RE: SAV/RST spool files function in OS/400

Buck:

Hmmm, I'm not sure why you say "the data is hideously complicated to work with".  Have you attempted to use QSPGETF and QSPPUTF.  These are the only 2 API's needed to save spool file and recreate them.  QSFGETF saves a spooled file to a file and QSPPUTF recreates the spooled file.  QSFGETF requires 5 parms - the spool file, the output file (including library), the job, the spool file number and the output file (excluding library).  QSPPUTF is even simpler - it has 3 parms - the output file name (from parm 1 of QSPGETF), the output queue to be recreated to, and the output file name (from parm 5 of QSPGETF).  This will do SCS, AFP, barcodes, anything...  Do you want IBM to write the CL wrapper over these 2 APIs?

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Buck Calabro [mailto:buck.calabro@aptissoftware.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 3:00 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: SAV/RST spool files function in OS/400

David Leland wrote (with icky HTML):

>As someone else mentioned, if all you need
>is the spool file data, there are already API's
>that will allow you to do this.  Why do we
>need IBM to do it?
 
Good question, Dave!  Frankly, for SCS print data this is pretty much a
no-brainer.  AFP print data is an entirely different issue.  Capturing the
overlays, bar codes and page segments as well as the text is very difficult.
Restoring them is darn near impossible.  The APIs do exist, but the data is
hideously complicated to work with.  An IBM supplied (tested and supported
for future releases!) SAV/RST would be a wonderful addition to the toolbox.

Why would I want such a thing?  Historical archival of my AFP customer
bills.  I want to be able to look at the bill EXACTLY the way it printed,
but I sure don't want to have to have to train thousands of customer service
reps to WRKSPLF through thousands of spooled files and the search through
them for the desired bill run and customer.  I'd sort of like that under
program control.  So... saving the spooled file, parting it out by bill
run/customer and allowing re-display  sometime in the future would be
extremely valuable.  Especially when the customer says "I lost my bill -
mail/fax/email me a copy."

Before anybody jumps in and says "Hey, just re-generate that bill you dope!"
let me explain that I want to EXACTLY duplicate the bill.  I want the
version of the DDS/RPG that existed the moment we originally created the
bill, not as they exist today.  The ONLY change I might want is to put a
watermark "C O P Y" across the re-created/restored version.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"We are what we repeatedly do.
 Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle

Billing Concepts Corp., a NASDAQ Listed Company, Symbol: BILL
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