XENTIS Documentation -- Release Notes XENTIS 4.3 XENTIS V4.3 Release Notes This document contains information about using XENTIS V4.3 and highlights features that are available in V4.3 that were not available in versions prior to V4.3. A. INSTALLATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION. 1. If you have a previous version of XENTIS already installed and you never installed version 4.1 or version 4.2, we recommend that you copy the release notes of these previous versions from saveset F on your release tape and review them. The following DCL command should retrieve these release notes and place them in your current directory: BACKUP/LOG tape_dev:XENTIS043.F/SELECT=[*...]*.REL*/SAVE_SET [] where 'tape_dev' is your tape drive. 2. The installation procedure for V4.3 is similar to the procedure used in V4.2, however V4.2 installation is quite different from V4.1. Prior to V4.2, all XENTIS images would be linked, with a LINK command, while the installation procedure was executing. Starting with V4.2, XENTIS images are copied onto your system without going through a LINK step. This results in a faster installation. This is accomplished by supplying several shareable images that act as stub routines for databases and other optional software that XENTIS supports but is not present on your system. In addition, the installation procedure no longer prompts the installer for an 'INSTALL' directory. The 'Install' or 'Object' files are no longer loaded onto your system. 3. Starting with V4.2 XENTIS logicals are created in the SYSTEM table in EXECUTIVE mode. This is done to support the new policy of not linking on the target system. These logicals are now defined during system startup. In version 4.1 and prior, the XENTIS$COMFILES logical was defined in the SYSTEM table in SUPERVISOR mode, while the XENTIS$PROGRAM, XENTIS$DEMO, and XENTIS$REPORT$DATA logicals were defined in the PROCESS table. To help avoid problems with user written DCL command files referring to XENTISLOGICALS.COM, this file's name has been changed to XENTIS_LOGICALS.COM, and XENTISLOGICALS.COM will still exist but contain only comments. 4. In response to customer demand, multiple versions of XENTIS may be installed and active at the same time. Please see section below for more information. 5. Beginning with V4.2, the XENTIS startup procedure defines a number of additional logicals. These logicals define which optional parts of XENTIS are available on your system, and which ones will have to use stub routines. The definition of these logicals are found in the XENTIS_SHARE_LOGICALS.COM file. 6. An additional system DCL command file is supplied for the purposes of shutting down XENTIS. This command file is called XENTIS_SHUTDOWN.COM and can be found in the XENTIS43$COMFILES: directory. This command file removes the system logicals that were created with the XENTIS43_START.COM file. It will also remove the XENTIS images if they were installed with the INSTALL command. (This does not delete any files from disk.) It is recommended that the XENTIS_SHUTDOWN.COM procedure be called from the system shutdown procedure, SYS$MANAGER:SYSHUTDWN.COM. 7. The user pack routine, used for user written data types, is implemented as a shareable image beginning with V4.2. This allows you to write and test your routine without having to relink XENTIS every time. Linking instructions are found in the sample source code, XUUSER_PACK.BAS. In addition, the number of parameters for this routine has changed. Please review the sample source code for further information. This information represents no change from V4.2, however the name of the shareable image is now XENTIS43_USER_PACK.EXE. 8. XENTIS V4.3 requires VMS V5.0 at a minimum. Installation and operations has been tested on a VMS V5.2 system, but it has not been tested on a VMS V5.0 or V5.1 system. As result we recommend that users be running at least VMS V5.2. 9. If an additional cpu is licensed, and that system has a different database configuration, it is no longer necessary to relink XENTIS. The new XENTIS startup procedure, which must be run on every node licensed for XENTIS, will detect the different database configuration and define the XENTIS logicals appropriate for each licensed CPU. 10. The circumstances where XENTIS needs to be relinked are now quite rare. Therefore, object libraries are no longer included on the distribution tape. 11. Beginning with V4.2, CALLABLE XENTIS is a feature that is available only upon request from your vendor. It is no longer available in the standard release. CALLABLE XENTIS provides the ability for a 3GL program to call XENTIS (except /Dictionary and /Edit) in the context of the same process or image. XENTIS can still be executed in the context of a subprocess. Using XENTIS in a subprocess is not considered CALLABLE XENTIS. 12. When the XENTIS43$SUPPORT logical is set to a value of Y, then whenever XENTIS/Report ( or /File, /Word, /Model, /Creport, /Update) writes a XENTIS Command File, .XCF, it will write into the file considerable information regarding the report, the data files, the setup file, and its operating environment. This information can be very valuable for the customer support staff in diagnosing problems with a particular report. When sending an XCF file to the customer support department, please set this logical to a value of Y before creating the XCF file. This feature became effective with version 4.1. 13. If you are upgrading from V4.2, please note that the names of the user modifiable shareable images have changed. Their previous and current names are as follows: XENTIS_USER_PACK.EXE XENTIS43_USER_PACK.EXE XENTIS_USER_FUNCTION.EXE XENTIS43_USER_FUNCTION.EXE XENTIS_XRP3GL.EXE XENTIS43_XRP3GL.EXE The application program interface (API) to these routines have not changed from V4.2. 14. If your distribution media is TK50, 4mm (DAT), or 8mm tape then Alpha AXP images are likely included on your tape in saveset E. If your distribution media is 9-Track tape then Alpha AXP images are not likely included on your tape. 15. Version 4.3 is the first release where the Alpha AXP images are native images rather than translated images. Digital released the necessary language compiler after XENTIS V4.2 was shipped. 16. The Alpha AXP version of XENTIS has not been tested with CDD, although it is likely that it will work. The Alpha AXP version does not work with Ingres, Sybase, DBMS, Adabas, Oracle or Progress. The Rdb interface has been tested and is supported. B. INSTALLING AND USING TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS AT THE SAME TIME Beginning with version 4.3 XENTIS allows two different versions to be installed and active at the same time. This is accomplished by including the version number, in this case 43, with the logicals used by XENTIS and including the version number in many executable files. The information in this section describes how this is accomplished and what the customer needs to do to insure smooth operation of two versions at the same time. 1. All XENTIS logicals that previously began with XENTIS, now begin with XENTISnn, where 'nn' is the version number. Please note that symbols such as XENTIS$DICT and XENTIS$PASSWD have not changed. These symbols are unique to your process and do not need to be changed. 2. All XENTIS executable files that may get installed with the INSTALL utility now have the version number appended to the filename. This is because the INSTALL utility does not allow two or more files with the same name to be installed at the same time. Customers that have a limited user count license, or those that have a Progress database interface license must either install XENTIS executables with the SYSLCK privilege or must give each user the SYSLCK privilege. (The XENTIS startup procedure automatically examines the XENTIS license for these two conditions and installs the executables if appropriate.) Please note that due to a bug in Rdb, the XENTIS executables should not be installed if the Rdb interface is planned to be used. 3. None of the control files or data files that XENTIS uses have had their names modified for this purpose. The lone exception to this rule is the startup file that is executed during system startup. Its name is now XENTISnn_START.COM, found in the SYS$MANAGER directory, where 'nn' is the version number. 4. XENTIS version 4.3 may be installed and started, while a previous version is active and running. It may not be installed while another installation of V4.3 is active and started. The V4.3 installation procedure detects this condition and will halt its processing. 5. During system startup, the various versions of XENTIS should be started in order with the oldest version first and the newest version last. When shutting down XENTIS, it is best if the reverse order is followed; the latest version first. 6. Existing batch command files present a unique problem. Many or most batch command files contain a line in them similar to "RUN XENTIS$PROGRAM:XRP". Under the old scheme of filenames and logicals, this would always execute the current version of XENTIS. Under the new scheme of filename and logicals, this would execute the version of XENTIS that was previously installed. If it is desired for existing batch command files to use version 4.3, then perform the following steps. a. Copy XRP43.EXE to XRP.EXE in the same directory. b. Define a logical as: DEFINE XENTIS$PROGRAM XENTIS43$PROGRAM 7. To remove an older version of XENTIS from your system, execute the XENTIS_SHUTDOWN.COM procedure for all versions in the order of most recent version first. (XENTIS_SHUTDOWN.COM was introduced in version 4.2.) Next, delete all the files from the older version. Next, execute the XENTIS startup files, found in SYS$MANAGER, in the order of most recent version last. C. NEW FEATURES 1. /Report and /Report modules (/File, /Word, /Model, /Update). a. There is a new facility to control the format of the title lines. Beginning with version 4.3, the layout and format of the title lines is controlled by the filename specified by the TITLE-CTL-FILE setup file parameter. The default value of this parameter is XENTIS_TITLE.DAT. If no device or directory is specified for this control file, then it will be assumed to be placed in the XENTIS43$REPORT$DATA directory. This title control file allows for the placement of any of the title elements in any location on the four available title lines. The location may be specified as a line and a column, where the column may be an absolute column or a relative column based upon the center position or the right margin. Please read and follow detailed instructions found in the comments section of the title control file for more information. Please note that whether or not a title element is printed is controlled by other setup file parameters. b. XENTIS/Report now supports the ability to include data in a report title. One data field may be specified for each of the three available report titles. This is accomplished by appending /DATA=field_spec where field_spec is any valid XENTIS field specification. When utilizing this feature be sure to include formatting characters in the title. An example might be: Date Beginning ########/DATA=B:BEGIN_DATE Where the pound signs are the formatting characters. This feature is not supported in XENTIS/Creport. c. The 'First key to read' and the 'Last key to read' prompts have been enhanced to support the ability to accept multiple segments of the specified key, or index. This is accomplished by the user entering multiple segments as the response to the prompt, with each segment separated by a delimiter. The delimiter is controlled by the new setup file parameter, FIRST-KEY-DELIM. This parameter is shipped with a default value of a comma. For example, suppose the primary key of the primary file consists of voucher_number followed by vendor_number. Furthermore, voucher_number is an unsigned numeric (NU) that 8 eight bytes long and vendor_number is a text (T) that is 6 bytes long. To specify that you want to begin reading the primary file at voucher_number 7436 and vendor_number AP0354 you would enter the following: First key to read? 7436,AP0354 Because the comma is present, XENTIS knows that the user is specifying multiple segments. Each segment will be converted to its specific datatype. In this case 7436 will be converted to 00007436 because it is an 8 byte unsigned numeric. d. XENTIS now has the ability to control whether or not a calculation result is initialized at each new detail record. By default XENTIS initializes all calculation results to either zero, spaces, or a null date, each time a new detail record is read. To prevent this initialization for a particular calculation, append /NORESET to the calculation result name and before the equal sign. The following is an example: NEWSHIP;20/NORESET = "Best Way" IF CUST_TYPE = "X" Please note that all calculations are performed during the selection phase, which is before sorting and accumulation. e. Beginning with this version a user may now control which input data file a calculation result may be associated with. This is useful when you have a multiple file report and you are doing calculations that involve fields from files other than the most detail file and you wish to accumulate the calculation result. Previously XENTIS would always accumulate this calculation as if it belonged to the most detail file. By following the below example you may now specify that the calculation will be accumulated as if it belonged to a specific file. An example of this is as follows: NEWAMOUNT/ACCUM=2 = AMOUNT * DB_CR_FLAG In this case NEWAMOUNT will be accumulated as if it belonged to the second input data file. Using this feature will also affect the printing of this calculation when a print frequency of U, for unique, is used. As a result, this feature may also be used on calculations whose result in a a text field or a datetime field. f. XENTIS now allows the user to enter a special prompted literal at the output file prompt, except in XENTIS/File. The format of this special prompted literal is: /PROMPT/F/user_prompt/default_file/ where user_prompt is the prompt that will be displayed on the terminal and default_file is the default output file for this particular report. Both user_prompt and default_file are optional. If user_prompt is not present then XENTIS will supply a prompt. If default_file is not present then XENTIS will use the value in the setup file. This prompted literal differs from the other prompted literals in that it has no minimum, no maximum, and no table validation. The data class is F, for file. g. XENTIS now supports the easy automatic computation of averages, minimums, maximums, standard deviations, variances, and counts. This is accomplish be appending /AVE, /MIN, /MAX, /STD, /VAR, or /COU to the response at the "Accumulate Level" prompt in /Report, /Creport. h. The Command File Substitution feature has been enhanced to to support additional control of the data the user is allowed to enter. The ability to control the data class (Text, Date, or Numeric), the minimum value, and the maximum value is now supported. The Default field of the definition line has been modified to accept the specification of these new controls. The new format for the default is: ~~default~class~minimum~maximum~~ Class, Minimum, and Maximum are all optional with certain restrictions. If a minimum is desired then a class is is required. If a maximum is desired, then a minimum and a class is required. An example might be: !~~D1~~Enter txn date~~Today~D~01-JAN-1990~31-DEC-1995~~ This would restrict data entered by the user to a date data class with a minimum of 01-JAN-1990 and a maximum of 31-DEC-1995. i. The XENTIS/File module can now write records to a new indexed file. To use this feature you must choose to create a new sequential file by either answering Y to the 'Create New Sequential File' prompt or by appending /DICT=TEMP to the output filename, and by specifying /KEY=n on one or more output data fields, where 'n' is the segment number of the primary index (or key). This feature supports only one index on the output file, but up to 8 segments for this index. Using more than one segment on this index is restricted in a manner that all key segments must represented to RMS as a string field. The mere presence of a /KEY=n qualifier on an output field is what controls whether the final output file will be a sequential file or an indexed file. Please note that during the output phase, records will still be written to a sequential file, which will be converted to an indexed file upon completion of the output phase. There is a new setup file parameter, called DFLT-INDEX-TYPE that controls the filetype (extension) of this new output indexed file. Furthermore, the interim sequential file is left intact. j. A new setup parameter has been introduced to control the sort order of the fieldnames that are displayed in the info (middle) window. The name of the parameter is FIELD-ORDER and has valid values of N, F, and A. A value of N means the sort order is file number followed by field number. A value of F is file number followed by field name. A value of A is field name followed by file number. k. There is a new setup parameter called REGISTRY-FILE. This parameter should contain the filename of the XENTIS registry file. The registry file will contain a log of all XENTIS command files (XCF) and compiled command files (XCC) that have been processed by XENTIS. The data written to this file will be date, time, and filename. This feature allows you to keep track of which XENTIS command files are being used and when they are being used. To disable this feature, set the value of the parameter to "". Any errors that occur while opening or writing to this file will result in the registry file being ignored and no error will be reported to the user. The default value for this setup file parameter is SYS$SCRATCH:XENTIS_REGISTRY.DAT. (SYS$SCRATCH usually translates to the user's login directory.) As part of this feature, a report is provided that will list and count the most frequently used reports based upon the current registry file. This report is found in the system utilities menu. This is an undocumented and unsupported feature. l. The Sort-on-Total feature is now supported for XENTIS/Model. Its usage in XENTIS/Model is essentially identical to its usage in XENTIS/Report. m. XENTIS version 4.3 provides a number of new functions that can be used in calculations. They are: 1. ARRYT. This function retrieves an element from a multiple occurring text field, also called an array. It takes three argument; the first is a text array field, the second is number that contains the value of the first subscript, and the third is a number that contains the value of the second subscript. If the array field normally has only one subscript, then use a one for the value of the second subscript. This function is the only way to use an array element whose subscript is computed. An example might be: DEDUCTION_CODE;3 = ARRYT( DEDUCTIONS, CODE, 1 ) 2. ARRYN. This function is exactly like ARRYT except that it returns a number, and the datatype of the first argument must be a number. An example might be: CUR_BALANCE = ARRYN( BALANCES, YEAR, MONTH ) where BALANCES might be a 4 by 12 array containing account balances, and YEAR and MONTH are computed in other calculations. 3. ARRYD. This function is exactly like ARRYN except that it returns a datetime field, and the datatype of the first argument must be a datetime field. 4. REMOV. This text function removes one or more occurrences of one text field from another text field. It takes three arguments. The first argument is the text field that has the extra characters. The second argument is a text field that contains the characters to remove from the first argument. The third argument is the number of occurrences of the second argument that are to be removed. An example might be: NEWTEXT;9 = REMOV(FMTDT(OLDDATE,"###########"),"-",2) This removes two dash characters from a formatted date. 5. DATE. This function converts a text field that contains data that is acceptable to XENTIS as a date literal. For example: NEWDATE = DATE("12-SEP-1994 10:02:15") results in a datetime field whose value is the 12th of September in 1994 at 2 minutes 15 seconds after 10am. NEWDATE = DATE(B:ORDER_DATE) Where ORDER_DATE is a text field containing "02/27/92" and the LIB$DT_INPUT_FORMAT logical translates to "!MN0/!D0/!Y2 !H04:!M0:!S0.!C2" results in a datetime field whose value is the 27th of February in 1992. If an invalid date is used, a null date will be returned. 6. MADD. This function will add, or subtract, months from a particular datetime fields. It returns a datetime field and takes two arguments. The first argument is the original datetime field. The second argument is a number containing the number of months to add to the first argument. Using a negative value in the second argument will subtract months. An example might be: WARRANTY_EXPIRES = MADD( CONTRACT_DATE, 6) Please note that should the resulting date be invalid, such as 31-APR-1994, then the next older valid date will be the result. 7. ELAPS. This function will compute the elapsed time between two datetime fields, the first two arguments, and return a number whose unit of measure is controlled by the third argument. The third argument is a number that may take values of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 only. The following table correlates the third argument with the unit of measure being returned: 1 = seconds 4 = days 2 = minutes 6 = years 3 = hours For example, to compute the number of minutes between two datetime fields you might want to do: MINUTES = ELAPS( END_TIME, START_TIME, 2 ) This routine can return fractional values. For example, if the elapsed time is actually 75 minutes and the third parameter is a 3, to signify that hours are to be returned, the return value will be 1.25 hours. When computing elapsed years, it is assumed that a year consists of 365.25 days. There is no computation for elapsed months due to the irregular number of days in a month. 8. ELAPT. This function is similar to the ELAPS except that its purpose it to yield a printable text field. ELAPT takes two arguments, each a datetime field, and returns a 13 character text field in the format "DDDD HH:MM:SS" where DDDD is the number of days between the two datetime fields, HH is the number of hours, MM is the number of minutes, and SS is the number of seconds. For example, if the first argument has a value of 10-OCT-1992 14:22:45 and the second argument has a value of 07-OCT-1992 08:10:21, resulting text field will be "0003 06:12:24" 9. PREVT, PREVN, PREVD. The purpose of these functions is to retrieve data from the previous record. These three functions each take only one argument, a text, number, and date field respectively, and return a text, number, and date field. This allows the user to process data from the most previously selected record, perhaps comparing it to data in the current record. Please note that this function is executed during the record selection phase, prior to sorting. n. There is a new setup parameter the controls the location, device and directory, of where newly created XENTIS command files (XCF) will be written. This feature allows system managers better control over what XCF files become part of a set of production XCF files. The name of this parameter is DFLT-CMD-NEW. o. There is a new setup parameter that controls the end of the report message. The name of this parameter is END-REPORT-MSG. If the value of this parameter contains one or more # characters, then the number of details processed will be formatted using the # characters. This message may be a maximum of 64 characters. p. There is a new setup parameter that allows the user to control whether or not a final top-of-page is placed in the output file after the end-of-report message is written. The valid values for this parameter are Y or N only. It is shipped with a value of Y so that the behavior of previous versions will be duplicated. The name of this parameter is FINAL-FF. q. The new DISABLE-PRIOR-BATCH setup parameter controls whether or not the priority setting parameters work when executing in batch. The valid values for this parameter are Y and N only. It is shipped with a value of Y so that the behavior of previous versions will be duplicated. r. The new DFLT-NEW-FLD-NONE setup parameter controls whether or not the default value for a new "Field name/number/literal" prompt is NONE or is null. The valid values for this parameter are Y and N only. It is shipped with a value of Y. s. There is a new setup parameter, DFLT-BREAK-DESC, that controls the default break description. There are two special codes that this description may contain, ~F~ and ~M~. If XENTIS encounters ~F~ in the description, it will substitute the field name of the break into the break description at the indicated position, and if it encounters ~M~ it will substitute a print mask at the indicated position. t. The LIST command has been enhanced to accept an argument of INDEX. This means that if the user enters LIST INDEX, XENTIS will display all indexes for all input files. It is no longer necessary to enter LIST FILES to see the indexes of the input files. u. XENTIS/Report will now accept a NODETAIL command at the 'Press return to continue' prompt when output is to the users terminal. This NODETAIL command will cause XENTIS to suppress subsequent details. XENTIS/Report will also accept a DETAIL command at the the same prompt, which in turn will cause XENTIS to no longer suppress details. v. XENTIS/Model has been enhanced to support the GENERATE-REPORT setup file parameter. This means that if this parameter value is set to Y, and no records are selected, an output file will still be produced, but with zero records. If the model control file indicates that headings are to be produced, then headings will be written to the output file if no records are selected. w. XENTIS no longer uses callable RDO to retrieve information from the system tables for an Rdb database. XENTIS now uses SQL to perform this function. As a result, XENTIS no longer uses the RDBINTSHR shareable image. This programming change provide no functional enhancements to XENTIS. However, it does allow XENTIS to avoid a bug that exists in callable RDO. x. If a XENTIS data dictionary does not describe any keys for an indexed file, XENTIS/Report will automatically detect this situation and will set the KEYS-FROM-FILE setup parameter to a value of Y for the chosen data file. This means that XENTIS will examine the data file and determine the keys from the data file rather than from the data dictionary. In addition if a XENTIS data dictionary does not describe enough keys for an indexed file, then XENTIS will automatically detect this situation and will examine the data file and determine which keys were not defined and will supply the keys that were not defined in the XENTIS data dictionary. y. XENTIS/Model now supports the ability to write both detail and summary data to an output file. This is accomplished by specifying a response of B, for both, to the 'Detail or Summary' prompt. Please note that if both detail and summary output is chosen, the data from the most recent detail record will be written to the summary record for those fields not being accumulated. z. The maximum width allowed in report has been expanded from 255 characters to 1000 characters. aa. XENTIS can now read records from files that have very large records. This is accomplished through the ability to limit the recordsize of certain files. Any data beyond the user specified limit will not be available. To use this feature the logical RECSIZE_LIMIT_file, where 'file' is the filename entered by the user, should be defined to translate to the maximum record size desired. For example, to limit the SALESHIS record to 12000 bytes, enter the following at DCL: DEFINE RECSIZE_LIMIT_SALESHIS 12000 Please note that XENTIS/Report maintains an internal buffer of 32767 bytes for all current records from all input data files, plus results of all calculations, plus break fields, plus sort fields, plus record pointers, plus title data fields. bb. Display mode of XENTIS/Report now maintains 320 characters per line in the top window. To facilitate the viewing of of characters beyond the edge of the screen XENTIS/Report provides the ability to shift the top window. This is accomplished with the SHLEFT and SHRIGHT commands or with the PF1+Right_Arrow or the PF1+Left_Arrow key sequences. The PF1+Right_Arrow and PF1+Left_Arrow key sequences automatically shift the top window to the right and left respectively. The number of characters shifted is controlled by the new SHIFT-SIZE parameter found in the setup file. The SHRIGHT and SHLEFT commands without an argument also shift the top window in the desired direction. If a numeric value is given to these commands then the number of characters shifted is controlled by the value. If no value is specified, then the number of characters shifted is controlled by the new SHIFT-SIZE parameter found in the setup file. For example: SHRIGHT 35 will shift the top window 35 characters to the right. cc. In all previous versions of XENTIS/Report, whenever the report definition exceeded 80 characters and the user was in display mode, the screen would automatically change into 132 column mode. With the new SHLEFT and SHRIGHT commands it is no longer necessary to automatically change into 132 column mode. There is a new setup file parameter that controls whether or not XENTIS will change from 80 columns to 132 columns automatically. This new parameter is called AUTO-WIDE and it has allowable value of Y and N. A value of Y will change the screen from 80 to 132 columns when the report definition exceeds 80 columns. A value of N will not do this and will require the user to enter a WIDE command or a SHRIGHT command to view a report definition beyond 80 columns. dd. XENTIS has a new command called SPREAD that automatically spreads the fields evenly across the width of the report. The SPREAD command can optionally take a numeric value. If the value is positive, the fields will be spread as if the right margin were the specified value. If the value is zero, or is not present, the current width of either 80 or 132 will be used. If the value is negative, then the absolute value will control the number of spaces placed between each column. Please note that this command works only if all fields are on the same print line. For example: SPREAD 100 will spread the report using a right margin of 100. SPREAD -4 will spread the report with exactly 4 spaces between each column. ee. The LIST command will now pause at the bottom of the screen and prompt the user to press return. Entering \, /E, or QUIT will abort the LIST command. ff. XENTIS V4.3 now supports the TOLAS application software convention of date formatting for input and output. If the TOLAS_DATE_FORMAT logical exists and translates to US, CANADIAN, UK, or EUROPE, then the TOLAS date formatting will be used as specified by GSI. gg. The setup file parameter ACCUM-IF-UNIQUE has been extended so that it is now supported in XENTIS/File and XENTIS/Model. hh. The value of the setup file parameter RDB-USE-ATTACH has been changed from N to Y. If you use Rdb V3.1 or V4.0, then you need to change this parameter back to a value of N. If you use Rdb V5.1 or V6.0 then you must leave this parameter value at Y. ii. To improve the security of customers using CDD, the following enhancements have been made. The ALLOW-ACTUAL setup file paramter now applies to files described by the CDD. If this paramater is set to a value of N, then RMS files can be accessed only if a Datatrieve domain is defined for the desired data file. In addition, a new setup file paramter has been added, called CDD-DROP-PRIV. This paramter takes a value of Y or N, and is effective only of the XENTIS images are installed with privileges. If the parameter value is Y, then XENTIS will drop its privileges when it attempts to open a data file that is described by the CDD. jj. A new HELP topic of LIMITATIONS has been added to the on-line help. This topic documents most of the limitations and maximums allowed by XENTIS. 2. /Edit a. The error messages displayed when an error in encountered when opening a data file has been improved. 3. /Dictionary a. The 'List another field' prompt in the Dictionary Edit utility has been enhanced to allow the listing of the next field in the current file. A response of X at this prompt will accomplish this. 4. General Enhancements a. The XENTIS shutdown procedure, XENTIS_SHUTDOWN.COM, no longer requires a parameter to be passed to it. If a parameter is not passed, it will assume a parameter value of "XENTIS" was passed. b. XENTIS now allows a system to have an version of Rdb that is older than V3.1, to be the active version of Rdb. Prior to XENTIS V4.3, if Rdb V3.0 or older was loaded, XENTIS would fail during image activation. We have discovered that several sites have Rdb V3.0 loaded, but do not use it and do not know how to remove it. XENTIS V4.3 can now solve the image activation problem, at the expense of disabling Rdb. To accomplish this, define the following logicals prior to executing the XENTIS_START.COM file during system startup: DEFINE XENTIS43_USE_RDB_STUB Y DEFINE XENTIS43_USE_SQL_STUB Y If this is done, then Rdb, and possibly CDD, is effectively disabled for all users until XENTIS_SHUTDOWN.COM is executed. During installation XENTIS will attempt to inspect Rdb and determine its version. If Rdb V3.0 or earlier is loaded then the installation procedure will display an informational message. A similar feature also exists for VAX DBMS. DBMS can be ignored if the XENTIS43_USE_DBMS_STUB logical translates to a value of Y. c. An additional saveset containing images that support the Progress database interface are included on the tape. The images in this saveset replace the normal images. Please note that these images do not support Ingres or Oracle, as Progress cannot be in the same image as Ingres or Oracle. d. The XENTIS startup procedure now recognizes the presence and contents of the XENTIS43_PRIV_LIST logical. If this logical is correctly defined, equating to a privilege list, prior to executing SYS$MANAGER:XENTIS43_START.COM, then the XENTIS images will always be installed with the privileges specified. For example: DEFINE XENTIS43_PRIV_LIST "SYSPRV,GRPPRV,SYSLCK" @SYS$MANAGER:XENTIS43_START.COM will result in all XENTIS images being installed with the SYSLCK, SYSPRV, and the GRPPRV privileges. Please note that if this logical is defined to a value of "NONE" then, then no privileges will be used. If this logical is defined to a value of "NOINSTALL", then the images will not be installed. e. The XENTIS startup procedure will now display several messages during system startup. This will aid in diagnosing any potential problems the occur during startup. f. The XENTIS startup and shutdown procedures now check to see that the user has the necessary privileges to execute them, and issues and error message if the use doesn't have them. g. The 'Print a report' menu function in the /Report menu will now display a list of files to print that is similar to the list of files to browse when the 'Browse a report' function is selected from the menu. h. XENTIS now supports the concept of a logical password. This feature is controlled by the LOGICAL-PASSWORD setup parameter. If this parameter has a value of Y, then XENTIS will assume that the password entered by the user may be logical and will attempt the perform a logical translation before doing any password processing. The untranslated password is the one written to any XENTIS Command Files or DCL Command Files. Please note that if a regular password, that is not a logical, is entered, the password entered will be used. While the logical password is used when entering the Dictionary Edit utility, once in the utility, the logical password is not used when adding, changing, listing, deleting, or renaming passwords. The actual password in these instances must be used. Maxcim users should take note that XENTIS already supports the Maxcim logical password. i. XENTIS now supports the ability to delete the current character. The is done by pressing CTRL/P. This does not apply when XENTIS/Report is operating in nodisplay mode. j. Beginning with version 4.3, XENTIS supports Oracle7. XENTIS requires the Oracle system tables to be compatible with the version 6 system tables. Therefore, it will be necessary for the database administrator to execute the CATALOG6.SQL procedure that is supplied by Oracle Corp. For more infor- mation on this procedure, please refer to the Oracle7 Server Migration Guide. k. The XENTIS command procedures, XENTIS.COM and XENTIS1.COM, will now inform the user if the system setup file needs compiling. D. KNOWN PROBLEMS AND RESTRICTIONS XENTIS has several known problems and restrictions. Some of these are known bugs in the XENTIS software, some are known bugs in other software that XENTIS uses, such as Rdb, while others are limitations placed upon XENTIS by the operating system. 1. Print frequency U (for Unique) and the setup parameter ACCUM-IF-UNIQUE may not always work when multiple primary files are being used. This is because two records in different primary files may have the same record pointer (RFA in RMS files). After sorting, these two records may get sorted next to each other. As a result, XENTIS thinks they are the same record, because they have the same RFA. 2. If the user enters a prompted literal, then backs up and makes a correction to the prompted literal, the user may be prompted for the first literal even though it is no longer part of the report. This happens because literals that were entered and then changed during the report definition, remain in the internal literal pool. This problem will automatically disappear when the report definition is saved and the report is reexecuted after exiting. 3. A problem may occur with XENTIS Dictionaries created prior to XENTIS V3.1. In some cases the prefix entry in the file record was not created correctly. Due to enhancements made to the processing of prefixes, the incorrect data stored in such prefixes may cause reports or /Edit to work incorrectly. This problem is resolved by running "Edit a Data Dictionary" from the XENTIS/Dictionary menu and selecting "Change" "File" followed by changing the prefix value from spaces to null. Running the program XDFIX_PREFIX found the the images directory will also correct this problem. 4. The sizes of all records from all input files, plus calculations, sort records, and literals, cannot exceed 32767 bytes. Under most circumstances this restriction is not a problem. However, should this limitation be reached, it is possible to avoid the limitation by restricting the record size of certain files. This is accomplished as the following example illustrates. $ DEFINE RECSIZE_LIMIT_SALESHIS 12000 If the above DCL command is entered, then XENTIS will limit the SALESHIS file to 12000 bytes. 5. /Update does not allow the same data file to be used twice, unless those files are used only to perform selection and/or calculations. This means that you cannot modify a field or delete a record if that field or record is located in a file that is used two or more times in a single /Update run. This restriction is placed due to problems involving record locking, rereading records by RFA, and RMS not being able to keep track of where the next record is located. This restriction may cause certain existing XENTIS command files to no longer work; receiving the error message "Same physical file update not allowed". These XENTIS command files may not have been working correctly. The solution to this problem is to perform this operation in two passes; the first being a SELECT function where the desired records are selected and their pointers are saved into a pointer file, followed by a REUPDATE where the selected records are read after retrieving their pointers from the pointer file. This restriction was effective with V3.6 of XENTIS. 6. When using VAX DBMS with XENTIS, if the same file is specified twice, XENTIS may under some circumstances enter an endless loop while under other circumstances it will not retrieve all desired records. An example of this occurs in the sample PARTS database linking the EMPLOYEE to DIVISION to EMPLOYEE using the MANAGES set and then the CONSISTS_OF set. This problem also occurs if a 3GL program is written using embedded DML statements. It is suspected that this may be a problem with VAX DBMS rather than XENTIS. 7. When using a MAXCIM ECB data dictionary, only one version of a data file is allowed. Specifying a version other than the most current version will be ignored. Using the ACTUAL/GENERIC syntax does not get around this restriction. The LIST FILES command displays the filename as the user entered the filename, which will be different from the file that will be used if a version other than the most current version is entered by the user. 8. When using multiple dictionary reporting with DBMS when DBMS is not your default data dictionary, then a subschema should be specified only on your first DBMS file. It will be rejected on subsequent DBMS files. For example: Third file? EMPLOYEE/DBTEST.DBM$SUBSCHEMAS.PERSONNEL/DICT=DBMS Fourth file? DIVISION/DICT=DBMS 9. When using DBMS under certain circumstances, the user may encounter the error: "Error opening data \ \ -- %RMS-E-ACT, file activity precludes operation". When this error occurs, enter an ERASE command and start the report definition again. 10. The REDISPLAY command does not always work correctly when DBMS is used, the output is to the users terminal, and when there is no requested sort. 11. The DROP-PRIV setup file parameter has no effect with MAXCIM V4 or later files. This is to conform to the MAXCIM security mechanism. 12. The Rdb interface of XENTIS does not work if XENTIS is linked to both the DAS file structure and to Rdb's SQL. If both are desired, then two images must be linked. Contact customer support for more information. 13. Calculations-on-totals should not use more than one occurrence of the same data field in the same report. An easy work around is to specify a calculation such as: AMOUNT3 = AMOUNT(3) 14. There is no support in the software for descending keys. They may, however, work under certain limited circumstances where the ascending/descending nature of the key is not used. 15. Entering a print mask using dual leading dollar signs or dual leading asterisks without including a trailing minus sign is accepted. Printing negative data will thus erroneously print as if it were positive, with no error indicated. 16. When Adabas files are described in a Natural view, if a Natural view contains group fields, then all elementary fields for the group fields must be described in the Natural view. Due to the a XENTIS requirement of fixed length fields, a field that belongs to a group cannot be removed from the Natural view. 17. The COBOL to XENTIS dictionary transfer does not support sequence numbers in columns 73 through 80. Sequence numbers are typically used in older punched card source files. 18. The Rdb interface converts Rdb VARCHAR fields to CHAR fields. This means that VARCHAR fields will have spaces appended to the end of the field to fill out the field to its maximum size allowed. If a VARCHAR field is used in an index, which is usually not wise, and two or more tables are joined using the /NOSQL qualifier, then you will probably have to specify a sub-field as your 'field to build key' field. For example: if the desired index to file B is using datatype VARCHAR(5) but only two of the five characters are really being used, then you should use only the first two characters of the input field from file A. 19. When displaying the output of a report to the screen, there is a limit of the number of lines available. If a detail contains more than the limit, then one or more printed lines may scroll of the top of the screen. 21. The FMTNM function does not support the blank-when-zero feature of print masks, designated by the ampersand character, the trailing DB if negative feature, the trailing CR if negative feature, or the surrounding parenthesis if negative feature. 22. The minimum version of Ingres that is now supported is version 6.3. This allows XENTIS V4.2 to support groupids of the Knowledge Management Extension to Ingres. 23. The Rdb interface does not support the catalog and schema features of Rdb V4.1 and later. When XENTIS/Report attaches to a multischema database it specifies that the multischema capability will be turned off for the duration of the attachment. If a multischema database is used, the then the RDB-USE-ATTACH setup parameter must be set to Y. 24. When entering a CDD pathname and you do not want CDD$DEFAULT applied, be sure to start the pathname with _CDD$TOP rather than CDD$TOP. In other words, start the pathname with an underscore character. 25. XENTIS/File does not work when the output file is an Rdb table and the table contains computed_by fields, or virtual fields. 26. Calculation expressions may not include the vertical bar character (|). If you need a vertical bar character, the following calculation expression will yield one: BAR;1 = CHR(124.) E. PROBLEMS FIXED IN XENTIS V4.3. a. When using an SQL based database, XENTIS did not perform sufficient error checking on the initial/final expressions entered by the user. As a result the user could enter an expression where a legal comparison could not occur, such as comparing a string with a date, a date with a number, etc. The symptoms of this bug would occur after the "Execute" prompt, usually while the SQL database engine was analyzing the SQL statement. b. Under certain circumstances accumulation of fields from an SQL based database would not accumulate correctly. It was thought that this bug was fixed in V4.2A, however, additional circumstances where this bug occurs was discovered recently. c. Date literals used with a Progress database were not being properly converted to the format that Progress wants when the SQL statement was being generated. d. If a literal was used in an SQL initial/final expression and the literal was being compared with a field whose field number was greater than 160 (the maximum number of literals allowed), the XENTIS would abort. e. Date fields do not print correctly when using the CREPORT function. This bug was introduced in V4.1. f. Under certain rare circumstances a field may not accumulate when producing reports using an SQL database. This problem will occur at most every 256th record, and then only if XENTIS sorted the report. This problem was introduced in V4.1. g. Bar codes will sometimes contain garbage. This problem was introduced in V4.2. h. XENTIS/Report may enter an infinite loop when using 3 or more input files, replacing missing records with zeros/null, encountering missing records, and most importantly accessing the auxiliary files in a simultaneous manner. This problem was introduced in V4.2. i. Date fields printed with a mask of 9 #'s would not print the year correctly if the heading justification was right or center, the heading was longer than 9 characters, and the ADJUST-MASK setup parameter is set to Y. This problem was introduced in V4.2. j. XENTIS/File would abort if more than 150 fields existed in the output file. This problem was introduced in V4.2. k. Under certain circumstances involving backing up, XENTIS/Model would prompt the user for a model field that was greater than the maximum number of model fields allowed. This would in turn cause an abort. This problem has existed for a very long time. l. XENTIS/Report, XENTIS/Model, and XENTIS/Word would abort if the DELETE or INSERT commands were entered and the user had already specified the maximum number of fields allowed. This problem has existed since the INSERT and DELETE commands were added as a feature. m. The Runtime-Only version of XENTIS/Report no longer requires a data dictionary to also be licensed to execute reports. A data dictionary license of some kind is still required to define new reports. n. Several XENTIS/Dictionary utilities did not allow the translation of a logical filename to be longer than 64 characters. o. The COBOL to XENTIS transfer did not always recognize all segments of a multi-segmented index. As a result it would sometimes add an additional field to the data file description that would overlay an existing field. p. The COBOL to XENTIS transfer did not transfer correctly fields that were longer than 80 characters. It would limit the length of a field to 80 characters. q. Under certain circumstances, calculations on totals would not print, or would partially print, on grand total lines. This problem was introduced in V3.6 and has been fixed. r. Most of the time in the File Section of XENTIS/Report, the default value would not change when the highlighter was moved. s. XENTIS/Update would sometimes lose its place in the data file when the primary key was being changed. RMS does not allow the primary key to be changed. Therefore XENTIS would perform an 'add a record' followed by a 'delete a record' to change the primary key. Under some circumstances RMS, and XENTIS, would lose its current position in the file, which could cause XENTIS to update the wrong records. This problem could occur if a first/last key was specified but not duplicated in the selection specifications. To solve this problem, XENTIS no longer allows the primary key of a file to be changed, unless the REUPDATE function is being used. Since changing keys in /Update without using REUPDATE is not a good idea, XENTIS will now issue a warning message whenever a key field is being changed and REUPDATE is not the function. t. Pointer files did not always work if the primary file was from a different dictionary than the secondary file. This problem has been fixed. u. No error message was issued if more than the maximum number of primary files were entered. XENTIS would just ignore the extra files. It will now issue an error message. v. If an output file in XENTIS/File used an ADD_DATE field (a field that is automatically updated with the current date) that allowed for time, XENTIS was not including time in that field when it was writing the record. This problem was introduced in V4.2. w. The special date literals FIRST, LAST, BEGIN, END, TODAY were not handled properly when used at the "First/Last key to read" prompt when the datatype of the key was TDA. When it converted the data from the literal to an actual date it would use only the number of bytes that the literal used. This problem has been fixed. x. XENTIS/Model did not allow the same date formatting as XENTIS/Report. It would always produce a default date, but without time and without any text formatting. It would also fail to suppress the century when a mask of 9 # characters was used. This has been corrected.

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