Tag Logical Element (TLE) structured field

TLE structured fields are allowed only in AFP data stream (MO:DCA-P) documents.

IBM® Application Programming Interface (AFP API) supports the TLE structured field and can be used from host COBOL and PL/I applications to create indexed AFP data stream (MO:DCA-P) documents. Document Composition Facility (DCF), with APAR PN36437, can also be used to insert TLE structured fields in an output document.

The format of the TLE structured field that ACIF supports and generates is as follows:

Carriage Control Character (X'5A'): Specifies the carriage control character, which is required in the first position of the input record to denote a structured field.
Structured Field Introducer (8 bytes): Specifies the standard structured field header containing the structured field identifier and the length of the entire structured field, including all of the data.
Tag Identifier Triplet (4–254 bytes): Specifies the application-defined identifier or attribute name associated with the tag value. An example is 'Customer Name'. This is a Fully Qualified Name triplet (X'02') with a type value of X'0B' (Attribute Name). For more information, refer to Mixed Object Content Architecture Reference.
Tag Value Triplet (4–254 bytes): Specifies the actual value of the index attribute. If the attribute is 'Customer Name', the actual tag value might be 'Bob Smith'. This triplet contains a length in byte 1, a type value of X'36' (Attribute Value) in byte 2, two reserved bytes (X'0000'), and the tag value.

The following example shows a 39-byte TLE structured field containing an index name and an index value. For the purposes of illustration, each field within the structured field is listed on a separate line. X' ' denotes hexadecimal data, and " " denotes EBCDIC or character data.

X'5A0026D3A090000000'
X'11020B00'
"Customer Name"
X'0D360000'
"Bob Smith"

TLE structured fields can be associated with a group of pages or with individual pages. Consider a bank statement application. Each bank statement is a group of pages, and you might want to associate specific indexing information at the statement level (for example, account number, date, customer name, and so on). You might also want to index (tag) a specific page within the statement, such as the summary page. The following example shows a print file that contains TLEs at the group level as well as at the page level:

BDT
  BNG
    TLE Account #, 101030
    TLE Customer Name, Mike Smith
      BPG
        Page 1 data
      EPG
      BPG
        Page 2 data
      EPG
      ...
      ...
      BPG
        TLE Summary Page, n
        Page n data
      EPG
  ENG
  ...
EDT

ACIF can accept input files that contain both group-level and page-level indexing tags. You can also use the input record exit of ACIF to insert TLE structured fields into an AFP data stream (MO:DCA-P) file, where applicable. The indexing information in the TLE structured field applies to the page or group containing them. In the case of groups, the TLE structured field can appear anywhere between a Begin Named Group (BNG) structured field and the first page (BPG structured field) in the group. In the case of composed-text pages, the TLE structured field can appear anywhere following the Active Environment Group, between the End Active Environment (EAG) and End Page (EPG) structured fields. Although ACIF does not limit the number of TLE structured fields that can be placed in a group or page, you should consider the performance and storage ramifications of the number included.

ACIF does not require the print file to be indexed in a uniform manner; that is, every page containing TLE structured fields does not have to have the same number of tags as other pages or the same type of index attributes or tag values. This allows a great deal of flexibility for the application. When ACIF completes processing a print file that contains TLE structured fields, the resultant indexing information file might contain records of variable length.