AFP Upload: How to get a report manager to assign multiple copies
ITEM: RTA000147070
Q:
ABSTRACT: How to get a report manager to assign multiple copies to
files sent to MVS by AFP Upload for AIX.
SEARCH ARG: afp upload jes
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT
PSF/AIX
..
Our customer is developing an application which will output multiple
reports totaling about 10,000 pages per day. This be on an NT platform
and will be PCL output. They wish to print these on the MVS-attached
3900s. We are recommending PSF/AIX to transform and AFP Upload to
transfer the AFPDS file to the MVS system.
Some of these reports will have multiple copies. Rather than transfer
and transform the same file multiple times, they'd like to have their
report manager software automatically assign the number of copies to
the print file in JES. This will depend on unique and predictable
identification of the files. What do these files look like once they
get to JES? I understand from reading other items that all jobs will
have the same user ID. Are there any other characteristics that might
be used for the Report Manager to assign the multiple copies?
A:
The primary responder for this topic is travelling, but let me include
a bit of information in her absence, and then leave open for her return.
Paraphrase from the AFP Upload Configuration Guide (TCP/IP page 9):
The AIX Client sends MO:DCA-P data which the server program places
in a SYSOUT data set. ...the host server program associates
attributes passed by the AIX client with the SYSOUT data set. These
attributes are similar to JCL OUTPUT statement parameters. "COPIES"
IS included in that list of attributes.
A:
From the primary topic responder:
I'm travelling without access to books, so I may not be able to finish
up this question until I get back to the office and check my books and
perhaps with Boulder. However, I do have some interim comments and
concerns.
1) You said that you customer didn't want to transfer and transform
the files multiple times. That would not happen: AFP Upload (as the
name implies) only uploads AFPDS. Thus the PCL must be transformed to
AFPDS on the RS/6000, and the resulting AFPDS is then uploaded along
with the COPIES parameter, which is passed to JES and PSF/MVS. Since
they are not uploaded as three different datasets, I'm not aware of a
way to have each copy have some unique identifying characteristic that
the report program could key on, but I would like to verify this when
I return to Boulder.
2) The results of the pcl2afp transform is full page image, and can be
large, particularly if your printer doesn't support compressed image.
So to even consider this, you would need to ensure that your host
printer accepts compressed image. Depending on the age of your 3900s,
that may mean the addition of AFIG and DPE. Even then, I can't
guarantee that the jobs would print at rated speed. I'm not saying
that they definitely wouldn't print at rated speed, but I can't promise
that they would. The load on their network should also be considered.
3) PCL was designed for 300-pel printers, and even though you can
tell pcl2afp to produce 240-pel output, the transform algorithm will
have to trim some pels to go from 300- to 240-pel. In other words,
you should verify that the resulting output would be of sufficient
quality to satisfy your customer. Some customers are satisfied, others
are not -- it depends on their requirements and sometimes on the types
of fonts that are required.
I'll check on this further when I get back to the office. If you
need an answer sooner, please update this item and I'll work with my
backup to get this answered. Leaving open for now.
A:
I just left you a phonemail with some thoughts, and as I mentioned,
feel free to call me later this week to discuss. Here are some of the
possibilities I thought of.
The first thing I would find out is what different pieces of information
can the host report management software key on? For example, AFP Upload
has the capability of passing up parameters that get converted to JES
distribution parameters, like ROOM, DISTRIBUTION, ADDRESS (4 different
fields), BUILDING, DEPARTMENT, etc. If the report package on the host
can key on parameters like that in order to correctly route the
different copies of the job, then the next step is figure out how to
pass the correct information upwards from AIX and/or NT. (You would
also need to know if we have enough fields to cover the entire list of
possible recipients.)
If the job were originating on AIX, then you can specify the parameters
I mentioned above on the AIX enq command with the -o flag. For example
(all as a single command):
enq -Pprtup -odatatype=pcl -oaddress1="Your Co." -oaddress2="Your Name"
-oaddress3="Your St." -obuilding=004 -ocopies=3 -odepartment=380
-oformdef=F100S -oroom=2BK filename.pcl
Since the job originates on Windows NT, and since the lpr command in
Windows NT doesn't allow you to pass optional parameters, it's more
challenging.
One approach would be if they had a fairly constant set of users who
get specific reports, then you could hardcode the "distribution" values
on the AFP Upload queue. For example, if each week they produce
Accounting Report A and it always goes to Sue, Harry, and Bill, you
could have one AFP Upload queue called AcctA hardcoded with
address1=Sue, address2=Harry, and address3=Bill. However, if they have
much variety, this could be quickly become unwieldy.
Another approach would be to write the PCL output to a file that is
NFS mounted to AIX, then issue the enq command from AIX against that
file with all the necessary parameters.
Another approach would require some programming, but you could write
a customized backend program for an AIX queue that would receive the
file from the NT and then use a lookup table to equate the jobname or
filename (something consistent) with a list of the people to whom that
output needs to be distributed. This backend program would use this
information to build the enq command with the right flags.
Or (I know this can be done for flat ASCII data, not so sure for PCL),
but if the names of the people who need to receive the distribution are
included at the top of the file, it might be possible for a customized
backend program to open the file, look for the names in a certain
location, and then build the enq command with the right flags based on
information in that file.
As I mentioned above, whether or not any of these will work depends on
what information the host report distribution package can work with.
But perhaps one or more of these suggestions might trigger some ideas.
I'm going to close this for now, but if you have additional questions,
please don't hesitate to reopen it. If I come up with something else,
I will update it.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
psf/aix psf/6000 psf aix mvs psf/mvs afp upload pcl pcl2afp report
management distribution copies infoprint
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000147070 ITEM: RTA000147070
Dated: 03/1999 Category: XPSF6000
This HTML file was generated 99/06/24~12:43:36
Comments or suggestions?
Contact us