Many information system applications are centred around different kinds of forms and other support for entering data, and different ways of viewing and browsing the data in the system. These kinds of applications are the most straightforward for the LINCKS system.
There are two basic design tasks in building such an application in LINCKS. The first is to determine how the application data should be organised in the database (with particular consideration given to sharing of data). The second is to determine the various views and forms that will be needed for browsing existing data and entering new data.
Once these tasks are done the application builder simply creates Generic Presentation Descriptors (GPD's) in accordance with these design decisions and enters the application data. Information on how to create GPD's can be found in chapter 7 of the manual. If there is a lot of data to be entered which already exists in electronic form it is often easiest to write a small program to enter this data into the database. It may also be possible to use the program t2lincks for this purpose.