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At the moment the results of the AS/400 processings
are still reproduced mainly
on paper.
The daily, weekly, monthly processings produce a lot of paper
that users have
to analyze.
This system involves a waste of time to:
With Spool Office you will be able to supply your analysis
databases: EXCEL, ACCESS etc.
in the same time the AS/400 report is created, without any
intervention.
Spool Office the direct connection between the data you
need with the OFFICE Tools.
In this way the value of the reports raises, because they
assume a new role: a source
of re-processing data.
Spool Office is particularly designed for the end user:
the graphics interface makes the
product easy to use. No specific training is necessary.
We want to give the end users, which know their reports
data perfectly, the chance
to convert them from a static point of arrival, into a dynamic
starting point.
It is essential to have data available promptly and in the
form required.
Spool office offers a great advantage compared with any
other query tools that extract
data from AS400 files. Existing tools need the knowledge
of file organisation and if there
is not a suitably organised file, users are neither able
to know which files hold the
relevant data, nor the connections that link them.
As the Spool Office user collects printed data, he does
not need specialist knowledge.
Furthermore, he accesses processing results that might not
be recorded into files.
In this way any report can become a valuable source of information;
a sort of data
warehousing that arises from what you have already: your
own reports.
The AS/400 reports can be converted into Word, TXT or HTML
output file by clicking the
mouse. The Word file keeps the report's original layout.
You can select the optimum
formatting among a series of options (form rotation etc.).
This file can be edited directly
by Word and printed through any printing or fax driver.
To create a structured database file you have to provide
Spool Office with a set of
information so that the tool can detect the lines and the
fields of the AS400 report.
This operation is defined as Report processing rule
and has to be executed only once
for every report you have to manage. Every time you request
the processing you will
obtain the result you predefined.
REPORT SEMPLIFIED
PROCESSING: COPY ALL
You can use Spool Office in copy mode, to get by the AS/400
report a WORD, TXT,
or HTML file.
By the Spool Office's main window, you select the report you
need, and press the button
copy all. The output type to create is requested:
The WORD file is crated optimizing the formatting
(for example from an horizontal format
to a A4 format).
The file can be edited and printed through any printed driver
or fax.
The file can be automatically zipped and sent by Internet.
ORGANIZING THE
INFORMATION: STRUCTURED DATA
The WORD file is crated optimizing the formatting
(for example from an horizontal format
to a A4 format).
The file can be edited and printed through any printed driver
or fax.
The file can be automatically zipped and sent by Internet.
If in the EXCEL's file you write the customer's name and the
province on all the record written, you'll get the goods sold
ordered by product and provinces or by provinces and product,
(besides the situation ordered by customers).
In other words you can obtain from an only report analysis
by different perspective.
The flattening of the report above, allows you to write on
the records information coming
from different lines of the report.
For example you can write a file quoting only data coming
from the report's detail lines,
or you can write on the same record data coming both from
the detail lines (customer
name) and coming from product total lines, (quantity and total
ordered).
To create a structured database file you have to provide Spool
Office with a set of
information so that the tool can detect the lines and the
fields of the AS400 report.
This operation is defined as Report's processing rule and
has to be executed only once
for every report you have to manage. Every time you request
the processing you will
obtain the result, you predefined.
EXCEL'S MACROS
Spool Office allows to apply, in the same time it creates
the Excel file,
macros you defined previously.
In this way, starting from the list of the customer's sold,
and creating a Pivot's table,
we can analyse the sells from various angles.
This means TO SET AT ZERO the data preparation time for
the analysis,
by connecting the AS/400 report with OFFICE tools directly.
REPORT SEGMENTATION
In the file creation from AS/400 report, you can have two
requirements met by
Spool Robot.
-
To assign to the file created a variable name according
to the contents of the report.
-
For example if you want to create a WORD file or
an EXCEL spreadsheet by the
product's analisys certificate, sent out from your
application, you can construct
the file name by linking the data present in the report.
So you can send product's analisys certificate by
internet as required by your
customer: he will be able to register it on its server
so that it can be looked up
by his users.
-
The second requirement is to create a WORD or an EXCEL
file from an only report,
every time the contents of one or more information in
a certain position of the
report changes.
In the picture you can see an example of agent commission
report segmentation
in single files. The name is dynamically constructed.
From today the agent's commissions can be sent by fax or Internet,
automatically.
OUTPUT DISTRIBUTION
The output distribution can occur in two ways:
-
Manual: by selecting the report, applying the
rule, selecting the output type and
the mode of sending.
-
Automatic: Spool Robot intercepts the report,
segments it (if it is necessary) applies
the rule and sends it by Fax/E-mail or Local without needing
any intervention.
In local environment output can be stored on server or
on a user's directory.
Toward outside Fax or Internet can be used by taking the
fax numbers or the E-mail
addresses from the report or from relevant address book
connected.
If it is requested, the files is automatically zipped.
PRODUCT INTERFACE
Spool Office is particularly designed for the end user:
The graphic interface makes
the product easy to use. No specific training is necessary.
We want to give the end users, which know their reports data
perfectly, the chance to
convert them from a static point of arrival, into a dynamic
starting point. It is essential
to have data available promptly and in the form required.
Users enabled to use Spool Office are entered in a specially
provided list that delimits
also the product's utilization level.
User can be registered as rules simple user, or can be enabled
to write his/her own rule
to manage the report.
The rule user sees only the rules he/she can use, and displays
only the spooled files
he/she can access to.
To run a rule highlight the report, highlight the rule's output,
and press the run button.
With this operation you get the results.
It is possible to gilve the user the results of the processing,
without asking any
inervention.
Spool Robot can retrieve the report and perform all the activities
defined in the report's
handling rule.
In this case it is not necessary to install the product's
Client component in the user's PC.
LINE IDENTIFICATION
The rule's definition activity is executed directly on
the picture of the report selected
by the AS400.
In this way you can check the result you'll obtain by executing
the rule.
First of all you have to identify the lines of the report
holding significant data.
Since the information is collected from the report according
to its position on the line,
you have to distinguish the different lines types to be able
to read the data correctly,
in positional way.
If data you have to take are on a only line type, you only
have to identify this line.
If data you have to take are on different lines types, you
have to identify any line type
univocally.
The lines can be identified by different criteria:
-
According to characters that are present in the line
-
According to the line number
-
According to the page number
-
According to the previous line.
If it is necessary, you can add more conditions, in order
to identify the report line
properly.
The image of the report changes dynamically, when you add
or change an identification
condition, by showing near every line the name you assigned
to the group of conditions
satisfied.
In the picture we identified the line "Agente"
according to the line number, because
it is unchangeable in all the report's pages.
The detail line has been identified according to the characters
that are present in the
line: the date's separating point is always present in these
lines.
The lines do not satisfy the conditions above, will be omitted
by the processing.
FIELDS IDENTIFICATION
With this action you select the lines identified and the
fields you need.
You have to give a name to every field, write the position
within the line, and write the data type.
The field's name or the text will be used to head the EXCEL's
cells or to identify the field in the database's file.
The initial and final positions of the fields can be stated
in different ways:
-
By draggging the first and the last character of the
report to the relevant boxes.
-
By double clicking on the first and on the last character
of the report.
-
By writing the value by the keyboard.
The fields identified are listed under the line one belongs
to in the left window.
Besides the data present on the report you can define null
field and constant, expecially useful in case of spreadsheet
output.
FILE WRITING
Through this operation you can set the writing of one or
more output files, different
for the fields you selected, and /or the writing time of the
file.
For example by the same report you can plan an EXCEL spreadsheet
where the prices
are listed, and a second one where the prices are omitted.
For every output file you have to select the fields you want
to write, among the ones
you identified in the previous step and mark the line that,
among the identified lines,
will determine the file writing.
To do this you only have to drag the fields from the left
section to the right section,
release them on the line that will provoke the output record
writing.
If you want to write a mono-record file, you have to drag
the fields identified on a single
line of the right section, even though you took them from
different lines.
During the printing process, when the line determining the
output passes, a record
is written with the fields in the order listed in the right
section.
To get a multi-records file, you have to drag the fields
near the lines that will provoke
the writing.
You can manage the properties of the lines and of the output
fields with some dialogwindows.
For example:
If you want to keep the edit of the fields or not, etc.
When you use Spool Office, to define all the information
to transfer to the designer,
this step is executed automatically: all the fields identified
are transferred to output.
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