HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
A Combined Example
Every week employees fill in a time sheet and send it, in the internal
mail, to the accounts department.
Accounts are responsible for notifying managers of how much is charged
against them for employee's time. They do this by sending the managers
an HP Desk message containing the relevant figures.
How can this be done automatically?
Using Forms
A good way of automating the filling in of time sheets is to design a
VPLUS/3000 form which looks like the original paper time sheet. When
users run the data entry program (ENTRY.PUB.SYS), they are allowed to
fill in the required information without being allowed to type in the
wrong place. VPLUS/3000 also allows some checking of data to make sure
numeric fields are numeric etc.
The data entered in this way is stored in a VPLUS/3000 Data File.
Collecting the Forms
An employee completes the form and then mails the Data File to the
accounts clerk.
The accounts clerk creates a Forms Package in their Work Area. When a
time sheet message arrives in the In Tray, the clerk opens the message
and copies the Data File into the Forms Package.
There are two problems with the above solution. The clerk has to open
each message in order to access the Data File and it is not immediately
obvious when all the time sheets have arrived. However, these problems
can be overcome in the ways described below.
Every week, the accounts clerk uses the HP Desk SENDFORMcommand to send a
blank time sheet to all employees. Before mailing the message, the clerk
sets an acknowledgment level of 6. This means that any replies will be
collated in the Pending Tray.
The employees use the REPLYFORM command to fill in the form and mail it
back to the accounts clerk.
When the completed forms are returned, the Data Files are automatically
gathered into a Forms Package which is kept in the original message in
the account clerk's Pending Tray. The clerk can see who has not replied
yet by TRACKing the message.
When all the replies have been received, the message containing the Forms
Package is automatically moved to the In Tray.
The accounts clerk now has all the Data Files in one Forms Package.
Processing the Forms
The clerk opens the message in the In Tray (or Pending Tray if the forms
are to be processed before everyone has replied), opens the Forms
Package, and starts a specially written application which processes the
Data Files.
The application first does an Interrupt Mode 7 to check that it is in a
Forms Package and allows HP Desk to build up its list of the Data Files.
It then takes each Data File in turn, using Interrupt Mode 8 and
processes the information in it.
Sending the Results to the Managers
Once it has processed all the Data Files, and calculated its results, the
application must compose a message to the managers containing the
figures. The text of the message is created as an MPE file.
The accounts clerk could mail this file manually. However, there are a
number of more sophisticated methods of mailing an MPE file. Three
possible solutions are described below.
Mailing Solution 1
A script runs the application. When the application terminates, the
script mails the MPE file. For example:
:RUN APPLIC
SEND (RESULTS) TO "MANAGERS"
MAIL
Some points to consider are:
* The script can be written so that the clerk can add names to the
Distribution List , or it can use a fixed Distribution List as in
the above example.
* The script can put an acknowledgment request on the message and it
can also defer the message if required.
* The application must generate an MPE file with the same name every
time it is run, so that the script can find it.
* HP Desk will prompt the user for a subject for the message, unless
it has a subject stored with it.
Mailing Solution 2
A script file starts the application. The application processes the Data
Files and then imports the text of the message into the user's Work Area,
using Interrupt Mode 4 or 6. The script mails the item from the Work
Area once the application has terminated. For example:
:RUN APPLIC
SEND "RESULTS" OF WORKAREA
&COMMENT HP Desk will prompt for a distribution list
&COMMENT at this point
MAIL
Some points to consider are:
* The script can be written so that the clerk can add names to the
Distribution List, as in the above example, or it can use a fixed
Distribution List, If a fixed Distribution List is used, the user
need not be prompted for anything.
* The script can put an acknowledgment request on the message and it
can also defer the message if necessary.
* The text of the message is copied twice, once from the MPE file
into the Work Area and once from the Work Area into the message.
The user has to wait while this happens.
Mailing Solution 3
The application creates the message in ARPA format and mails it to the
managers using FSC.
It builds an ARPA header containing the Distribution List of the managers
and then appends the text of the message. This is stored in a file. The
application then writes a record to ARPAIPC containing the name of this
file.
When the FSC truck is started, the message is brought into HP Desk and
mailed.