This section describes how active report distribution works and how logical users can replace distribution lists to improve Entire Output Management's performance and ease-of-use. It covers the following topics:
The obvious benefit, as explained below, is that the monitor must submit considerably fewer Adabas calls to distribute active reports. This reduces CPU requirements, thereby increasing throughput, both for the monitor and for the Adabas database containing the Entire Output Management system file. It also means that fewer records are stored in the Entire Output Management system file, so that it occupies less space on the database and grows more slowly.
Currently, a user added to a distribution list - for example, a new employee in the Finance department - can only browse active reports created after that user was added to the distribution list. With a logical user representing Finance, on the other hand, the new employee can see all active reports.
Other benefits include an orderly and consistent active report filing system and the prevention of accidental deletion of active reports (see Summary of Differences, below, for more details).
When the Entire Output Management monitor creates an active report, it distributes it to the specified users and distribution lists by reading each distribution list and storing a mail record for each user in the list and for each specified user. If a user appears in more than one list, only one mail record is stored for that user.
10:45:29 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Distribution List Maintenance -
Cmd List Authoriz Description Members Part Of
___ ________ ________ ________________________________________ _______ ______
__ ALLUSERS ADMIN Reports for all users 2
__ FINANCE ADMIN Reports for Finance Department 4 *
__ PERSONEL ADMIN Reports for Personnel Department 5 *
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
All
Command => ___________________________________________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
Help Add Exit Flip - + Menu
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This screen displays 3 distribution lists. ALLUSERS contains the lists FINANCE, which includes 4 users, and PERSONEL, which includes 5 users. Reports for all users are distributed with ALLUSERS. Those for users in the Finance Department are distributed with FINANCE and those for users in the Personnel Department are distributed with PERSONEL.
To distribute an active report with ALLUSERS, the Entire Output Management monitor must read ALLUSERS, FINANCE and PERSONEL (3 Adabas calls) and store a mail record for each of the 9 users included in the 2 lists (9 Adabas calls). Using FINANCE requires 1 read and 4 stores. Using PERSONEL requires 1 read and 5 stores.
An alternative approach to distribution is to define a logical user, which represents a distribution list, and then to define a folder for each user on the distribution list and link it to the logical user's #Inbasket.
The following section explains how to do this for our 3 example distribution lists.
Before starting you might find it useful to:
print the members in each distribution list - use the line command
LI for the relevant lists, and
do an Xref of where the lists are used for distribution - use the
line command XR and then select Report Definition
> Distribute to.
To define logical users:
In User Maintenance (option 8.2), define the users: ALL-USER, FIN-USER and PER-USER:
11:39:10 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Define User -
User ID ...... ALL-USER
First Name ... Logical userid__________________
Last Name .... representing all users__________ Title .. ________________
Address ...... ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
City ......... ________________________________
Country ...... ________ Postal Code .. __________
Dept No ...... __________ Dept Name ... ________________________________
Location ..... ________________________________
Organization . ________________________________
Work Phone
Country ... __ Phone .. _______________ Extension .. __________
Home Phone
Country ... __ Phone .. _______________
Command => ___________________________________________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
Help Add Exit Flip Do Undo ProFl Menu
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11:40:50 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Define User -
User ID ...... FIN-USER
First Name ... Logical userid__________________
Last Name .... representing Finance users______ Title .. ________________
Address ...... ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
City ......... ________________________________
Country ...... ________ Postal Code .. __________
Dept No ...... __________ Dept Name ... ________________________________
Location ..... ________________________________
Organization . ________________________________
Work Phone
Country ... __ Phone .. _______________ Extension .. __________
Home Phone
Country ... __ Phone .. _______________
Command => ___________________________________________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
Help Add Exit Flip Do Undo ProFl Menu
|
11:42:23 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Define User -
User ID ...... PER-USER
First Name ... Logical userid__________________
Last Name .... representing Personnel users____ Title .. ________________
Address ...... ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
City ......... ________________________________
Country ...... ________ Postal Code .. __________
Dept No ...... __________ Dept Name ... ________________________________
Location ..... ________________________________
Organization . ________________________________
Work Phone
Country ... __ Phone .. _______________ Extension .. __________
Home Phone
Country ... __ Phone .. _______________
Command => ___________________________________________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
Help Add Exit Flip Do Undo ProFl Menu
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Now modify the Authorization definitions for each of the logical users' #Inbasket folders. ALL-USER's #Inbasket should now be available to everybody.
Enter the line command FO for ALL-USER
and then AU for #Inbasket.
Press PF2 to add an authorization.
Enter PUBLIC in the Granted User ID field:
11:47:29 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Active Reports>Folder Maintenance -
- For User ID ALL-USER -
Cmd Folder +----------------------------------------------------------+
___ _____________ ! Authorization List Folder - ALL-USER00001 !
au #Inbasket +-----------------------------------------------+ !
__ ! - Authorization Definition - ! !
__ ! ! !
__ ! Object Type: Folder ! !
__ ! Object Name: ALL-USER00001 ! !
__ ! Granted User ID ....: public__ ! !
__ ! Grant Options: ! !
__ ! Owner ....: ! !
__ ! Modify ...: ! !
__ ! Purge ....: ! !
__ ! Display ..: ! !
__ ! Archive ..: ! !
__ ! Revive ...: ! !
__ ! ! !
__ ! Command => ______________________________ ! ___________ !
All ! Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF5---PF9----PF12-- ! !
Command => __ ! Help Add End Do Ext Menu ! 8---PF12- !
Enter-PF1---PF +-----------------------------------------------+ wn Menu !
Help Add +----------------------------------------------------------+
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Now ALL-User's #Inbasket can be made available to any user.
Repeat this process for FIN-USER and PER-USER, but instead of making a public grant, grant their #Inbasket folder to the appropriate distribution list so that only authorized users have access. (Alternatively, if you intend to delete the distribution list, specify the individual user IDs - you will need to grant each one separately).
To establish the link for a user, enter the line command
FO for each required user and press PF2
to add a folder:
11:56:18 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Folder Definition >General Attributes-
Folder
Name .............. All User Reports
Description ....... Reports for all users_____________________________
List Layout .......... 2 1 = Active Report summary
2 = Active Report list (descriptive attributes)
3 = Active Report list (technical attributes)
Linked Folder
User ID ........... ALL-USER
Folder Name ....... #Inbasket_______
Command => ___________________________________________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
Help Add Exit Flip Do Undo Menu
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Now, when UKSJU goes into Active Reports, there will be a new folder:
11:58:13 **** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** 2008-01-03
User ID UKSJU - Active Reports>Folder Maintenance -
Cmd Folder Description
___ ________________ _________________________________________________________
__ #Inbasket
__ uksju2-reports
__ vka-reports
__ All User Reports Reports for all users
__
__
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__
__
__
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__
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__
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All
Command => ___________________________________________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
Help Add Exit Flip - + Reset Menu
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Modify each master report that uses one of our 3 lists and, in Distribution, replace the list name with the logical User-ID. Instead of ALLUSERS, specify ALL-USER; instead of FINANCE, specify FIN-USER; instead of PERSONEL, specify PER-USER. Remember that reports are also distributed to the Master Owner, so you may want to change that also (to ALL-USER, FIN-USER or PER-USER - however, bear in mind that, if Use Owner-ID is set to Y, in system defaults, the Master Owners must be defined to any external security system) and to any user with authorization granted to the report.
If these 3 lists are only used for distribution (not for authorization) they can now be deleted. All new active reports created for the amended master reports will be distributed only to the logical user, which means that the Entire Output Management monitor will not need to read any distribution list records and will only have to store 1 mail record per active report. Obviously, this will greatly improve performance over distributing active reports to many users.
On the other hand, all users will still be able to browse their active reports, owing to the folder links.
The major difference with logical users is that active reports distributed before these changes will still be in each user's own folder. This means that the user has to look in one folder for old reports and another folder for new reports. This problem can be alleviated by distributing existing active reports to the logical user, so that all non-archived reports will be available in a single folder (archived reports cannot be distributed). Of course, if logical users are implemented from the beginning, this disadvantage does not arise.
Another difference is that active reports can no longer be manually deleted, except by a system administrator, who must enter LI for the master report definition and delete active reports from the resulting list. This may or may not be a disadvantage, depending on whether or not you allow users to delete active reports. On balance, deletion is best left to the monitor and the system administrators, to prevent accidental deletion.
The final difference is that the user must look in several folders, instead of receiving all reports by default in #Inbasket. Initially this might seem disadvantageous, but once the user becomes accustomed to it, will prove an advantage as it imposes an orderly filing system.
