Re: AS/400 Client Access Problem -- BPCS-L

>  From:    Andreas.KOPP@de.imp-group.com
>  
>  No ideas to solve this problem?

From Al Macintyre ... I did not respond initially since we are not Client 
Access

This "problem" may be misnamed ... the issue is how best & easiest to get 400 
data to PC & beyond to say internet & perhaps back again, and which of the 
infinity of inexpensive packages out there are most harmonious to your 
management and end user community.  BPCS_L has on past occasions had threads 
on this, and it is a common issue on the on-line forums hosted by the trade 
publications - so heavy in fact that some have some forums JUST for the 
issues of interfacing 400 with PC & e-world.  

Many sites are not interested in buying an inexpensive user-friendly 
interface that will take any 400 data to any PC application & to a great 
variety of internet applications, but rather figure out how to deploy native 
400 offerings that might not be particularly friendly to someone other than a 
programmer, or BPCS-compatible.

Your control character suspicion could be checked by trying to transmit a 
file that has one of every kind ... I happen to have a BPCS DOC "file" that 
has one of every character that can be created using ALT HEX on the 400 
keyboard, primarily used in user to user messages for those people who what 
something fancier than :) standard smileys, so they can see how to create 
what character, but you could send something like this doubled up to see if 
in fact some valid 400 character is point of failure, then insert program on 
400 to substitute some other character before transmittal of report to PC 
world.

There are some things that SHOULD be simple & easy for any user to do, but I 
have a lot of users who are unable to learn how to use native 400 & native 
BPCS functionality, who get hung up on remembered keys & remembering to check 
2nd level help ... thus what WE need is totally menu driven get whatever to 
wherever.

We are Green Screen with 400 data to PCs & just beginning to have management 
approval of 400 data to internet, beyond e-mail attachments of 400 spool 
reports, and of course long time internet data to PCs, but still not doing 
any PC to 400, with respect to data conversion simplification.  The 400 trade 
press has a regularity of articles & buyer's guides comparing the merits of 
alternative packages to move 400 spool reports to PC formats of your choice, 
to e-mail, internet browser style access to 400 data, cut & paste 400 info on 
screen vs. PC windows, PC query & reporting tools that always use the latest 
400 data when you run it off of the PC.

There's a growing volume of shareware offerings, and innovative uses of PCs 
to serve the 400 world, such as dumping 400 data to PC analysis & then get it 
back to 400, or testing 400 modifications & BMRs using PC simulation of human 
keying & how the screens should look to automate comparing how 2 different 
versions of the same software performs.  Some of these people have on-line 
demos so you can see before you get whether it is right for you.  This is a 
sampling only.

http://www.asc-as400.com
http://www/t;asford.com
http://www.attachmate.com
http://www.bavarian-cons.com
http:/www.bcdsoftware.com
http://www.broderickdata.com
http://www.ckeyes.com
http://www.datajunction.com
http://www.datawatch.com ....we are using their Monarch
http://www.eresolve.com
http://www.evergreeninteractive.com/
http://www.formone.com/dm
http://www.gumbo.com
http://www.helpsystems.com ... check out Robot/Reports
http://www.ironside.com
http://www.lansa.com ... e-GUI face onto Green Screen
http://www.mochasoft.dk ... shareware 400 talk to Macintosh & other micro 
worlds
http://www.jacana.com.au
http://www.seacrest.com ... full internet utilities for Green Screen
http://www.seagull.com ... e-GUI face onto Green Screen
http://www.symtrax.com
http://www.taligentgroup.com

Many BPCS consultants have tested which of these packages work particularly 
well with BPCS & some of those consultants are on BPCS_L & some of them are 
actively marketing real internet interfaces to BPCS.  Ask a pointed question 
& if they are paying attention through the stream of other BPCS_L traffic & 
you will see a relevant reply.

>  Dear all
>  we often need to download spooled files because people want to work with
>  them in Excel, Access or wherever.
>  With the AS/400 Client Access we tried to do it in two ways:
>  1) Using "drag and drop" - just move the spooled file from the AS/400
>  Operations Navigator Window to the desktop
>  2) View the Spooled file with the Viewer and then print (i.e. use an
>  installed printer with the setting "print into a file")
>  
>  In principle both ways work but
>     Using way 1) the last and only the last page of the report (i.e. of the
>     spooled file) is missing. If the report is only one page long it works.
>     Example for everyone to test: To create cycle count worksheets run
>     INV310 and BPCS creates two lists in the spool, INV531O1 and INV531O2.
>     If you try to download INV531O1 with drag and drop you'll see that the
>     last page is missing on the created textfile on the desktop. In my
>     opinion there is a problem with a control character, maybe with the
>     >>End of Report<<
>     Using way 2) in the Viewer you can see the last page of the report
>     (which could be very interesting for the problem above). Moving the file
>     to a printer the created text file contains only control characters. I
>     was always told that I use a wrong printer. I tried more than 20
>     different printers but the problem is not solved yet.
>  
>  Note that this is only a problem concerning spooled files - we have no
>  problem with  the download of physical files.
>  The way to convert a spooled file to a physical file and do then the
>  download is known but it's not the solution we're looking for! The users
>  should be able to do a simple download with the Client Access.
>  
>  Maybe anyone has an idea how to solve one of the problems?!

Al Macintyre  ���
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor
http://www.whma.org = our nitch industry has a large committee searching for 
ErPdMes products right for WHM without work-arounds, which for many members 
resemble a snipe hunt - if you are in this software business & want to fix 
your product so it will not be mistaken for what your competition has been 
doing, then you might want to join our great game.
+---
| This is the BPCS Users Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to BPCS-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to BPCS-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to BPCS-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner: dasmussen@aol.com
+---