View source for UL/SPF


<var class="product">UL/SPF</var> &mdash; ''User Language System Productivity Facilities'' &mdash; is a family of products implemented as <var class="product">User Language</var> application subsystems, designed to function together in a <var class="product">Model 204</var> Online. 

As of Model 204 7.5 - Fall, 2015, UL/SPF has been superceded by [[RKTools]].

Each product in the family can be installed and run independently, or each can be installed and run as a component of the integrated <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> framework. All <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> products share a common "look and feel" that is modeled on IBM's ISPF facilities. <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> supplants the sometimes arcane command language of <var class="product">Model 204</var>, providing a highly productive full screen interface to a variety of common <var class="product">Model 204</var>
functions. 

<var class="product">UL/SPF</var> enhances the capabilities of <var class="product">Model 204</var> and bypasses many of its restrictions, enabling the performance of routine tasks that were previously impossible or prohibitively time-consuming.

==UL/SPF components==
<var class="product">UL/SPF</var> comprises the following products:
<dl>
<dt>[[SirDBA]] <dd>A system that analyzes <var class="product">Model 204</var> databases to determine their logical
structure, populating an internal catalog. <var class="product">SirDBA</var> is distributed as a
component of the Sir2000 Database Analysis Tools. 

<dt>[[SirFile]] <dd>A comprehensive facility both for monitoring the physical storage utilization
of <var class="product">Model 204</var> database files and for warning users of the need for file
reorganizations. <var class="product">SirFile</var> maintains historical information that allows it to
predict when file sizing problems will occur, allowing a DBA to take
preventative action before an application outage results.

<dt>[[SirLib]] <dd>A powerful and flexible system that provides change management and
configuration control for <var class="product">Model 204</var> <var class="product">User Language</var> applications. <var class="product">SirLib</var> is
fully integrated within the <var class="product">Model 204</var> programming environment, supporting
unique <var class="product">Model 204</var> constructs such as file groups, while remaining nearly
transparent to programmers.

<dt>[[SirMon]] <dd>A comprehensive facility for monitoring the performance and availability of
<var class="product">Model 204</var> online systems. <var class="product">SirMon</var> combines the real time monitoring of
<var class="product">Model 204</var> performance with intelligent full screen displays that facilitate
System Manager duties.

<dt>[[SirPro]] <dd>A collection of powerful and easy to use tools for programmers, database
administrators, and application managers. <var class="product">SirPro</var> provides programmers
with powerful facilities for managing large libraries of <var class="product">User Language</var>
procedures, and it provides system managers with intuitive ISPF-like front
ends to many <var class="product">Model 204</var> system management commands.

<dt>[[SirScan]] <dd>A high performance utility that allows users in a <var class="product">Model 204</var> Online to
browse the contents of its journal in real time. <var class="product">SirScan</var> permits ordinary
users to view journal entries generated by their own online session, and it
allows users in ADMIN SCLASSes to browse journal entries for any set of
users. The data is displayed in a full-screen browser with powerful
searching commands and filtering options.
</dl>

In addition, a number of subsystems that are not linked into the <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> menuing
structure may be accessed via APSY-transfer from the <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> applications. One such subsystem is FACT, a utility for browsing <var class="product">[[Media:FactrNew.pdf|SirFact]]</var> dumps.

There are also many sample web and client-server applications developed for the Janus
product family that are distributed and installed along with the <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> products. These
include JANCAT, an application that builds normalized views of <var class="product">Model 204</var> data for use
by <var class="product">Janus Specialty Data Store</var> applications, and JANSSL, a system for creating and managing SSL certificate requests.

==UL/SPF packaging and installation requirements==
All of the <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> products are <var class="product">Model 204</var> application subsystems written in <var class="product">User Language</var>.
<var class="product">UL/SPF</var> is distributed as a set of <var class="product">Model 204</var> files in a backup
format produced by the <var class="product">Model 204</var> <var>DUMP</var> command.
All <var class="product">User Language</var> based products are
distributed in a single <var class="product">Model 204</var> procedure file called <b>SIRIUS</b>.
 
<var class="product">UL/SPF</var> makes extensive use of specialized <var class="product">User Language</var> $functions.
These $functions enable the creation of powerful <var class="product">User Language</var>
application systems that can support complex environments with minimal server size requirements.

==Integrating <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> with other subsystems==
<var class="product">UL/SPF</var> and any of its constituent products can be easily integrated
with other <var class="product">User Language</var> subsystems.
Whenever a <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> component product is exiting, it first checks to see if the global variable <var>SIRIUS.COMM</var> exists and has a non-null value.
If so, the <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> product performs a subsystem transfer using the value in <var>SIRIUS.COMM</var> as the name of the target subsystem.
 
For example, the following code fragment lets you transfer into <code>SIRMON</code>.
When <code>SIRMON</code> exits, control is transferred
to the application subsystem <code>MENUSYS</code>, provided that <code>NEXTPROC</code>
is the current subsystem's communication global variable:
<p class="code">%rc = $Setg('SIRIUS.COMM','MENUSYS')
%rc = $Setg('NEXTPROC','XFER')
%rc = $Setg('XFER','SIRMON')
STOP
</p>
 
In addition to the individual <var class="product">User Language</var> subsystems that implement
the <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> products,
Rocket Software distributes an umbrella <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> subsystem:
The <b>ULSPF</b> subsystem provides a menu that contains entries for
all <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> components installed at a site.
 
The <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> subsystems support fast-path navigation.
For example, a <var class="product">SirMon</var> user can transfer into <var class="product">SirPro</var> Option 1 by typing:
<p class="code">=M.1.1</p>

==UL/SPF installation==
Installing <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> requires downloading the SIRIUS file and restoring it to your environment, setting up some subsidiary <var class="product">Model 204</var> files, and verifying that the environment has the appropriate parameter settings. For details, see [[RKTools installation]].

Upgrades to <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> can almost always be handled by restoring a fresh copy of the SIRIUS file. 

[[Category: Sirius Software products]]