Product Overview
RELATE was developed in direct response to requests from customers of Ascert's simulation products. These products allowed intelligent field-level comparison of messages; our customers wanted to perform similar functions on their application files, since they were unable to use regular comparison programs due to their limitations:
- They only compare complete files
- They only compare records sequentially
- They know nothing about the record structure
- They compare whole records -they cannot ignore parts of the record
Consider the situation where a test has been executed, and the test plan calls for the database contents to be verified to ensure that it was updated correctly. This can be achieved by comparing a subset of records in a base-line database against the records produced in the latest test-run. Since it is quite normal for applications to timestamp the latest modification to a record, comparing whole records will always result in a mismatch.
What is needed is to be able to ignore fields that are known to be different; in this case the timestamp field. Where differences between records are detected the fields containing the difference should be displayed, rather than expecting the test operator to spot the differences or run a separate reporting program against the records.
On other platforms there are a plethora of tools available for addressing this and other maintenance and migration functions, such as the File-Aid product for IBM mainframes. Developers on NonStop systems have never had the luxury of such a depth of tools, and have either developed their own, or 'made-do' with tools not designed for the purpose. This approach is costly, inefficient and error-prone. For example:
- When widespread changes are required to be made to a database, staff are forced to write custom one-off programs, or use products such as DBAccess and Enable which only allow the interactive updating of single records. A more efficient and less error-prone solution is to enter a single command that will update in one pass all the required records.
- When changes to the database are to be compared against a baseline database, either custom code must be written, or the files must be transferred to another platform for comparison. Both methods are costly, and in the last case subject to errors being introduced as the data is transferred between platforms.
RELATE provides a reliable and cost-effective solution to these requirements.
Product Description
RELATE is an intelligent file manipulation program capable of operating on all ENSCRIBE files at both the record and field level.
RELATE uses either the application’s DDL dictionary or COBOL copybook sections to determine automatically the format of files to be processed. Its command set includes commands that enable the user to specify additional information about the record contents, such as:
- Which fields are to be ignored during a comparison.
- The format of a date and time value stored within a field.
- Which fields are to be displayed as a group item rather than their individual components.
- When to use a specific redefinition of an item, thus allowing RELATE to handle variable format messages automatically.
RELATE operations are performed on a specified set of records within a file, determined using a record selection clause similar to SQL's 'WHERE' clause, as demonstrated in the example below. Operations provided in RELATE include the following:
- The ability to compare the record selection in one file against that in the other file, optionally ignoring certain fields. Different comparison strategies can be employed to cater for different type of files and data.
- The ability to copy a record selection to another file.
- The ability to globally update specified fields in all records in a selection
- The ability to globally delete all selected records
- The ability to insert new records into a file.
RELATE exists as a standalone program. It is run directly from the TACL command line. Users can enter RELATE commands on the command line interactively in response to RELATE prompts, embed RELATE commands within a command file, or place RELATE under the programmatic control of a TACL macro, perhaps within a managed test environment such as that provided by the VersaTest Automator product from Ascert.
Product Usage
RELATE has relevance across all industries, and throughout both development and technical support departments, for example:
- In development, RELATE can be used to perform a reliable load of data into a test database, and can analyze the differences made to the file during a test run.
- Where large test databases are being used, RELATE can update only the portions of the database being modified, thus avoiding the large delays associated with resetting a test database.
- In the technical support area, RELATE can be used to selectively display file contents, and to automatically update files that may previously have required custom programs, or that may have required laborious interactive processing using products such as DBAccess.
| Example |
|---|
RELATE FILE COMPARISON Current File: .REL8ISV.EGFKS Baseline File: .REL8ISV.EGFKSB Time of Comparison: 18-OCT-1997, 13:14:20.250 =================================== Mismatched Record = PKEY: Join-year = 92, Seq-num = 1, Company-code = 99 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Baseline Version)- Diff: Dept = " ", Hours-per-week = 0 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + (Current Version) + Diff: Dept = "ADMIN ", Hours-per-week = 10 ======================================================= Comparison Results:- Current File:..........................REL8ISV.EGFKS Baseline File:.........................REL8ISV.EGFKSB Synchronization:......................KEY Records compared from Baseline file...2 Records compared from Current file....2 Extra records in Current file.........0 Records missing from Current file.....0 Mismatched records....................1 Total records differing ..............1 |
System Requirements
RELATE requires an HP NonStop system running a D-series or later operating system.
