HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Information Access Enhancements
by Guy Randazzo
Application Support Division/STC
Information Access services of HP NewWave Office allow users to select a
range of data sources on their HP 3000s and HP 9000s (Series 600 & 800)
or PCs, and output the data to PC applications of their choice. Within
the cooperative computing environment, these services consist of
easy-to-use client interfaces on the user's PC and a data server on the
HP 3000 or HP 9000. With Information Access, decision makers spend less
time gathering data and more time analyzing and solving business
problems.
NEW PRODUCTS
Information Access Server, a component product of HP NewWave Office, has
been available since 1985 and allows you to retrieve data from TurboIMAGE
databases and MPE files on MPE V/E and MPE XL systems.
Two new component products have been added to HP NewWave Office that
enable PCs to connect to and retrieve information from HP ALLBASE/SQL and
ORACLE databases on HP 3000s and HP 9000s (Series 600 & 800). Both of
these products, Information Access SQL/XL and Information Access SQL/UX
use Information Access PC and NewWave Access, the same easy-to-use,
interactive interfaces used by Information Access Server.
HP ALLBASE/SQL and ORACLE provide administrative functions, as an
integral part of their database management system, which allow the
database administrator to control access to the data sources and create
view tables that PC users can access. Therefore, unlike Information
Access Server, Information Access SQL/XL and Information Access SQL/UX do
not need separate database administrator tools .
These products take full advantage of the data dictionary that is part of
every ALLBASE/SQL environment and every ORACLE database. This makes it
far easier to implement and maintain Information Access SQL than
Information Access Server.
Other product structure changes that have been made to Information Access
are:
* Previously, access to IMAGE and MPE files on networked HP 3000s
one node away from the host could be accessed only if a separate
product, Information Access Remote 3000 Link, was purchased. The
functionality available with the Remote 3000 Link product is now
bundled in with Information Access Server for free.
* The Information Access Cullinet(R)2 Link product is now obsolete.
This product allowed Information Access Server to access data in
the Cullinet Information Center Management System(R)2. This link
product is no longer sold nor supported.
* The HP150 personal computer is no longer supported. Only Vectra
or IBM(R)4 compatibles are supported.
The rest of this article focuses on the new enhancements that have been
added to Information Access Server (Access Server) and Information Access
PC (Access PC), version A.05.
ACCESS SERVER ENHANCEMENTS
The following enhancements have been added to Access Server, version
A.05. Unless otherwise noted, these enhancements are included in Access
Server/V (A.05.00) and Access Server/XL (A.05.10).
* IMSAM is now supported on MPE XL. Information Access will take
advantage of IMSAM(R)1 keyed reads on TurboIMAGE databases that
have been enhanced by the OMNIDEX(R)1 Information Management
System. Previous to the A.05 release, OMNIDEX(R)1 was supported
only on MPE V/E and not on MPE XL.
* Major enhancements have been made in the area of joining tables.
Access Server can now join up to 16 tables together. These joins
can be any number of chained joins, sorted joins (where neither of
the two join items is an IMAGE, KSAM or IMSAM(R)1 key items), or
left outer joins.
* A new left outer join is now supported. When a left outer join is
performed, all records from the primary table are included, even
if a match is not found in the secondary table. Items in the
secondary table are filled-in with user-defined default values.
The primary table may be a configured table, a saved table or the
result of other join operations.
* DBAs configure the editor of their choice to create and edit view
tables. The DBA can use editors such as HPEDIT, TDP and QEDIT(R)3
to manipulate view tables instead of the standard V/3000 screen.
This will allow copy and paste, search and replace, easier
alignment, and the ability to copy view tables from one HP 3000 to
another. The size of each view table clause has also been
increased.
* HDPBATCH can output to an ALLBASE/SQL table (MPE XL only).
* 10 Group By items are now allowed, up from 4 in previous releases.
* Full view table functionality via an SQL command is available via
the Host Batch Facility or Access PC Batch. This new SQL command
greatly simplifies table manipulation and provides all the power
of Administrator Utility view tables (for example the SUB
function, concatenation, CASE statements, left outer joins and so
on) plus aggregate functions that are not available through
Administrator Utility view tables.
* The Host Batch Facility now has a prompting capability. New
commands that are similar to the Access PC batch commands
SECUREINPUT, INPUT and ASSIGN are now available through the Host
Batch Facility.
* Reserved words (like CASE, MATCH and DIV) can now be configured as
item or table names. Previous to the A.05 release, the DBA was
not allowed to configure item and table names that were also
Access Server reserved words. Reserved words require an
exclamation point prefix (!) so that Access Server can
differentiate true reserved words from these names.
* 16 Sort Items are now allowed, up from 8 in previous releases.
* Records that have been retrieved before the user cancels the
operation in the Host Batch Facility or Access PC will be kept.
This feature is very useful as a way of obtaining a more
comprehensive list of sample values.
* Miscellaneous enhancements have been added to the Administrator
Utility including 1) allowing a list of tables by access group, 2)
allowing secondary DBAs to configure access groups and users, 3)
adding a "*" in the Item Clause of a view table means include all
items, and 4) an easier to administer table security, including
the ability to configure default table security.
ACCESS PC ENHANCEMENTS
The following enhancements have been added to Information Access PC,
version A.05.00.
* Full view table functionality via an SQL command is available via
PC Batch (remote tables only, no local table support). This new
SQL command greatly simplifies table manipulation and provides all
the power of Administrator Utility view tables (for example the
SUB function, concatenation, CASE statements, left outer joins and
so on) plus aggregate functions that are not available through
Administrator Utility view tables.
* Access PC screen flow has been greatly enhanced. In previous
releases of Access PC, the flow between Access PC screens was
restrictive. With the A.05 release, the user can reach almost any
screen from any other screen with a single function key step. A
few benefits of this new screen flow are: 1) a Report Writer
layout can be edited without loading the table, 2) unwanted
columns can be eliminated after a query, 3) Access PC is easier to
use, and 4) better server performance is achieved because the load
is delayed until all table manipulation has been specified.
* Access PC supports 16 sort items and 16 table joins with remote
Access Server tables, up from 8 sort items and 4 join tables in
previous releases.
* A new output type "Labeled DIF" is included as an output option
which includes column names in the DIF file.
* Records that have been retrieved before the user cancels the
operation in Access PC will be kept. This feature is very useful
as a way of obtaining a more comprehensive list of sample values.
* PC8 characters are now supported in table and column names (local
table support only).
* The Summary Table screen of Access PC now allows up to 10 Group By
Items when manipulating remote tables. Local tables still only
support 1 Group By item.
* Access PC now supports COM3 and COM4 when using a serial
connection.
* The Access PC manual set has been vastly improved.
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1IMSAM(R) and OMNIDEX(R) are trademarks of Dynamic Information
Systems Corporation.
2Cullinet(R), Information Center Management System(R) are
trademarks of Cullinet Software, Inc.
3QEDIT(R) is a trademark of Robelle Consulting Ltd.
4IBM(R) is a trademark of International Business Machines
Corporation.