[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:*OLD* ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:IOSG::PYE
Created:Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4343
Total number of notes:18308

576.0. "Meeting and Attendee files screwed up" by BIGRED::GARRETT () Mon Apr 27 1992 07:14

    I apologize if this is in the conference in another note but it was too
    late to conduct an exhaustive search. I am looking for help with a time
    management problem. There was/is a problem with ALL-IN-1 V2.4 where the
    MEETING and ATTENDEE and possibly other data files would get corrupted
    if users used the Events Plus or Events at a Glance options to Modify
    or Create an event. This would cause the calendar files to get messed
    up such that the wrong attendees would get attached to a meeting. It is
    my understanding that the ALL-IN-1 update patch A1024SUS020 fixes this
    so it does not occur again. What I would like to know is how to fix the
    files such that they are correct again. I think you have to hand edit
    the corrupted files but I am not sure which files are affected and what
    must be done to fix it.
    
    My questions:
    
    Which files are affected by the problem above? Does it also include
    user calendar files?
    
    How can I identify the affected records?
    
    Can I just delete the affected records and convert the file?
    
    What FDL files do I use?
    
    Thanks in advance for any and all help
    
    Tim Garrett
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
576.1detailsAIMTEC::ZANIEWSKI_DWhy would CSC specialists need training?Mon Apr 27 1992 19:2033
        Hi Tim.  I can provide a brief description of what needs to be
        done.  It's not always possible to fix these corruptions.  It
        depends upon how serious the damage is.
        
        Start with the users .A1CAL file.  The indexed key is the first 16
        characters (called .CAL_KEY), of which 13-16 are used to prevent
        duplicates.  The field called .MEETING_POINTER is 46 characters
        long is composed of two fields (schedulers name, 30 characters and
        start date and time pointer in meeting.dat, 16 characters).  The
        date and times need to match for these two fields.  The two sets
        of 4 character uniquifiers may be different.  The last field of
        interest is .TYPE and should have a value of M for an event with
        attendees.  The schedulers name must not be blank for an event
        with .TYPE = M.
        
        The data in MEETING.DAT must then be checked.  You may have to
        create new records to fix the problems.  From DCL, do a
        READ/KEY="value of .MEETING_POINTER" to get the record.
        
        There is then one record in ATTENDEE.DAT for each of the attendees
        to the event.  The indexed key is the first 76 characters composed
        of .MEETING_POINTER and .ATTENDEE_NAME.  Sometimes these records
        also do not exist.
        
        The key to correcting these problems is finding the proper value
        for .MEETING_POINTER, making appropiate corrections to
        MEETING.DAT, ATTENDEE.DAT and the attendee and scheduler .A1CAL
        files.
        
        Dave Zaniewski
        
        PS, not all the corruptions are prevented with the patch you
        mentioned.
576.2How to determine what records in ATTENDEE are valid?BIGRED::GARRETTMon Jun 15 1992 15:3012
    Dave
    
    How do you clear up the corruption of too many attendees for a meeting?
    It would seem that the meeting pointers have to match or the attendee
    would not show up on the meeting but how am I to know, by looking at
    the ATTENDEE.DAT file, that an attendee record is valid or invalid.
    
    What corruptions still exist and how can they be avoided?
    
    Thanks
    
    Tim G
576.3Dead Products support on vacationAIMTEC::WICKS_ADEC Mail Works for ME sometimesMon Jun 15 1992 16:558
    Tim,
    
    Dave is away for two weeks so unless someone in Charlotte can help
    you're going to have be patient.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
576.4Pretty straightforwardSHALOT::NICODEMWho told you I'm paranoid???Tue Jun 16 1992 19:1030
	Dave already gave a pretty good overview in .1.  There's a couple of
approaches you can take, depending on whether you want to simply remove "error"
records, or totally clean up the entire data base.  (I differentiate between the
two, in that the first just gets rid of any records that could cause direct
errors, but could end up leaving "dead" entries in ATTENDEE.DAT -- entries that
will *never* go away; the second is more like a "verify and repair".)

	To accomplish the latter, you'd have to do as Dave said -- go through 
each user calendar file, check for all meetings, check the meeting pointer field,
look that up in the MEETING.DAT record, check for all entries in ATTENDEE.DAT
with that meeting pointer, etc.  It's not that difficult -- just time-consuming.
(Although, if you *do* write something like that, let us know; it'd be a great
utility to have around!)

	In your case, you might be better off just walking through the ATTENDEE
data file and verifying that everything there *should* be there.  Each record in
ATTENDEE.DAT should a) have a corresponding record in MEETING.DAT (this does not
indicate a one-to-one correspondence; more than one ATTENDEE record can -- and
usually does -- point to the same meeting record), and b) each record in a user's
calendar that is a Meeting should have a related entry in the ATTENDEE file,
keyed on the meeting pointer plus the attendee's name.

	If either is out of synch, you'll have to decide what to do about it
(the simplest being to blow away the one that *does* exist, at the cost of losing 
the information).

	If I get a few minutes, I'll try to put together some code to help 
explain what I've described.

	F
576.5Very time consumingAIMTEC::ZANIEWSKI_DWhy would CSC specialists need training?Tue Jun 30 1992 14:286
        Thanks Frank.  I'd started working on some code to identify the
        potential problems before v3.0 shipped.  I'll get back to it after
        I finish rewriting my scripts to work with the new TM mail
        interface.
        
        Dave Zaniewski