|
Not to turn this into a C.O.L.D. War, but... >I mumbled (in part) in praise of MetaFile, and Brad Jensen from LaserVault remumbled (in part) and now I rejoin... >Paul: > One product that includes this function is MetaFile... The >download can be set to run automatically every xx seconds. The >downloaded spool file can be deleted or moved to another output >queue. > >Brad: Our LaserVault system does something similar, but we give the >user explicit selection capabilities thru command line or cl on the >host, it seems silly to download something and erase it. MetaFile does let you select spool files based on the criteria you'd see on a WRKOUTQ screen. You don't have to download everything in the queue. We have it set that way; the documents to be archived get dumped into a specific queue for downloading. Once downloaded, the spool file on the AS/400 can be deleted or moved to another output queue. >Paul: > MetaFile... Every word, character sequence, and number are >indexed. You can >> search for a dollar amount listed at the bottom of an invoice, a >> customer number, a city name, a customer name. Anything. You >can also omit 'junk' words (like a, an, the, of, from, etc., etc.) > >Brad: And there is an example. We have always done our indexing on >selected columns (including keys that are made up of several >different fields). Our indexing is faster than anyones (in >generation, they are all about the same in retrieval speed), but >Metafile honks on the fact we don't do full text indexing (many of >our customers use very large spool files, and full text indexing >isn't that important when you are looking up invoice numbers, >customer names, etc.) So now we are adding full text indexing. Although it may take longer to add to and maintain a full text index, I like the fact that we don't have to decide in advance what the users can search for. If needs change, the index does not have to be regenerated. MetaFile does allow you to identify fields by name, but we haven't needed that kind of flexibility. [We could then do searches such as "Invoice# > 135423 and Invoice$ > 10000.00"] >Brad: Metafile is a good product, one of the best on the AS/400. I >didn't realize they weren't putting software on the AS/400. The >advantage of having software on the AS/400 is the ability to >control the reports you download, the ability to append and name >them, the ability to control the PC side from the AS/400 side and >report back errors to the operator, and the ability to print back >to the AS/400. MetaFile identifies the downloaded spool files by comparing the data received to a template [ie certain words or phrases (ie "PAGE NUMBER" and "INVOICE" or "PACKING LIST") appear in a fixed place in the document.] They are grouped with like documents and identified by date. Granted, there is no feedback and error monitoring on the AS/400 side. But we really haven't needed it; the only problem we've had is when the password on the AS/400 gets changed and the download program can't sign on. (: I've been meaning to upgrade our system to the latest and greatest version of MetaFile. However, the existing program works so well, there's been no pressure to upgrade. We do have a number of applications that would benefit from archiving of spool files (which are currently being burned to CDs via an outside service). --Paul E Musselman PaulMmn@ix.netcom.nospam.com
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
This mailing list archive is Copyright 1997-2024 by midrange.com and David Gibbs as a compilation work. Use of the archive is restricted to research of a business or technical nature. Any other uses are prohibited. Full details are available on our policy page. If you have questions about this, please contact [javascript protected email address].
Operating expenses for this site are earned using the Amazon Associate program and Google Adsense.