Once the datasets and indexes have been written to disk you must declare the files in order to use them in the example ECL code in the rest of the articles. These declarations are contained in the DeclareData.ECL file. To make them available to the rest of the example code you simply need to IMPORT it. Therefore, at the beginning of each example you will find this line of code:

IMPORT $;

This IMPORTs all the files in the ProgrammersGuide folder (including the DeclareData MODULE structure definition). Referencing anything from DeclareData is done by prepending $.DeclareData to the name of the EXPORT definition you need to use, like this:

MyFile := $.DeclareData.Person.File;  //rename $DeclareData.Person.File to MyFile to make 
                                      //subsequent code simpler

Here is some of the code contained in the DeclareData.ECL file:

EXPORT DeclareData := MODULE

  EXPORT Layout_Person := RECORD
    UNSIGNED3 PersonID;
    STRING15  FirstName;
    STRING25  LastName;
    STRING1   MiddleInitial;
    STRING1   Gender;
    STRING42  Street;
    STRING20  City;
    STRING2   State;
    STRING5   Zip;
  END;

  EXPORT Layout_Accounts := RECORD
    STRING20   Account;
    STRING8    OpenDate;
    STRING2    IndustryCode;
    STRING1    AcctType;
    STRING1    AcctRate;
    UNSIGNED1  Code1;
    UNSIGNED1  Code2;
    UNSIGNED4  HighCredit;
    UNSIGNED4  Balance;
  END;

  EXPORT Layout_Accounts_Link := RECORD
    UNSIGNED3 PersonID;
    Layout_Accounts;
  END;

  SHARED Layout_Combined := RECORD,MAXLENGTH(1000)
    Layout_Person;
    DATASET(Layout_Accounts) Accounts;
  END;

  EXPORT Person := MODULE
    EXPORT File     := DATASET('~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::People',Layout_Person, THOR);
    EXPORT FilePlus := DATASET('~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::People',
                               {Layout_Person,UNSIGNED8 RecPos{virtual(fileposition)}}, THOR);
  END;                                        
  EXPORT Accounts := DATASET('~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::Accounts',
                             {Layout_Accounts_Link,
                              UNSIGNED8 RecPos{virtual(fileposition)}}, 
                             THOR);
  EXPORT PersonAccounts:=   DATASET('~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::PeopleAccts',
                                    {Layout_Combined,
                                     UNSIGNED8 RecPos{virtual(fileposition)}}, 
                                     THOR);

  EXPORT IDX_Person_PersonID := 
  INDEX(Person,
        {PersonID,RecPos},
        '~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::KEYS::People.PersonID');

  EXPORT IDX_Accounts_PersonID := 
  INDEX(Accounts,
        {PersonID,RecPos},
        '~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::KEYS::Accounts.PersonID');

  EXPORT IDX_PersonAccounts_PersonID := 
  INDEX(PersonAccounts,
        {PersonID,RecPos},
        '~PROGGUIDE::EXAMPLEDATA::KEYS::PeopleAccts.PersonID');

END;

By using a MODULE structure as a container, all the DATASET and INDEX declarations are in a single attribute editor window. This makes maintenance and update simple while allowing complete access to them all.