REPRUN

LINC Batch Reports in LDA III Run Time

Information Exchange Group, Inc.

Overview:

Being able to run sequences of LINC reports against test data allows more complete development and testing on the workstation before production deployment. LDA III does not provide a mechanism to initiate a sequence of reports in batch mode. IEG's REPRUN reads records from a "batch" file and initiates LINC Reports or operating system commands. REPRUN displays and prints a "job summary" and can optionally "chain" to further report batches.

The batch file (a "Job") is a free-format text file with no word processing formatting applied such as highlighting, etc. Only the first 72 characters of a record are processed.

A percent sign (%) indicates that the rest of the line is purely comments.

Although records 1 through 5 and "n+1" are required, records 1, 2, 3 and 5 can be blank or comments only.

· Record 1 is for documentation purposes only.

· If record 2 is blank or only comments, LINCRPT.EXE must be in the same directory as REPRUN.

· If record 3 is blank or only comments, the LINC.INI file must be in the same directory as REPRUN.

· If record 4 begins with a "-b ", all LINC reports will begin running in debug mode. Other LDA run time options can be placed here as well as long as they are all separated with a space.

· If record 5 is blank or only comments, no message file will be created.

· If the first non-space character of records 6 through n is an asterisk (*), the rest of the line (up to a % sign) is passed literally to the operating system as a command. Use the same conventions as if calling for "File...Run" from the menu bar of Window's Program manager or File Manager.

· If the first non-space character of records 6 through n is a greater than symbol (>), the rest of the line is appended to "command.com /c " and then passed to the operating system.

The "END JOB. " statement may optionally be followed by the name of another Job to "Chain" to. The name must begin immediately after the "." of "END JOB." Also, if "END JOB." is all in capital letters, a Job summary will be printed; otherwise, no summary will be printed.

REPRUN looks for the Job to be in the same directory as itself. REPRUN can be initiated with a Job name in its command line. In this case, REPRUN will look for the specified Job instead of "JOB.BAT." The specified Job can include a path.

REPRUN shows a log of activities on the screen. The title bar shows the name of the currently processing Job. The text area shows entries from the Job file. The currently executing Report or Task is highlighted. Under each line having a Report name or Task is the current disposition of the task which can be:

1. "waiting prior task,"

2. an error message,

3. a task number assigned by Windows and initiation time/date.

Note: The format of the "batch file" is:

record # Description

-------- -----------

1 Begin Job <Jobname>;

      2 <Path to LINC executables>
                  (where LINCRPT.EXE resides)
                  (the ending "\" is not required)

3 <Path to LINC.INI>

4 <Business Segment name in the
LINC repository>

5 <Trace file name>

6-n <Report name> or *<task>

(one line per Report or task)

n+1 END JOB. (With the period)

Job Summary

Note: Not all LINC Reports have the same Task number under Windows 3.x. A job summary is always saved in the same directory as the batch file with the name <ddhhmmss>.SUM, where dd is the day of the month and hhmmss is the time of day on a 24 hour clock.

Chaining
END.JOB

Example of chaining to another job file called gen.bat:

END JOB.gen.bat

end job.gen.bat (no summary files printed)

For example:

*sol.exe

% Play some solitaire

*COMMAND.COM /C DEL c:\REP\*.TMP

% Get rid of temporary files

% ************************

% Build BANNER

% ************************

% Say good-bye

For example:

>COPY C:\REP\*.* C:\REPBAK\

% Do the backup