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Greetings!
We want to help you get the most out of FormSprint. That's why we've
put together this email newsletter. We hope you will find the
information it contains useful. Furthermore, if there is some topic you
would like to see us cover, please let us know. And if you have a tip
or cool application of your own, we would like to hear about it so we
can share it with our other users.
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| The Beauties of Buffer 1
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If you've used the buffers in FormSprint, you know how useful they can be for separating data, concatenating and using logic. But did you know that Buffer 1 has some very special properties? By placing certain control characters in Buffer 1, you can communicate specific instructions to
FormSprint. 1) &&NEW - This tells FormSprint to break the output spool file at this point. We use this in faxing and emailing to break up the spool for individual email addresses or fax numbers. 2) &&pp/tt - This character string is used to call for a specific page type and optionally a specific feed tray. This could be used, for example, to call a check form (&&1) and follow-on remittance pages (&&2). This permits the processing of the page types to be entirely unique. 3) &&F:FORMNAME - This coding tells FormSprint to "jump" to another form altogether. This could be used, for example, if a whole "family" of forms comes into the OUTQ with the same formtype but some other key field or character string might designate a unique form - a report card with a unique school number, for example.
When using buffers, even if you are not using buffer 1 for one of these
special types of processing, its a good idea to leave it available for some later implementation.
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| Web-Enabled
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 MAPICS user MK Diamond Products, Inc. allows their customers to access their invoices through a web browser. FormSprint is instrumental in the process. Here's how it works: The user logs in to their account through a web browser. When they click on a button a web services program running on the System i calls a report writer that generates a spool file of the appropriate invoice. The spool file goes to a FormSprint virtual queue where it is processed to produce a PDF file. The PDF is placed in a directory under the Integrated File System (IFS) where the web services program retrieves it and displays it in the user's web browser.
Custom Systems Corporation provides the web services program called Enterprise Access (EAX). The software is System i-based and can provide web access to purchase orders, commission reports, statements or any other document as well as invoices.
If you need to provide web access to System i data, you should take a look at EAX. Here is their Web site. |
SPOOL GRID Revisited
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 Once in a while a FormSprint user will call to get help because a form that had been working suddenly has problems. Maybe data has shifted on the form, stopped or started printing or is truncated. Usually the first step in diagnosing the problem is to print a spool file page to form SPOOL GRID or SPOOLN&%.
These forms are designed to show all the data in a spool file page and what lines and columns it falls in. The SPOOL GRID may show that the starting and ending column of a field is too small and part of the data, an unusually large total for instance, isn't included in what prints on the form. Then it's usually a simple matter to increase the number of columns FormSprint picks up. To print a SPOOL GRID, change the formtype of the spool file to SPOOL GRID, set a page range if necessary, and release the file. If the spool file has been moved to a hold queue not attached to a printer you can use the FormSprint Link (Option 2 from the FormSprint menu) to process it manually, or move it back to an active virtual queue. Form SPOOLN&% does the same thing as SPOOL GRID but will handle wider spool files. |
Other Stuff
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- The USERDATA field can be used to override the printer set up in the batch job. If the USERDATA field contains a valid printer queue preceeded by an asterisk (*), then FormSprint will ignore the output printer in the batch job and use the one in the USERDATA field.
- A quick and easy trick to split a spool file: Load the field that you wish to break the spool file by (for example, account number, territory number, or sales rep number) into a buffer. Then use the Dynamic Distribution function and enter the buffer number in the path field of the function. The function would look like this: FN(DD,*QUEUE,*LIB,PAGE,1,*B6,N) if buffer 6 is where you loaded the field.
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We hope you've found something useful here and please forward this to other System i users you think might benefit from FormSprint. We're always on the lookout for new customers.
Sincerely,
Betsy Andrews
Integrated Custom Software, Inc.
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>From the Help Desk
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 Recently, Bryant and I had the wonderful experience of sailing from Copenhagen, Denmark to the Nord Kapp in Norway (the most northern point in
Europe) and back to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. We saw some amazing
scenery along the way and I can now say that the west coast of Norway is the most beautiful place that I have ever been.
The Buried Church or tilsandede kirke - this little church was buried many years ago by the drifting sand in Skagen, Denmark.
Skagen is a delightful village on the northern tip of the Jutland Peninsula
of Denmark - at the point where the North Sea and the Baltic come together. You can go to the very tip and stand with one foot in the Baltic and one in
the North Sea, and I did - very COOL! | |
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