Designing MFS for the workstation environment

Both input and output data can be processed by MFS. The exit for the Input Transaction edit routine is available to provide additional editing capabilities.

The availability of MFS to workstations is defined on an individual basis by the system administrator during IMS system definition. When MFS is defined as available, each input or output message can optionally be processed using MFS. The format of messages to be processed by MFS is defined using the IMS-supplied MFS Language utility.

Operations using MFS can be quite different from operations using the IMS Basic Edit facilities. Device formats and operator procedures should be designed carefully, with the objectives of easy use and high-operator productivity.

MFS provides two levels of message formatting: device-level message formatting and distributed presentation management (DPM). Device-level message formatting is for Finance logical units. DPM support is for SLU P logical units.

To prevent null screens, a null record (data length = 0) produced by MFS as the result of a user-specified MFS format description is not sent by IMS.