Common methods of transferring files

You can transfer files from other systems to Content Manager OnDemand servers using a variety of methods. Each method results in a different set of possible outputs. Some methods produce output that cannot be used by ACIF. Methods commonly used to transfer files from other systems to Content Manager OnDemand servers and produce output that ACIF can use are:
  • Physical media (such as tape)
  • PC file transfer
  • FTP/SFTP
  • Download

Conventional file transfer programs cannot correctly handle the combination of variable-length files, which contain bytes that cannot be translated from their original representation to ASCII, and might also contain machine control characters, mixed line data and structured fields, or special code points that have no standard mapping.

The best solution is to either NFS-mount the file, or write a small filter program on the host system that appends the two-byte record length to each record and transfer the binary file.

Generally, NFS-mounted files are not translated. However, NFS includes a two-byte binary record length as a prefix for variable-length records. (Check your NFS implementation; you might have to use special parameters.)

Restriction: Some NFS systems do not supply the binary record length for fixed-length files.

ACIF treats a file that contains only structured fields (MO:DCA,AFP, or LIST3820 data streams) as a special case. You can always transfer such a file as a binary file with no special record separator, and ACIF can always read it because structured fields are self-defining, containing their own length; ACIF handles print files and print resources (form definitions, fonts, page segments, overlays, and so on) in the same way.