PSF/AIX & AFP Upload: Missing header/trailer pages

ITEM: RTA000154138



Q:                                                                              
Topic thread:                                                                   
Printer Systems (PRINT - NA/ATS)                                                
 PSF/AIX                                                                        
                                                                                
Customer has PSF/AIX running on RS6000 with a TCP/IP connection to MVS          
host system running MVS/PSF and AFP Upload. tried to turn on header             
and trailer pages both in the PSF/AIX print queue and on the ENQ print          
command as a '-o' option. Both ways fail to produce the header or               
trailer pages. printing to 3160 channel attached printer on MVS. The            
JES2 banner pages can be produced but are no value. What and or how does        
the customer need to define his queues to make this work??                      
                                                                                
AIX level 4.1.5                                                                 
psf/aix  base 2.1.0                                                            
mvs/upload for aix  new install                                                 
                                                                                
A:                                                                              
Only the print data itself is sent to MVS; the PSF/AIX header and               
trailer pages are not.                                                          
                                                                                
I'll include an overview of how AFP Upload works below.  Please also            
also see libraried item RTA000105846 for additional information on              
AFP Upload, including accounting and userid issues.                             
                                                                                
  When Upload transmits the contents of a print file from AIX to MVS, it        
  also transmits attributes of the print file.  It uses the attributes          
  to create an MVS OUTPUT descriptor for the SYSOUT data set into               
  which the print file contents are placed.                                     
                                                                               
  Most MVS customers create OUTPUT descriptors using the OUTPUT JCL             
  statement.  Since Upload doesn't know the print file attributes until         
  run-time, it can't use JCL; it creates an OUTPUT descriptor                   
  dynamically.  However, if the customer wants to understand what               
  attributes can be communicated from AIX and recorded on MVS, it's             
  important to understand that Upload is using the facilities provided          
  by an OUTPUT descriptor.                                                      
                                                                                
  ACCOUNT comes from the static JCL that is used to start the                   
  transaction program.  So does JOBNAME.                                        
                                                                                
  The following table summarizes the information that is being                  
  transmitted AND used.  Note that OUTPUT BIN is not supported because          
  it would require us to pre-req a higher MVS level and an APAR.                
                                                                               
      OUTPUT JCL statement            enq operand                               
           parameter                                                            
      --------------------            -----------                               
                                                                                
            ADDRESS                   -o address1=                              
     (up to 4 subparameters)          -o address2=                              
                                      -o address3=                              
                                      -o address4=                              
                                                                                
            BUILDING                  -o building=                              
                                                                                
            CLASS                     -o passthru=class=                        
                                                                                
            COPIES                    -o copies=                                
                                                                               
            DATACK                    -o datack=                                
                                                                                
            DEPARTMENT                -o department=                            
                                                                                
            DESTINATION               -o passthru=destination=                  
                                                                                
            FORMDEF                   -o formdef=                               
                                                                                
            FORMS                     -o passthru=forms=                        
                                                                                
            NAME                      -o name=                                  
                                                                                
            ROOM                      -o room=                                  
                                                                                
            TITLE                     -o title=                                
                                                                                
  Finally, customers could impose some accounting control by defining           
  several MVS servers, each started by different JCL including different        
  account numbers.                                                              
                                                                                
If you have additional questions after reviewing this information and           
the other libraried item I referenced, please reopen this item.                 
                                                                                
Thanks for using ViewBlue.                                                      
                                                                                
Q:                                                                              
The customer wants to identify his printed output at the MVS level.  It         
looks like we need to upload relevant information in one or more of the         
support values (perhaps NAME and TITLE) that could then print on the MVS        
banner page.                                                                   
                                                                                
These jobs will be arriving from an NT workstation via lpr/lpd                  
protocol.  Hence, the enq -o options are not natively supported.                
                                                                                
Here is my thought :  We could set up a "dummy queue" which receives the        
job via lpr.  This queue would contain a backend program which                  
interrogates the lpr file received, and issues a "native AIX" enq               
command with the appropriate -o options to pass NAME and TITLE values.          
This enq command would queue the job to the "real" PSF/AIX Upload queue,        
which would transform the job and upload the resulting AFPDS to MVS,            
along with values that will be printed on the JES banner page.                  
                                                                                
Given this approach, I have several questions:                                  
                                                                                
 - Does this idea make sense?  Do you think it will work?                      
 - I have never written a backend program.  Does a working example              
   exist?  Is anyone in support  willing to code up an example for us           
   (unsupported code, of course)?                                               
 - We don't need accounting information at the MVS level.  We just need         
   to have an identifying banner page printed with the output so that           
   the paper can be routed to the requesting person.  Is there an easy          
   way to do this that we are missing?                                          
                                                                                
Thanks for your help.                                                           
                                                                                
A:                                                                              
I think that whay you suggest is feasible.  I believe one of the                
specialists at the AIX Support Center has written custom backends               
that interrogate the Job Descriptor File (JDF) for certain fields and           
then requeue the job using that information. I don't know if this is           
something that they can provide at no charge, or if this would fall             
under the AIX ConsultLine ($$).  I'd suggest you call 1-800-CALL-AIX            
and talk to the Printer specialists to see what they might have                 
available.                                                                      
                                                                                
There is also an internal only web site maintained by an AIX printer            
specialist in the Advanced Tech Support group that has some information         
on coding backends, as well as some sample ksh scripts and C programs.          
                                                                                
http://tesch.aix.dfw.ibm.com/printips/backends.html                             
http://tesch.aix.dfw.ibm.com/printips/baseback.html                             
                                                                                
Hopefully one of these resources will be helpful to you.                        
                                                                                
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:                                                 
psf/6000 psf/aix infoprint afp upload mvs psf aix banner header                 
trailer separator auxiliary missing userid name title jes windows nt            
-o flags parameters                                                             
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000154138 ITEM: RTA000154138
Dated: 01/1999 Category: XPSF6000
This HTML file was generated 99/06/24~12:43:42
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