March 2012
Newsletter

IOFTech    Maintenance   Release8G       Newsletters    Doc    FAQ    Contact    Home

Announcing
IOF
Release 8E

New Email, Operlog and Rexx features

      Topics

  • Overview
  • Supported Email Interface for z/OS
  • Enhanced SEND for Emailing Output
  • Additional support for the OPERLOG
  • Detailed Screen Capture for IOF Displays
  • Significant SNAP Enhancements
  • Enhanced Features for Rexx Applications  
  • Availability

  • Overview

    IOF Release 8E now includes a completely supported email interface for z/OS along with significant enhancements to the IOF SEND commands.  You can easily scan the OPERLOG even if you normally access log data through SYSLOG.  Every IOF screen display can now be captured and optionally converted to html format.  Significant new SNAP and Rexx interface features were developed in support of the email and send enhancements.

    Release 8E supports all versions of z/OS through z/OS V2R1.  It may run but has not been tested with OS/390.  Note that Spin Level 2013316 or later must be installed in order to support z/OS V2R1.

    Supported Email Interface for z/OS

    The ability to email output job information was a very popular feature of  IOF Release 8D.  However, a number of users were hindered in their deployment of these features because they depended on a non-supported email interface (XMITIP).    

    IOF Release 8E contains a completely supported email interface for z/OS.  Sites that are currently using XMITIP for IOF send functions can continue to use XMITIP for their IOF send interface or easily switch to the new IOF email interface. 

     In addition, the new IOFMAIL command allows users to conveniently download z/OS data sets from a simple interface panel.  The IOFXMIT command can be used in an ISPF Edit session to download the current data set.

     A very powerful and flexible interface is provided for Rexx execs to invoke the IOF mail features directly, which makes it easy to integrate email capabilities into other application systems.  And a batch cataloged procedure makes it trivial to send emails from a batch job.   

     IOF Mail features are controlled and customized using IOF options.

     For more information “click here”.  For detailed technical specifications when running IOF 8E, enter the IOFMAIL command and then press HELP on the interface panel.

    Enhanced SEND for Emailing Output

    The IOF SEND facility was a very popular feature of IOF Release 8D.  With that facility users can email selected job output and batch jobs can email a notification or selected portions of their own output.

     For IOF Release 8E the IOF Send facility can interface with the new, fully supported IOF email interface.  Customers currently using XMITIP as the email interface for IOF SEND can choose to continue with XMITIP or easily switch to the new IOF mail interface.  

       In addition, for IOF Release 8E the IOF SEND facility has been enhanced to make it easier to access more SEND features. 

     New interface panels make it easy to access more send features.  New formats for the default subject, message text, and PC file names provide more meaningful and consistent information about the downloaded job output.

     New formatting choices give enhanced control over a job’s output on the PC, and the html output format has been significantly improved. 

     Rexx applications can now easily interface with SEND features to make it easy to integrate send features into other application systems.  And a batch cataloged procedure makes it simple for a job to email selected portions of its own output. 

     For 8E you can now capture the output that would have been sent in an email into a snap target data set.

     SEND features are now controlled and customized using IOF options.          

     The software infrastructure for the SEND facility has been generalized to make it much easier to interface to other email products or zip products.  You specify your email and zip products for SEND as IOF options.

     For more information “click here.  For detailed technical specifications, enter a SEND command under IOF 8E and then press HELP on the interface panel.

    Additional support for the OPERLOG

    The new OPERLOG command for IOF Release 8E allows you to browse multiple days of OPERLOG data even if the IOF LOG command is configured to access SYSLOG data.  OPERLOG works even if the SLAMOPER task is not being run at the site.  OPERLOG does not use the index built by SLAMOPER, so the data being browsed will not have the normal index provided by the LOG command.

    The OPERLOG command (abbreviated OP) with no parameters displays the option panel shown below.

    Select a single system by entering it's sysname in the System field.  Select the starting date by entering a value in the From field.  Specify the number of days to browse by entering a value in the Days field.

    Note that the OPERLOG command must be entered on the IOF Option Menu unless you have enabled global option menu commands.

    Detailed Screen Capture for IOF Displays 

    The new CAPTURE command allows you to make a detailed copy of any IOF display panel.  The copy is written to an IOF snap target data set.  Entering CAPTURE with no parms will guide you through the process.  By default, only the currently displayed rows and columns will be captured.

     You can choose to capture all of the rows and columns of the current IOF panel, not just those currently displayed on the screen.  You can capture the screen in html format and choose how to handle the attribute characters in the panel display.

     For more information about the CAPTURE command “click here”.

    Significant SNAP Enhancements

    IOF Release 8E contains a number of significant improvements to the IOF SNAP facility:

    • Snap data in html format
    • Snap any allocated data set into the current snap target
    • Convert any sequential data set into html format
    • Single line command to specify snap target and snap job
    • Create base64 output for binary data
    • Simulate carriage control in snap output
    • Access attributes of open snap target
    • Access record counts and total bytes in current snap target
    • Defer disposition of a sysout target until after it is closed

    For more information about these new features “click here”.

    Enhanced Features for Rexx Applications

     New features increase the power and flexibility of the IOF Rexx interface.  While some of these features have similar parallels in Rexx functions, these simple IOF commands work very well in IOF Rexx execs.

     To see if DD MYFILE name is currently allocated:

                CHECKDD  MYFILE

    A  return code of zero means that the DD name is allocated.

     To free the DD name MYFILE if it is currently allocated:

                 FREEDD   MYFILE

     On the IOF Job Summary, to preserve the current exclude status of the display:

                 SAVEEXCL

     To restore the Job Summary display to its state at the last SAVEEXCL command:

                 RESTEXCL

     To terminate an IOF Rexx exec in a batch environment and set the step return code:

                 EXITCODE nnn

     See the CAPTURE facility for extensive new features for capturing IOF display panels in various formats.

     See the SNAP features for powerful new Rexx capabilities for copying and reformatting sysout data and z/OS data sets.

    See the SNAP features for the ability to access the attributes and size of the current snap target data set.

    Availability

    IOF 8E was officially released on June 29, 2012.

     

     

    Triangle Systems, Inc. PO Box 12752, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
    Email IOFTech@Triangle-Systems.Com