[COBOL400-L] RE: IFS and Windows

[qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Tom Liotta)]

cobol400-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>   6.  IFS and Windows (Marge Rozmarynowycz)
>
>We have a text file on our IFS which we are trying to copy to a MS
>Windows web server.  One of our Visual Basic programmers has written a
>project that is intended to copy the IFS file to the web server whenever
>the IFS file changes.  The VB routine works with Windows/PC files, but
>not with the IFS file.  We have resorted to scheduling the copy at a
>given point in time every week, but would still prefer to copy the file
>whenever it changes.  Has anyone tried to do this?

Marge:

I'm not sure what this has to do with COBOL, although oddly enough when we 
tried to do something similar I was also writing in COBOL. That project had 
some _extremely_ competent Windows pgmrs and they couldn't get it to work 
either. They also claimed they could make it work on Windows BUT...

I asked them to verify whether they meant it would work with the VB on one 
Windows system while the file was on a separate Windows server or they meant it 
worked when both were on the same PC. They came back later and said they had 
trouble _regardless_ of whether the remote system was an AS/400 or a Windows 
server; it would only work reliably if both were on the same PC.

IOW, the IFS had nothing to do with it. It was the fact that it was remote, 
across a network, different systems, that brought problems for the VB program.

By using /QNTC and writing from the AS/400 directly to the needed PC, we 
resolved that issue.

Of course, there were numerous additional issues due to potentially crossing 
Windows network domains, etc., etc. We finally settled on a sockets connection 
to a small Java program installed as a service wherever the data needed to end 
up. Eliminated all problems except firewalls, but at least firewalls can be 
configured.

Have no idea if this helps, but might spark some thought.

Tom Liotta

-- 
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788 x313
Fax    253-872-7904
http://www.powertech.com


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