[WORKAROUND] No tolerance for Error Tolerance

What we do for all our reports is to check the error code after each TABLE FILE, or important piece of code, then handle it.

Having a piece of code that may error an relying on FOCUS to handle it, is not a good programming practice.

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

Posts: 6347 | Location: 33°49'23.0"S, 151°11'41.0"E | Registered: October 31, 2006

Ignored post by Waz posted

njsden

Virtuoso

posted

I entirely concur with Waz. Any production code must have error checking along the way right after any important piece of code (TABLE FILE, MATCH FILE, GRAPH FILE, ..).

Take a look at this post for some insights about the matter.

Prod/Dev: WF Server 8008/Win 2008 - WF Client 8008/Win 2008 - Dev. Studio: 8008/Windows 7 - DBMS: Oracle 11g Rel 2
Test: Dev. Studio 8008 /Windows 7 (Local) Output:HTML, EXL2K.

Posts: 1533 | Registered: August 12, 2005

Ignored post by njsden posted

Master

posted

Thanks for the confirm and thread, that does certainly make the most sense for the long run. I am, however, in the 'hundreds of production programs coded this way' camp and am looking for anything (server setting, 'set' declaration, etc) that will reinstitute the way execution previously occurred (halting execution upon error).

Is this something a case should be opened to address? Or is this simply a case of a bug that is finally fixed? I can't imagine, as it is less restrictive, instead of more.

- ABT

Posts: 561 | Registered: February 03, 2010

Ignored post by ABT posted

Master

posted

This has to be something controllable on the server. Consider this code:

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT 
	TOMATOES
WHERE COUNTRY EQ 'ENGLAND';
END

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT 
	MODEL
WHERE COUNTRY EQ 'ENGLAND';
END

Renders:

<!--Olap Javascript-->
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META name="HandheldFriendly" content="True">
<META name="PalmComputingPlatform" content="True">
<TITLE>WebFOCUS Report</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<TABLE BORDER CELLPADDING=1>
<TR>
<TD>
<TABLE CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="100%"><TR>
<TD>
PAGE     1</TD></TR></TABLE></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN=BOTTOM>
MODEL</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
V12XKE AUTO</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
XJ12L AUTO</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
INTERCEPTOR III</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
TR7</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>
<!--
0 ERROR AT OR NEAR LINE      3  IN PROCEDURE ADHOCRQ FOCEXEC *
(FOC003) THE FIELDNAME IS NOT RECOGNIZED: TOMATOES
BYPASSING TO END OF COMMAND
(FOC009) INCOMPLETE REQUEST STATEMENT
0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE=        4  LINES=      4
-->

The last 7 lines tell it all.

- ABT

Posts: 561 | Registered: February 03, 2010

Ignored post by ABT posted

Master

posted

Like SET ERROROUT = ON.

I don't like the 'Exiting due to Exit on Error...' message, but at least it halts processing...

Any more ideas in this vein?

- ABT

Posts: 561 | Registered: February 03, 2010

Ignored post by ABT posted

Francis Mariani

Expert

posted

WebFOCUS always soldiers on and runs through all the code - you could have 25 errors accumulating and it would still go on - UNLESS you trap the error. It's been like this from the very beginning. The most graceful method would be as suggested in the post that Neftali mentioned.

ERROROUT is a recently added command and really doesn't do enough - I don't rely on it.

SET ERROROUT = ON

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT
APPLES
END

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT
JACKALS
END

TABLE FILE APPLES
PRINT
CAR
BY JACKALS
END

Francis

Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server

Posts: 10577 | Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Registered: April 27, 2005

Ignored post by Francis Mariani posted

Master

posted

Agreed, but I'm looking for a quick interim fix (erm, workaround). Neftali's approach is not off the table and makes the most sense for a long-term solution, but in the meantime, I'm hoping to get something just as bad as relying on the prior approach of verbal failure (versus silent failure).

Believe it or not, for my most immediate need, errorout works until something better can be developed and deployed. And thanks to the community (this thread and the other) I have a great jump start with approaches for resolution.

- ABT

Posts: 561 | Registered: February 03, 2010

Ignored post by ABT posted

Francis Mariani

Expert

posted

I don't understand why you feel the behaviour changed after upgrading from 7.6.8 to 7.6.11 - this is the way WebFOCUS has always behaved, ERROROUT tames it a tiny bit.

Francis

Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server

Posts: 10577 | Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Registered: April 27, 2005

Ignored post by Francis Mariani posted

Master

posted

quote:
...this is the way WebFOCUS has always behaved...

With all due respect, no it isn't. At least not for our 7.6.8 installation. Going back to my original code snippet (it is the closest to what I am trying to do/workaround in production).

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT
   TOMATOES
END

-HTMLFORM BEGIN
<html> <head> 
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://server:8080/approot/library/filename.pdf"/> 
</head> <body> !IBI.FIL.REPORT; </body> </html>

When this code was run on a 7.6.8 Client/Server via Dev Studio 7.6.6, it throws a 'No HTML Output' error with a visible message regarding not being able to find a column 'TOMATOES' in the CAR file. After our upgrade (Server/Client/Dev Studio 7.6.11), the user gets a browser with 'filename.pdf' loaded (or Acrobat or however the user has their system configured).

I've been on 7.6.8 for 6 months (I'm new to this role) and 7.6.11 for a week and I can tell you that the 'No HTML Output' error was the user experience prior to upgrade.

Since this was such a marked change in the execution, I was thinking there might be a setting that did not make it through the upgrade or something similar.

- ABT

Posts: 561 | Registered: February 03, 2010

Ignored post by ABT posted

Darin Lee

Virtuoso

posted

There are some redirection settings in the WF Client for specific file types, but I don't know if those would affect the behavior your are experiencing. You can compare the new and old settings to see if they are different for the file type(s) you need.

Regards,

Darin

In FOCUS since 1991
WF Server: 7.7.04 on Linux and Z/OS, ReportCaster, Self-Service, MRE, Java, Flex
Data: DB2/UDB, Adabas, SQL Server Output: HTML,PDF,EXL2K/07, PS, AHTML, Flex
WF Client: 77 on Linux w/Tomcat

Posts: 2298 | Location: Salt Lake City, Utah | Registered: February 02, 2007

Ignored post by Darin Lee posted

Waz

Expert

posted

My concern in the long run, is that if you get the process to operate that same as 7.6.8, then there is no need to "Fix" your code, and it will go on this way.

Adding these checks in, is quite simple.

Here is a sanitised snippit of our code.

TABLE   FILE CAR
 PRINT  TOMATOES
 ON     TABLE HOLD AS SALAD
END

-RUN

-IF &FOCERRNUM GT 0 THEN GOTO RPT_FERR  ;
-IF &LINES     EQ 0 THEN GOTO RPT_0RECS ;

.
.
.
.
.

-GOTO RPT_OK

-*******************************************************************************
-RPT_ER1

-SET &RPT_MSG ='(ERR00002) Report terminated - insufficient parameters entered';
-GOTO RPT_END
-*******************************************************************************
-RPT_ER2

-SET &RPT_MSG = '(ERR00002) Error - No Report Generated' ;
-GOTO RPT_END
-*******************************************************************************
-RPT_ER3

-SET &RPT_MSG = '(ERR00003) Error - ' | &ERR_MSG ;
-GOTO RPT_END
-*******************************************************************************
-RPT_FERR

-SET &RPT_MSG = '(ERR00003) Error - Focus Error Number ' 
-             | &FOCERRNUM | ' Encountered' ;
-GOTO RPT_END
-*******************************************************************************
-RPT_0RECS

-* Empty Report code


-RUN

-IF &FOCERRNUM GT 0 THEN GOTO RPT_FERR ;

-*******************************************************************************
-RPT_OK

-SET &RPT_MSG = '(SUC00001) Report completed successfully' ;

-RPT_END

-TYPE &RPT_MSG

I have extra code that analyses the message and displays an appropriate web page if its an online report.

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

Posts: 6347 | Location: 33°49'23.0"S, 151°11'41.0"E | Registered: October 31, 2006

Ignored post by Waz posted