This section provides an overview of the benefits and features provided when using file translation as provided by Adabas Vista.
Many organizations have a requirement to have an application use either test or production data without requiring that the application itself be modified. The ability to do so reduces significantly the risk involved in modifying applications immediately prior to their being placed into production mode.
Adabas Vista’s file translation feature can be used to change file numbers dynamically within Adabas applications at runtime. The file numbers are translated based on the translation information supplied to Adabas Vista.
For example, a Natural program is compiled in a test environment using a test DDM to access file 25 in database 10. After testing has been completed, the program is to to be placed into production using file 67 in database 41. By providing this information to Adabas Vista using translation rules, the switch to production mode can be made without any further application modification
An application file generally has many different versions of its data. These different versions normally relate to the promotion stages that an application follows as it progresses into production. In order to avoid application changes, as each promotion stage is completed, the Vista translation rules for that file would need to be updated to reflect the new data to be used at that particular promotion level. With standard file translation, updating the translation rule will cause everybody using the application to use that particular version of data which is clearly not ideal if there are a number of application changes each of which may be at a different promotion stage.
However, by defining each of your promotion stages as a Target Category, Adabas Vista will allow the specification of translation rules for each promotion stage. Because the Target Category is runtime configurable, you can then have the same application being run from any number of jobs, each being at a different promotion stage, yet each using data relevant for that promotion stage.
When different business groups share the same applications, each business group’s data requirements have to be met. For example, groups may share the same infrastructure files (for example, FNAT) but each group may also have their own independent files (for example, Accounts).
File translation pages are a means of providing this flexibility. Each page can contain one or more translation rules. Any number of pages can be defined and any job which is configured for Adabas Vista can specify up to 8 of these pages. For example, one page could define all the infrastructure translation rules which are shared across the applications, another page could be those translation rules pertinent to one business group, another page those pertinent to another business group, etc. Jobs run by any particular business group need only ensure the appropriate pages are defined to it.
At runtime, Vista will merge the specified pages into a single set of rules. Rule attributes can be established to determine rule selection in the event that an application file is defined to more than one page.
