hide random home http://www.wam.umd.edu/~walrus/KF-Info.html (Amiga Plus Extra No. 5/97, 05/1997)

Description of KingFisher

KingFisher is a special purpose client-server database application for the Amiga computer. The role of the server is providing access to multiple databases to which one or more clients attach to provide an actual user interface to these databases.

  1. Features and Descriptions
    1. The Interface (with screen shot)
    2. Searching
    3. Presentation Layout
    4. Product-Info Support
    5. Clipboard Support
    6. Client-Server Technology

  2. System requirements for KingFisher
  3. Some who use KingFisher

  4. Why Use KingFisher
  5. Registering KingFisher

Features and Descriptions

The Interface

Aside from the KFServer (KingFisher Database Server), the KingFisher package supplies two client applications: a GUI client based on the standard GadTools interface library, and one supplying an ARexx interface to help other applications interface with the server.
[Main window;434x532;16K] Interactive Graphic User Interface (GUI)
The resizable GadTools interface honors your proportional system font (or any proportional, scaled, or bitmapped font of your choosing.) The window can be opened on the default public or on any custom screen for which there is an entry in the the system's Display Database. This includes CyberGraphX, Picasso II, EGS, etc. support. The GUI elements adjust to the screen's aspect ratio to present you with a pleasing (non-stretched / non-flattened) GUI regardless if you choose to operate KingFisher on a "wide" 640×200 or 1:1 aspect 1024×768 display.

Script-based ARexx Interface
Rexxfisher, the ARexx interface to the server, offers the same powerful searches (see below) and data layout operations (see below) as what KingFisher provides through the GUI. RexxFisher's small size makes it the ideal interface for multi-user access to the databases on BBSs.

Searching

[Search Expr;311x107;4K] KingFisher's primary purpose is locating programs, images, sounds, tools, utilities, demonstration packages, etc. based mostly on keywords in their descriptive records:
Powerful Search Expressions
KingFisher's search expressions permit you to restrict keyword matches to specific fields in the descriptive records (such as searching only the author, requirements, or fullname fields) and construct expressions with any combination of logical and, or, and xor:

author$sidewinder & description$(module|music|sound)

AmigaOS regular expressions are also supported, and a tutorial (part of the extensive online AmigaGuide® documentation) will teach you just how to use these search expressions to their best effect.
Expression History
KingFisher maintains as many as the last 1000 used expressions in a list from which you can re-use them without the need to re-type them.
Interactive vs. Collective Search
[Search Progress;192x54;1K] Interactive searches stop as soon as a match is found. Continuing the search is as easy as pressing the search button again.
[Caught fish;281x85;2K] Collective searches gather all matching records into a Search Set which provides instant access to any matching item in the database. Search Sets can be saved to disk and re-loaded to avoid the need to perform frequently made searches over and over again. Search Sets remember which database they belong to and will re-select the database that was in use when they were saved.
Search Masks
[Search Masks;233x131;3K] Search masks provide a means to search rapidly for broad categories of records or exclude such categories from a search. Each record has a set of flags that specifies if it is marked for future examination (Marked), has been downloaded already (Owned), is temporarily hidden (Hidden), is a duplicate of another (Twin), or has been deleted (Deleted.) Eight other flags may be defined for any other purpose.
Version Links
A feature unique to KingFisher is its use of Version Links: Each record in the database is linked to a similar record such that you can move effortlessly to a previous or later version of the currently displayed record. Version Links are constructed in version-order.

Presentation Layout

KingFisher's display of database records is configurable through external Format Files. These files are automatically hotlinked by KingFisher to allow you to modify them with an editor program of your choice and have KingFisher reflect the changes instantly.

The format of printed output and exported data is for each defined in the same way, independently, and each database is assigned its own combination of formatting files.

Product-Info Support

Databases are a text-based superset of the Product-Info¹ standard, which makes it possible to edit the files with your favorite text editor if the files should get damaged in any way, then reconstruct the index files and the Version Links (see above.)

Databases can be split at the record-level across an arbitrary number of disk volumes that will be mounted on demand. This permits systems with limited disk space to store huge databases on numerous floppy disks or other removable media.

Standard Product-Info¹ files for any package can be viewed directly from within KingFisher's GUI, independently of an open database.

The displayed Product-Info¹ file is automatically hotlinked so that changes made to it from within your favorite editor are immediately reflected by KingFisher.
__________
¹ Product-Info files are shipped with many Amiga applications to provide a standardized method of describing various important aspects of a program. KingFisher's documentation includes a complete description of the Product-Info Specification v8.

Clipboard Support

One or more records can be copied to the clipboard, and KingFisher can append to the current database all records found in the clipboard. This enables cut-and-paste operations of database information to email, news, word processing, and other applications, as well as permitting you to transfer data between databases.

Client-Server Technology

[Open Database;243x54;1K] This powerful database access technology allows KingFisher to serve databases to multiple users and multiple copies of KingFisher running simultaneously, thereby enhancing the safety of your databases: all access goes through a single server that determines if an operation on a database is permissible (example: two simultaneous attempts to add data to a single database could have disastrous results if such arbitration did not take place.)

The client-server mechanism is implemented to function transparently (does not hinder single-user operation in any way) and becomes increasingly valuable when multiple copies of KingFisher are started (one to browse, another to perform lengthy searches) and in true multi-user environments, such as BBSs.

The server interface is public. You may download the KingFisher Developer Kit to create database clients of your own.

System Requirements

NOTE: The <table> constructs below are HTML 2 friendly and will produce quite functional displays with browsers that do not support them!
CPU
68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, or 68040. The 68060 has not been tested, but should work fine. Reports pro or con are welcome!
KingFisher will be compiled for the PowerPC when a PowerAmiga becomes available (see here for an exciting announcement on this subject by Phase 5 Digital Products in Germany.)
Operating System
AmigaOS 2.04 (V37) or later.
AmigaOS 2.1 (V38) required for ScreenMode requester and other enhanced features.
AmigaOS 3.0 or 3.1 (V39 or V40) required for replacement of interface elements (buttons in the GUI) due to the use of DataTypes.
Diskspace
The following table provides an approximation of the amount of diskspace required when installing KingFisher. The installation software will perform exact computations based on the selected components and provide the appropriate feedback: 
       Component   KBytes
    
        Software      250
    
   Documentation      300
    
        Database     2500
    
   Miscellaneous      100

Operating RAM
The KFServer is always started. Depending on configuration, it will load index files into memory for faster access. The size of these index files will need to be added to the basic operating memory. RexxFisher is specifically designed so that a BBS can run many copies of it without causing memory requirements to baloon. 
         Program   KBytes
    
        KFServer      50+
    
KingFisher (GUI)      300
    
      RexxFisher       35

Who Uses KingFisher?

Some of those who make use of KingFisher in one capacity or another are the following. If you have a web site, a BBS, or other service that uses KingFisher then email me at <walrus@wam.umd.edu> and I'll add your URL here:

Why Use KingFisher?

If you answer "yes" to any of the following questions, you could greatly benefit from using KingFisher: Why not grab the latest version from the download page and give it a try? The program installs cleanly with the standard Installer and can be removed (if you really don't want to keep it) simply by dragging the whole drawer into the trashcan. You have nothing to lose!

The program is shareware: try it for free, pay if you wish to continue using it. The price is $20(US) or DM30. Support your shareware authors. If you don't, who will?

Here is how to register

(Back) to the KingFisher home page
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