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Text File  |  1991-12-04  |  11KB  |  147 lines
  1. AS4IDU.THD
  2.  
  3. Offline IDDU for the AS/400? Field Reference files
  4.  
  5. Sparked by a question about entering a data dictionary into the AS/400 by first
  6. typing it in offline on PCs, this discussion centers on the utility of Field
  7. Reference Files.
  8. .
  9. .This is an ASCII file.  READ or DOWNLOAD with any supported protocol.
  10. Upl: Anne E. Pruitt 72335,777
  11.  
  12. IBM AS/400 FIELD REFERENCE FILES IDDU OFFLINE CONNECT DDS PC 
  13.  
  14.  
  15. #: 32274 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  16.     07-Jun-90  17:58:45                                                       
  17. Sb: #AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                                 
  18. Fm: Mark Bayern 71540,2651                                                    
  19. To: ALL                                                                       
  20.                                                                               
  21. A client of mine is converting from a Sys36 to an AS/400.  They have a need to
  22. enter the data dictionary of a purchased accounting system into the 400. The  
  23. data dictionary is currently available in printed form (approx 100 8.5x11"    
  24. pages).  Their current plan is to key it in using the IDDU utility. I'd like  
  25. to offer them an option of allowing us (my company) to key it in offline (on  
  26. PC's) and then just transfer the data to the 400.  From their viewpoint this  
  27. would free up terminals and personell, and from my point it should generate   
  28. some $'s, and show them that they can call on us for work in the office along 
  29. with the work we do for them on the plant floor.  Does anyone know if their is
  30. a way to generate the dictionary other than interactively on the 400?  (After 
  31. all the I in IDDU stands for INTERACTIVE Data Definition Utility).  If there  
  32. is could you give me a pointer to the documentation on it?                    
  33.                                                                               
  34. Thanks,                                                                       
  35.                                                                               
  36. Mark <and just earlier this week I said in a different thread "I don't do     
  37.        DP", oh well....>                                                      
  38.                                                                               
  39. #: 32289 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  40.     07-Jun-90  19:41:03                                                       
  41. Sb: #32274-#AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                          
  42. Fm: Ken Werner 76657,3373                                                     
  43. To: Mark Bayern 71540,2651                                                    
  44.                                                                               
  45. Mark,                                                                         
  46.                                                                               
  47. IDDU lacks some needed power I find in DDS.  IDDS will come up to speed in the
  48. future.                                                                       
  49.                                                                               
  50. You cound enter it as DDS specs on the PC, upload it, compile it as a DDS     
  51. field reference file, and there it a command to get IDDU specs from the field 
  52. reference file.                                                               
  53.                                                                               
  54. Ken                                                                           
  55.                                                                               
  56. #: 32291 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  57.     07-Jun-90  19:50:05                                                       
  58. Sb: #32289-AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                           
  59. Fm: will cardwell 71560,1006                                                  
  60. To: Ken Werner 76657,3373                                                     
  61.                                                                               
  62. What do you think of field reference files?  I tried using one for a user     
  63. converting from a S/36 but decided that it wasn't very helpful. When you have 
  64. to describe all of the fields in your DB in a single file, it takes a long    
  65. time to compile.  There is also the problem of needing unique field names for 
  66. each file.  Since RPG doesn't provide a method of qualifying field names, this
  67. causes a big problem. It sounds like a good idea at first but then turns into 
  68. a major headache.                                                             
  69.                                                                               
  70. Will                                                                          
  71.                                                                               
  72. #: 32461 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  73.     08-Jun-90  19:29:57                                                       
  74. Sb: #32289-#AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                          
  75. Fm: Mark Bayern 71540,2651                                                    
  76. To: Ken Werner 76657,3373                                                     
  77.                                                                               
  78. Ken,                                                                          
  79.                                                                               
  80. Thanks for the info, I'll check into DDS when I get back the the site.        
  81.                                                                               
  82. Mark                                                                          
  83.                                                                               
  84. #: 32465 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  85.     08-Jun-90  20:04:01                                                       
  86. Sb: #32291-AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                           
  87. Fm: Ken Werner 76657,3373                                                     
  88. To: will cardwell 71560,1006                                                  
  89.                                                                               
  90. I strongly believe in a field reference file.                                 
  91.                                                                               
  92. I would find a field reference file of great use in a conversion.  I can      
  93. inventory that EMPNO, EMP#, PSNL#, and ID# are one and the same field.        
  94.                                                                               
  95. Unless a date has a special use, I only put date in the field reference once  
  96. with the edit word desired.  I reference currently used date to the field     
  97. reference date when used in a file.                                           
  98.                                                                               
  99. #: 32490 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  100.     08-Jun-90  23:55:44                                                       
  101. Sb: #32291-AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                           
  102. Fm: Patrick Townsend 73040,2224                                               
  103. To: will cardwell 71560,1006                                                  
  104.                                                                               
  105. Hi Will,                                                                      
  106.                                                                               
  107. I would strongly recommend using a Field Reference file. It is the only thing 
  108. faintly resembling a data dictionary on the AS/400. To solve the problem of   
  109. needing different names for fields in files (I assume you r using RPG), you   
  110. can use the REFFLD keyword in DDS to refer to the field definition in the     
  111. field reference file. This will work in any type of file you might create:    
  112. database, display, printer, communications, etc. All of the IBM cross         
  113. reference utilities keep track of field and reference field definitions.      
  114.                                                                               
  115. Until IBM comes out with something better (Repository Manager, AD/CYCLE ??)   
  116. you should consider using Field Reference files. This will help you make the  
  117. transition to these future products.                                          
  118.                                                                               
  119.     Patrick                                                                   
  120.                                                                               
  121. #: 32498 S5/Technical-Big Sys                                                 
  122.     09-Jun-90  02:47:57                                                       
  123. Sb: #32461-AS/400 offline IDDU entr                                           
  124. Fm: Tony Toews 71760,3552                                                     
  125. To: Mark Bayern 71540,2651                                                    
  126.                                                                               
  127. Gentlemen                                                                     
  128.                                                                               
  129. Re the field reference file.   I found that shifting into upper and lower case
  130. for the TEXT('lkfdl') and COLHDG('asdf') was a real PITA.  So I created a file
  131. containing all of the DDS spec's such as field name, edit code, edit word,    
  132. field size, Packed,Zoned,etc, text and colhdg. This file was indexed by field 
  133. name. The data entry program validated some of this data and by following     
  134. IBM's SAA standards I even had a 'position to' to look at twenty field names  
  135. at once. I then created the massive source file from my field name database   
  136. file and compiled it.                                                         
  137.                                                                               
  138. I, or rather my staff at my former job, created this in about two days and,   
  139. being that we were rewriting applications natively on the AS/400 as all of    
  140. their applications were S/34 & S/36 code, in less than a week this paid for   
  141. itself.                                                                       
  142.                                                                               
  143. Given that you already have this reference file in place you might want to    
  144. write a program to convert from DDS source to this file.                      
  145.                                                                               
  146. Tony                                                                          
  147.