Integrating with Pactables

Pactables is integrated into Rational® Programming Patterns to manage the instances of the Table entity.

Pactables overview

Pactables manages the Tables that you define and describe in Rational Programming Patterns.

The Tables are constituted of the following two parts:
  • The data, which corresponds to the information in each Table item.
  • The descriptions, such as the length and label of the Data Elements or the validations, which are extracted and updated from the specification database. The Tables administrator is in charge of updating the descriptions file.

The logical description and documentation of each Table is created in the Rational Programming Patterns design repository. The description is extracted, on request, through an interface that selects the elements necessary to build and manage the Table. All the Tables are grouped into a single physical file that contains the historical accounts of the Tables.

Pactables enables you to complete the following tasks:
  • View the contents of the Tables or the Tables subsets,
  • Update the contents of the Tables in online or batch mode,
  • Ensure that the descriptions and contents are consistent.
Upon request, Pactables also stores the historical accounts of the Tables descriptions and contents.

Overview of the Table entity

A Table is a set of occurrences of a Segment. This segment contains a unique Data Element, which constitutes the access key to the data.

To manage the data, Pactables differentiates two types of Data Elements:
  • The elementary Data Elements, which are managed in the input, validation, update, and consultation process.
  • The group Data Elements, which are created for programming needs and ignored by Pactables.
The following two subsets can be created in a Table:
  • A subschema is a selection of Data Elements that belong to the description of a Table. It gives a partial view of the Table data.
  • A subsystem is a selection of Table items within a Table. Each subsystem is a different subset of the Table data.

After the Table is defined and described, you can generate it in Rational Programming Patterns, transfer the output file to the Pactables operating environment, and run the GRTD procedure with this file as input. See Generating a Pactables Table.

See also the help on the Table entity.

Principles of use

You can access the Tables in the following ways:
  • Online mode.

    In this mode, you can view lists such as the list of Tables or historical accounts, and view or update the Tables.

  • Batch mode.
    You can use the batch procedures for the following operations:
    • List the Tables descriptions
    • Generate the Tables
    • Delete the Tables
    • Update the Tables
    • Print the Tables
    • Extract the Tables
  • User programs.

    The online and batch programs can access the Tables.

    The Tables with historical accounts can only be viewed, sequentially or directly. However, the Tables without historical account can be updated, without data validation.

Data protection

Only the users who are registered as Pactables users are authorized to work on the Tables. Each user is identified by a user code and a password.

The password is optional and can be changed on the parameters updating screen. Refer to Viewing and updating parameters in online mode.

A general authorization (read/write access, read-only access, or no access at all) is granted to each user. The user general access authorization can also be restricted or broadened to selected Tables, subschemas, and subsystems. The batch update of the user codes and access authorizations is explained in PMTA - Parameters update.
Example: Users might have a general authorization that prevents them from updating the Tables. However, they might be authorized to update the TA0001 Table, whereas they might be authorized to only view the subsystem 3 and subschema 1 of the TA0002 Table.

A ******** user code is automatically created for the Tables administrator. This code can be used in batch or online mode to create and maintain the basic JCL necessary to run online printing requests.

The Tables administrator uses the administrator code in batch or online mode to complete the following tasks:
  • Create user codes,
  • Grant general or specific access authorizations,
  • Manage the Pactables parameters such as the function keys or the language option,
  • Reorganize the Tables.