400 indexer

The Content Manager OnDemand 400 indexer is a powerful tool for indexing print data on IBM® i systems, such as SCS, Advanced Function Presentation (AFPDS), and the less common SCS-Extended and Line data.

The 400 indexer supports input print files from the following sources:

Spooled files containing SCS, SCS-extended, AFPDS, or Line data
Physical files containing SCS or Line data with First Character Forms Control (FCFC) characters in column one of the data
Stream files containing SCS or Line data with FCFC characters or stream files containing AFPDS data

See Using stream files as an input source for more information on processing stream files.

The 400 indexer is the only indexer used for IBM i print files. The 400 indexer is supported on IBM i, and cannot be used on any other platform. When you run the 400 indexer on an IBM i server, you can invoke it from the IBM i command line (by using the Add Report (ADDRPTOND) command), by using the Content Manager OnDemand monitor for spooled files (by using the Start Monitor (STRMONOND) command with *OUTQ for type of monitor), or by using the Content Manager OnDemand monitor for stream files (by using the Start Monitor (STRMONOND) command with *DIR3 for type of monitor).

The 400 indexer provides three major functions:

Processing of print files
The 400 indexer processes the print files created by various application programs, such as SCS, AFPDS, and Line data reports. The print files can be viewed, printed, and archived by Content Manager OnDemand.
Sophisticated indexing functions
The 400 indexer can logically divide print files into individual items, such as statements, policies, and bills. You can define up to 128 index fields for each item in the print file.
Collection of AFP resources
For AFPDS print files, the 400 indexer determines the resources necessary to view, print, and archive the files and collect the resources (with the exception of fonts, which are not stored but are mapped by the OnDemand Client or server printer during display or print). Resources allow users to view the data as it appeared in the original printed version, regardless of when or where the file was created. For a spooled file, you can use the Display Resource List (DSPRSCLOND) command to identify which resources are used by the file. For a stream file, you can use the ARSAFPD program to identify the resources.

The 400 indexer indexes input print files based on the organization of the data:

Document organization. For print files made up of logical items, such as statements, policies, and invoices, the 400 indexer can generate index data for each logical item in the file.
Report organization. For print files that contain lines of detail with sorted values on each page, such as a transaction log or general ledger, the 400 indexer can divide the report into sets of pages and generate index data for each set of pages.

The 400 indexer gathers information from three sources to process the input print files:

Indexing parameters that specify how the data should be indexed
AFP resources required to view and print the data, if the data was created by an AFP application
The print data stream, as described previously

The first step in indexing a print file with the 400 indexer is to create the indexing parameters. The indexing parameters describe the physical characteristics of the input data, identify where the 400 indexer can locate the index data within the print file, and provide other directives to the 400 indexer. Collecting the information needed to develop the indexing parameters requires several steps. For example:

Examine the input print file to determine how users use the data, including what information they need in order to retrieve the data from Content Manager OnDemand.
Decide whether the input print file should be converted to AFPDS or PDF.
- If the input data is an SCS spooled file that specifies an AFP overlay, Content Manager OnDemand will convert the input into AFPDS data during the indexing process if your application has been defined to do so. See Handling SCS spooled files that have AFP overlays for further information.
- If the input data is an SCS or AFPDS spooled file, Content Manager OnDemand can convert the input into a PDF stream file before the indexing process runs if your application has been defined to do so. In this case, the PDF indexer is used to process the stream file. See Converting spooled files to PDF before indexing for further information.

In addition to defining the index fields that you want to use to retrieve the data, you also specify the information that allows the 400 indexer to segment the data into individual items known as groups. A group is a collection of one or more pages. You define the bounds of the collection; for example, a bank statement, insurance policy, phone bill, or other logical segment of the input file. These are examples of document organization as defined previously. A group can also represent a specific number of pages in a report. For example, you might decide to segment a 10,000 page report into groups of 100 pages. The 400 indexer creates indexes for each group. This is an example of report organization as defined previously. Groups are determined when the value of an index changes (for example, account number), or when the maximum number of pages for a group is reached.

You use the graphical indexing tool of the OnDemand Administrator client to define the indexing parameters.

The graphical indexing tool can be invoked in one of two ways:

By clicking the Select Sample Data button within the Report Wizard, or
By clicking Modify with sample data on the Indexer Information panel within a Content Manager OnDemand application definition

See the Report Wizard section of the IBM Content Manager OnDemand for i: Administration Guide for more information on the Report Wizard. See the section titled Adding the Application in the Examples section of the IBM Content Manager OnDemand for i: Administration Guide for more information on defining an application without using the Report Wizard.