Andrew,

As you are most probably aware, learning a new language is fraught with frustration especially when no documentation is to hand. The documentation library that Prarie's link gives is very useful for someone, like you, who does not have the printed version to hand (you can also download them as PDFs).

To try and give you a start (forgive me if you have found this already) -

A "Master File" is akin to a Cobol FD or file description. It holds information about the data and is also refered to sometimes as metadata. It generally has the file extension of .mas.

When the data file to which the .mas relates is not VSAM, QSAM, fixed, flat or FOCUS etc. an additional file is required to allow WebFOCUS to know how to access the data file. This is known as an access file (believe it or not!) and has the file extension of .acx. Within a typical acx file for MS SQL Server tables, you will see -

SEGNAME=table_name,
TABLENAME=BIDEV.dbo.table_name,
KEYS=0,
CONNECTION=BIDEV,$

Where SEGNAME relates to the segment within the .mas, the TABLENAME identifies the SQL Table, KEYS should be fairly obvious and CONNECTION details the data adpter that has been configured within the WebFOCUS console.

If the connection hasn't been set up then you will need to achieve this using the information from one of these manuals.

Once you have the connection, you can then set up your metadata (.mas and .acx) files using the WebFOCUS console. You can then write reports against this metadata or you can use SQL passthru, for which there are many posts in this forum covering that.

Bottom line, don't give up and ask your Co. for some training. My personal view is that it is wrong to expect anyone to pick this up without some form of training, even if it is a familiarisation overview.

Good luck

T

Hi Andrew,

Has this issue been resolved on your side?

I searched the online manuals and came across the following which may be of interest (many thanks to Prarie and Tony's suggetions/help as well ):

Developer Studio Application Development Getting Started 7.1.3
(You will need to have an InfoResponse username/password to access the page and the PDF manual.)

For a tutorial in creating an OLAP-enable report, please review chapter 4. If you are running on release other than 7.1.3, please let me know the exact release number and I will be more than happy to help locating the right manual for you.

Are you still having questions regarding connection to a SQL Server 2005 database? As always, As always, you may contact Information Builders’ Customer Support Services for assistance at any time. The phone number is 1-800-736-6130, or you may access the online system InfoResponse at http://techsupport.ibi.com. Here is a list of information to be ready when you call: http://techsupport.ibi.com/before_you_call.jsp.

If you are interested in getting training classes on WebFOCUS, here is our Customer Education page, which may be of interest as well: http://education.informationbuilders.com/edu/toc.html

I hope this helps and please let me know if you need additional information in other area(s).

Cheers,

Kerry

Thanks for your assistance.
First, I see that the WebFOCUS installation I had was incomplete, and my company has failed to register it properly. This disqualifies me from getting an InfoResponse username. Thus, no manuals in any medium: printed or PDF.

Second, it took a little time to readjust to mainframe terminology -- Masterfile and such. So, I'm plugging away making some progress step-by-step.

Thanks agin.