTOOLS\FCTWKG\ working folder (possibly as the result of earlier workings). Each unit is capable of performing appropriate extraction from zipped files.
• FILE EDITING — All file editing is conducted on file copies held in the working folder \FCTOOLS\FCTWKG\.
• Attention!! — The FreeCEN files from checking (CHECK-CENS) are always named as file-type “.CHE”. To avoid confusion between the original and edited versions, FC-TOOLBOX rebuilds these files as type “.VAL”. ZIPIT will take care of renaming such rebuilt files to the required “.CHE” before building a zip-file. “Command-line” users MUST ENSURE that the correct file-type identifications are applied when rebuilding output files. Originally, validated files from VAL-CENS also generated “.CHE” files. These must be converted to the new format “.VLD” files using option 6—VALCONV prior to any other processing. The output files from the new VALD-REV will not need converting.
• WORKING — A typical work cycle, using a transcription file as example, might include:
  1. Use DAT2CSV to import the FreeCEN .ZIP file, examine the resulting .DAT file while converting it to .CSV format, and create appropriate error reports. See DAT2CSV documentation for further details.
  2. Use a spreadsheet program to edit the .CSV file to eliminate any errors.
  3. Use CSV2DAT to rebuild the FreeCEN file. A new error report will be produced. See CSV2DAT documentation for further details.
  4. Any errors need to be corrected by repeating steps 2 & 3 as necessary.
  5. FIXPARMS will be used on few occasions. See FIXPARMS documentation for further details.
  6. Rebuild the necessary .ZIP file to suit subsequent FreeCEN processing requirements.
• FILE OUTPUT — The output .ZIP file must be created onto the original floppy disk.

  Keep archive copies of all files involved with FCTOOLS use in case some misfortune happens to the “FreeCEN Floppy”.

  The FC-TOOLBOX concept is that original .ZIP files, as received from volunteers, are renamed rather than overwritten and a new .ZIP file is created as appropriate.

  Thus a “full set” of rebuilt files could comprise:

  • “TRAN1234.ZZZ”, being the original .ZIP file received from the transcriber;
  • renamed and replaced after rebuilding by “TRAN1234.ZIP”;
  • “CHEK1234.ZZC”, the original .ZIP file from the checker;
  • renamed and replaced by “CHEK1243.ZIP”;
  • “VALD1234.ZZV”, the original validated .ZIP file;
  • renamed and replaced by “VALD1234.ZIP”;
  where “TRAN” and “CHEK” represent the worker's Code Letters. All validated zip-files start “VALD”… and, yes, even six files should normally fit on a single 1.44M Floppy disk to provide a complete history for the census “piece”.

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