Re: AW: Pulling spool files off AS/400 - VB?

[PaulMmn <PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Adam,

Oliver's reply made me realize that 'all' you want is a spool queue downloader.

One product that includes this function is MetaFile.  Part of the
package is a downloader that downloads an output queue to a directory
on a PC.  The download can be set to run automatically every xx
seconds.  The downloaded spool file can be deleted or moved to
another output queue.

We have the program running on an NT server.  The only drawback with
the version we have (2-3 years old) is that it does not run as a
service; you need to keep a session signed on and the program running.

MetaFile is a program which archives spool files, indexes the
contents, and allows users to find documents based on that index.
The archive is created and stored on a PC.  Because the retrieval is
an index lookup, not a search, it is quick.  New documents are added
to the index after they are downloaded.  Time to add a document to
the index depends on the size of the document, number of words to
index, and the existing size of the index.

Every word, character sequence, and number are indexed.  You can
search for a dollar amount listed at the bottom of an invoice, a
customer number, a city name, a customer name.  Anything.  You can
also omit 'junk' words (like a, an, the, of, from, etc., etc.)

You can add an overlay and view the archived spool files as if they
were printed on your custom forms.

I don't know if they offer the download portion separately.

One thing that impressed us when we invited the MetaFile folks to
give us a demonstration:  IT WORKED!  We provided a PC with Client
Access installed (I don't recall if it was an NT machine or not; the
production version is running on NT).  The rep installed the software
on the PC (no software required on the AS/400).  After tweaking the
settings for the output queue to monitor (and, IIRC, tweaking some
authority), IT WORKED!  Took less than 30 minutes from a standing
start.  IT WORKED!  As advertised.  No messing with fancy settings.
No "Oh, you need to do such and such."  IT WORKED!!  That sold us,
even though there were other products we had yet to evaluate.

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@ix.netcom.nospam.com





>Adam,
>
>I just reviewed a tool that does exactly what you need. When you put a
>spoolfile to a specific outq, it will be copied to
>a PC and you can define what is to be done with it - i.e. put it into a
>specific directory on the server, e-mail it or whatever.
>
>Would that be something along your line?
>
>Regards,
>
>Oliver