Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

    Sang,
    
    The fact that a documnet marked as FOREIGN had to have a .FGN extension
    used to be a limitation with the foreign DSAB in V2.3 but I
    thought it had been lifted with V2.4/V3.0.
    
    Anyway, the .FGN extension is synonymous with a foreign file. As such
    ALL-IN-1 assumes that it cannot COPY or RENAME files to a .FGN since
    it is not possible to convert a foreign file. (aka If you COPY a .WPL to a
    .TXT the file is converted en route).
    
    Kevin
    
    

>    1. Why documents/mails that are tagged with FGN DSAB must be of .FGN
>    file extension ?
    
The text dataset mechanism uses the file type of a file specification to 
select the action routine to process the file.  For example a file type of 
.WPL will select the WPSPLUS action routine and a file type of '.FGN' will 
select the FOREIGN action routine.

The file cabinet information includes a field called the data type (which
is sometimes called DSAB).  This shows which text dataset will be used if
ALL-IN-1 uses the text dataset mechanism to process the file. 

The contents of the data type field should always correctly reflect which 
dataset will be used as determined by the file type of the file 
specification.  It is possible for the data type and file type fields to 
get out of step.  This could cause a file to be processed incorrectly 
because the data type says do it one way but the file type will cause it to 
be done in a different way.  

The correct mapping between data types and file types is defined in the 
OAET.MAR file.



>    2. When using ALL-IN-1 function RENAME/COPY to rename or copy files
>    with various extension coding to .FGN, ALL-IN-1 will give an error
>    message and operation will not be successful.  However, these functions
>    do not seem to have problem with other extension code, i.e. you can
>    copy from whatever extension to whatever other extension.  Why FGN is
>    so special ?
    
A copy operation which also requires performing a conversion will not work 
with the FOREIGN text dataset.  For example,

	<copy 'FILE.WPL' 'FILE.FGN'

will not work because a conversion is required, but

	<copy 'FILE1.FGN' 'FILE2.FGN'

will work because a conversion is not required.


Could you give some examples of COPY and RENAME functions which fail.



Richard

    
    The problem that this customer is encountering is like this :
    
    The have a modified version of ALL-IN-1 DESKtop with front-end portion
    completely rewritten.  Upon mail bag delivery to ALL-IN-1 IOS, all
    attachments were give .ATT extension but with DSAB FGN.  They used to
    be a close environment with all users communicating and use the same
    re-written front-end served by a single node ALL-IN-1.
    
    Now they have a requirement to send mail to other ALL-IN-1 IOS systems. 
    When the fetcher was not successful in fetching message from MR on the
    other end due to this FGN issue because the attachements do not have
    .FGN as extensions.
    
    Attempt was made to modify code on the sender side, however, the copy
    function :
    
    <COPY blabla.ATT blabla.FGN
    
    does not work and thus cannot resolve the problem.
    
    Regards,
    Sang.

    
    The latest update from the customer is that the following does not
    work:
    
    <COPY blabla.ATT blabla.FGN
    
    However, he can get the desired result when doing rename after copy:
    
    <COPY blabla.ATT blabla.ATT
    <RENAME blabla.ATT blabla.FGN
    
    I'm very confused now.
    
    Regards,
    Sang.

>    The latest update from the customer is that the following does not
>    work:
>    
>    <COPY blabla.ATT blabla.FGN

The file type part of an RMS file specification is used to indicate the
format of the file's contents.  When the file types are different ALL-IN-1
performs a record mode copy so that it convert the format of the input file
to the format of the output file.  The conversion is performed by
converting the input file to the internal Text dataset format, and then the
internal format is converted to the output format. 

Your copy command has different file types so ALL-IN-1 will attempt to
perform a conversion.  However, the FOREIGN text dataset does not support
record mode operations which is why the COPY function reports an error. 

>    However, he can get the desired result when doing rename after copy:
>    
>    <COPY blabla.ATT blabla.ATT
>    <RENAME blabla.ATT blabla.FGN
>    

When the file types are the same ALL-IN-1 assumes that the formats of the
input and output files are the same and that it can perform a block mode
copy.  A block mode copy is much more efficient that converting the input
file to the internal text dataset format and then converting the internal
format to the same output format. 

The FOREIGN text dataset does support block mode operations which is why
the copy works. 

In ALL-IN-1 V3.0 we added the /FILE qualifier to the COPY command which 
causes it to always perform a block mode copy regardless of what the file 
types are.  For example you could do:

    <COPY/FILE blabla.ATT blabla.FGN
    

Richard

    
    Richard,
    
    Thanks so much for your detail explanation.  However, the customer is
    currently not running V3.0, thus the COPY/FILE is not available now.
    
    So while copy works as your described, RENAME does not.  Is that right?
    
    Sang.

Sang,

In what way is RENAME not working?  Could you give an example.

Because RENAME is just changing the RMS name of a file, and does not have
to concern itself with the contents and therefore the structure of the
file, it does not involve text dataset operations. 


Richard

    
    Richard,
    
    I guess you've explained pretty well.  I'm not saying RENAME does not
    work, I was just asking why RENAME ignores the extension.
    
    Thanks a lot.
    
    Cheers,
    Sang.