RE: journals

Based on your description, I say it is totally unnecessary to journal
the file just for printing labels.  This can be handled with a after
write/update trigger, perhaps even as a separate application.  How is
the label being journal'd, in other words, is there an application that
selects records and writes to a label file and the label file is
journaled?  He may not have wanted to change the DB at all or had access
to the application source and needed some additional processing to
generate the bar code, but journals are old school for that, triggers
work better.  If the printing is something to be truly off line, then
have the after write/update trigger send the after image to a data queue
where a server (NEP) job is waiting for entries to print.  You can send
the entire trigger buffer to the queue and never have to worry about
file changes in the trigger program, only have to update the server
program.


Christopher Bipes
Information Services Director
CrossCheck, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Katy Carter
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 7:01 AM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: journals

Hello everyone,

 

I need opinions.  I have been an RPG programmer for 20 years.   I still
see
things I've never seen before but this one doesn't make any since to me.

 

I have been programming for a manufacturing company about 1 year now.
The
company had some IBM guy to come in and develop the barcode label and
place
the record into production (MAPICS).    Before the label is printed it
is
first journaled into a journal with the journal receiver etc....,  then
received from the journal and sent to a program that prints the bar code
label.   

 

Now, I was always taught that journaling was only for backup and
recovery purposes,  which I know what some people will say,  that he
designed it this way incase there was a disaster and the records could
be received but,
wasn't there a better way to achieve this.   It appears to me that this
way
would be cumbersome,  eat up the DSAD of the machine and he is
journaling the record first  and receiving it back before he prints the
label.
Shouldn't he have at least printed the label first before he journaled
the
record.   I just want your all's opinion about this design.  Maybe there
is
something I don't see here but the journal sequence goes haywire all the
time and we have to reconstruct it.     EVERYBODY, ANYBODY GIVE ME YOUR
THOUGHTS ON THIS?????