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
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