Re: Find fields behind data-entry screen -- BPCS-L

Simon

I suggest that you * You write BPCS_L again, specifying what version of BPCS you are working with (the info should be on the BPCS LOGO screen that we see when first signing on) and your platform. For example, I am on BPCS 405 CD (and a bunch of BMRs) on AS/400 MIXED MODE. The reason this is important, is in how to locate your documentation and what tools are effective for you. You might also search BPCS_L archives for "documentation" since this has been a hot topic from time to time. * When you are looking at a screen, you can F1 access help about that software. We have found it useful to access the help source on commonly used programs, because in there are instructions how to navigate through all the screens of the programs, including stuff that is not evident available from the start screen. For example, my people asked for a modification to make it possible to enter "team labor tickets, where a bunch of employees worked on the same task." When I was looking at all the screens of the program (SDA vs. SFC600FM in the DDS file) and the documentation for those screens (UIM source in the PANEL file), for the purpose of finding a good place to "hook" in the proposed modification, I discovered that the software ALREADY supported what my users were asking for, and could get there by leaving the employee # field empty on the first screen, an option that was non-obvious when reading the help documentation associated with the first screen. * See if you can locate, in your library list, a file called BPCSDOC then within that a source member called SSALOG00 which can be accessed via SEU PDM and various other ways. This is the LOGIC MANUAL for BPCS that explains naming conventions and other elements essential to being able to navigate the software, such as whether or not you are supposed to have access to the source code for the BPCS screens, and where you might locate that. * Important elements include how the files and their fields are named, how LITERALS are used within HUMAN LANGUAGE overlays to make substitutions in the labeling of fields on the screens. * It may also be useful for you to know that BPCS makes extensive use of AS/400 EXTERNAL DEFINITIONS for files, and that the SCREENS of the display programs are in fact a special kind of file. Thus, if you know where the source code is located (in our case the *BASE code is in BPCS405CDS (letter S for source) library, and how to use IBM 400 tools for viewing external definitions, you can get at a lot of useful info, but navigating it can be difficult due to BPCS heavy reliance upon literals. That's where some field may have a name like L123456 and you have to go to the right message file to find out what the heck L123456 signifies, which can be a nightmare if you have a lot to research. * This means that understanding the naming conventions from SSALOG00 is so critical. * Suppose there is a question about INV100 program ... well hey, most of that data is either in IIM item master file, or one of the other I* files that break the detail down into facility warehouse location etc. or one of the ORDER files relevant to MRP Customers Production or whatever ... you can find in SSALOG00 some charts showing what all the prefixes of programs and naming conventions signify, and pretty rapidly see which files logically should contain what kinds of data. * Then you can go into RUNQRY *N MBM or FRT or whatever and begin to puzzle out the significance of the various fields shown there. * If you are a newbie while your employer is NOT a newbie to BPCS, then in all probability other people have already created query definitions that are helpful to you. We have tens of thousands of them. Sometimes it can be easier to create a new query that find out if we already have one to do something. However I have a directory of our queries and modifications in an *OUTFILE searcheable by query to answer such stuff, and a document added to BPCSDOC that tailors query/400 documentation to our needs, using examples of our queries that a person can go to to see how to do date math, labor efficiency, earned hours, sort by absolute value, identify mismatches in files, and a host of other nuances. I have not yet documented there all the stuff I have discovered, such as a way to join files that is outside the collection that the IBM manual knows about.

Here is info that I placed on a "menu" on our system to help people who are developing queries. Hopefully your version of Query, and the applications you using, are close enough to our situation for this to get you started. Folks on this list who are familiar with BPCS will see that we have added some files that are not standard BPCS. The asterisk "footnotes", explained at top, help identify a lot of those, but also some navigation aids for the regular BPCS files.

SYS500-06 Global Wire Technologies of Indiana ALHOME 5/08/04 QUERY Query Users Reference List of Most Useful Files AL 21:53:48

Transfer to new Menu .. Call Program Directly .. Select action and press Enter. 1=Select *1 = file not continuously dynamically updated Al periodically updates or replaces it *A = file did NOT come with BPCS it is one that we added but into *LIBL path *C = file NOT in standard BPCS library list path *LIBL but found in CHGORDHST2 *I = IBM info about AS/400 objects *R = (in addition to standard *FIRST) this file has member RETURN containing Customer Return data (RMA's) *X = file NOT in standard BPCS library list path *LIBL but found in XFILES *C (CHGORDHST2) & *X (XFILES) - specify in WRKQRY or ADDLIBLE Command Line for RUNQRY

20 Run Query *N against FILE of choice ?? IIM INVENGFILE

AVM Vendor Master for Purchasing

CDP Department Master for Production CEM Employee Master for Labor Tickets CIC Item / Planning / Cost CMF Cost Master File ... careful this is complex COSTMEMORY = *1 *X items in last shop order purge

ECG = *1 *C Customer Order Change History ECH *R Customer Order Summary Header Records ECIF = *1 *A End Items which Customer Facilities ECL *R Customer Order Detail Item Lines ECS *R Customer Order Special Item Lines ELA Allocations ESH Shipping Header ESL Shipping Lines ESN *R Notes ... note specialized members EST Customer Ship To Master for Sales

FAPM = *1 *A Machine etc. use reported by Labor FLT Labor Ticket History FLT member WORK for labor not yet posted FMA Shop Order Materials FOD Shop Order Operations FRT Routings ... careful ... this is a BIG file FSC Shop Calendar FSO Shop Order Summary

HCIF = *1 *A BOM end-to-end cust-end vs. vend-raw HPH Purchase Order Header HPO Purchase Orders

HVH Vendor Item History HZROUTB4 *1 *X routings summary prior to 999 HZROUT999 *1 *X routings summary at 999

IEA Engineeringly Active X-ref list Item-Facility IIC Item Class IIM Item Master ILI Item-Warehouse-Location = Inventory ILM Location Master ITE Inventory Transaction Effects File ITH Inventory History ... warning - a monster file IWI Item-Warehouse = Inventory IWM Warehouse Master

JPH Just In Time Production History

KFP MRP Planned & Firm Planned Orders KMR MRP Material Requirements KRO MRP Releasable Orders

LCR Capacity Planning Detail LWK Work Center Master

NDAY = *1 *X *I file statistics from 4 pm NITEND = *1 *X *I file statistics start week

PN_ECL = *1 *X PEN Items in Current Cust Orders PN_FSO = *1 *X PEN Items in Current Shop Orders

SIH Invoice History - 1 record per Invoice SIL Invoice History - 1 record per Item Line SSD Sales History Detail SSH Sales History

XDEV = *1 *X *I Devices attached to our AS/400 XWARE = *1 *X *I Directory of relevant software

ZMF Facility Master

The above is NOT a complete list of BPCS Physical files ... Al tried to select files that would be most useful to people trying to create QUERIES outside of the Accounting Area ... Al may put Accounting files on a separate "menu" like this one at a later date ... Please tell Al if you think some adjustments should be made on the above reference list ... either remove some file with highly confidential contents, or add some file that Al felt was inappropriate to include on first run-through of this concept

To Sign "off" go to menu OFF

F1=Help F3=Exit F7=Bkwd F8=Fwd F12=Cancel F13=Functions F14=SSAZ99

- Al Macintyre http://www.ryze.com/go/Al9Mac Find BPCS Documentation Suppliers http://radio.weblogs.com/0107846/stories/2002/11/08/bpcsDocSources.html BPCS/400 Computer Janitor at http://www.globalwiretechnologies.com/

Simon wrote:

Hi, a newbie here.

I am an analyst who is typically shown information on a BPCS data-entry screen by a user. Often I then want to do a query to see the information normally stored in that field.

Is there a command that displays the name of the underlying field or variable when looking at a data-entry screen.

When I used another system, MFG/Pro, I could hit crtl-D or crtl-F or something and it would display the name at the bottom of the screen.
Thanks
Simon
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