Has anyone actually used the Management Central->Definitions->Product
feature to define a Licensed Program Product?
What a piece of junk! Here are the things I find wrong with it.
Hopefully, someone who has used it successfully may have solutions or
work-arounds for these problems:
1) Each optional component requires a separate library--the Software
Product APIs do not impose this restriction so why does *MGTC?
2) Can't control dynamic naming of installation libraries--the
Software Product APIs do not impose this restriction so why does *MGTC?
3) All options in a product must share the same licensing (i.e.,
Concurrent, Registered, Processor)--the Software Product APIs do not
impose this restriction so why does *MGTC?
4) Can't control the product load names nor the feature codes--the
Software Product APIs do not impose this restriction so why does *MGTC?
5) All paths have to exist prior to defining the product.
6) All paths have to be selected one by one--slow and painful for a
complex product even if you only need to do it once.
7) Requires SEPARATE systems in order to install different languages--
haven't they heard of SECONDARY language support?
8) Can't specify the message identifiers or message file for
component text descriptions (can fix this after the fact but it gets
undone by the next build).
9) Can't build product as QSECOFR (how stupid is that? although this
appears to be fixed on later releases)
10) End up with Q-named (i.e., IBM) objects in your product
11) Can't create cover letters for fixes.
12) There appear to be other design defects related to ownership of
fixes, authority to build products, etc. but I don't have time to
experiment to determine exact behavioural problems.
Seems to me this is completely useless for packaging anything other
than a simple single-licence fairly basic product. Might be OK for in-
house applications (although I can't see anyone going to this effort)
but is useless for a proper product.
I was trying to build a product WITHOUT referring to documentation
because Navigator is such an intuitive interface [sarcasm] however I
ran into problems with Management Central and some of its design
flaws (like storing the IP address for end-point systems instead of
resolving via DNS) so I started searching for solutions to those
problems and encountered the "Managing OS/400 with Operations
Navigator V5R1 Volume 4: Packages and Products" Redbook. I note that
it states:
"The Packages and Products component of Operations Navigator
provides a function within
Management Central as a subset of the product packaging options
available from System
Manager."
The operative word is "subset" so I suppose I've just answered my own
append--although I do not consider "subset" sufficient justification
for some of the obvious flaws in the design of this tool.
Ah well, back to using my own packaging tools ...
Regards,
Simon Coulter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
FlyByNight Software OS/400, i5/OS Technical Specialists
http://www.flybynight.com.au/
Phone: +61 2 6657 8251 Mobile: +61 0411 091 400 /"\
Fax: +61 2 6657 8251 \ /
X
ASCII Ribbon campaign against HTML E-Mail / \
--------------------------------------------------------------------
midrange.com
