Remote Unconnected -- MIDRANGE-L

What's Al's question?

What all is needed on PC end and on 400 end to do data entry to 400applications on a PC not connected to the 400?I think it is doable, but I think it would be frightfully expensive toimplement, unless I am missing something about existing readily availableresources.


I got an odd question from work.
"Al, is it possible to have a 400 session without having an AS/400"

I mumbled about in theory various AS/400 languages could also run on a PC,and reminisced about my old punched card days, like "key to diskette", withequipment that went off the market 40 years ago ... whatcha looking to doon it?

Transpires they looking for data entry alternatives to sending a file overe-mail or direct communications attachment, where a PC gets a 400 sessionlike via VPN ... is it practical to key in a data batch on a PC, then havethe transaction batch arrive in person or snail mail on some media thenstick it into the 400 as input, and what equipment and software needed todo that?

There's already a CD Rom drive on the 400, intended for IBM OS upgrades, Isuppose there must be some way for normal 400 software to access normaldata there, I just have never worked with any. However, it probably wouldbe more efficient, from a performance perspective, to copy whatever is onthe CD to hard disk, then have 400 software process it there.

You can only put 1/2 a Gig on a CD. You can put much more on a tape, butCD drives are standard on PCs, and I seriously doubt PC tape drives arecompatible with what the 400 needs for backup.

The PC application would have to know what layout is needed for the data inthe file. There would have to be conversion of the data format fromPC--ASCII to 400-EBCDIC, all the stuff taken care of thru Client Access andData Transfers ... Oh, say the data could go from PC-unconnected thenPC-connected-to-400 data transfer, on PC media whether CD Rom or Diskette,although I have had some troubles with CD formats can only be read bycertain CD software.

The 400 application would have to be modified to be able to accept a batchof transactions this way, simulating a real human being, where normally theuser keys in some vendor # or order #, and the data is accepted if it meetscertain valid combinations, and there is no provision for handling dataentered that is not valid, which includes incomplete input where somemandatory field is not filled in with something valid, and the data to the400 application results from a combination of what the user entered, andwhat happened when the control #s are validated.

I did such a modification on the old System/36 where they wanted scraptransactions recorded, but felt they were too much trouble to key in. Igot the scrap data from another application, cloned the data entry programthen simulated what it did with human keystrokes, only supplied the datastream from my work file instead of a real human being.


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Al Macintyre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AlMac
http://www.ryze.com/go/Al9Mac
BPCS/400 Computer Janitor ... see
http://radio.weblogs.com/0107846/stories/2002/11/08/bpcsDocSources.html