Is there a way to point the same fex to a different environment/database/acx file?

We are performing a massive upgrade. The underlying environment is the same. We need to have two copies of every report -- one that points to the original database another that points to the new database.

We are trying to go about this the most efficient way possible!

Thank you!

AG

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

Here is one approach:

Create a new APP folder, containing the test ACX files (and any test MAS files that may have changed). Make sure both old and new ACX files have the appropriate CONNECTION= attribute. Place the APP PREPENDPATH command at the top of your test fexes to prepend the APP folder containing the test ACX/MAS files. This approach assumes that all of your tables are relational tables with ACX files. If you have FOCUS files that do not have ACX files, then this won't work.

Dan --

That can also work with Focus files. The .mas file is located by searching the APP folders, same as the .acx file; and the .mas can specify the dataset (DATASET=xxx). That will work (without change in the fex), provided it is not overridden (by USE, or an explicit allocation)

From the manual:

DATASET Behavior in a FOCUS Data Source

How to:
Use the DATASET Attribute at the File Level

You can use the DATASET attribute on the file level of a FOCUS (including XFOCUS), fixedformat
sequential, or VSAM Master File. You can use the DATASET attribute on the segment
level of a FOCUS Master File. ...

If the Master File name is present in the USE list, or the user explicitly allocated the data
file, the DATASET attribute is ignored.

If DATASET is used in a Master File whose data source is managed by the FOCUS Database
Server, the DATASET attribute is ignored on the server side because the FOCUS Database
Server does not read Master Files for servicing table requests.

The DATASET attribute in the Master File has the lowest priority:

An explicit allocation of a user overrides the DATASET attribute if you first issue the
allocation command and then issue a CHECK FILE command to clear the previous DATASET
allocation.

The USE command for FOCUS data sources overrides DATASET attributes and explicit
allocations.

An alternative to the DATASET attribute for allocating FOCUS data sources is an Access File.
...
Note: If a DATASET allocation is in effect, a CHECK FILE command must be issued in order
to override it by an explicit allocation command. The CHECK FILE command will undo the
allocation created by DATASET.

Good point j.gross. Another approach might be to create a fex with USE command(s) pointing to all of the FOCUS test tables, and then put a
-INCLUDE for this "USE" fex at the top of all of the test fexes.

Thanks Dan and J.gross.
We did the same, but the issue now is Do we have to touch all the Fexes and add this APP PREPENDPATH code? We can't modify all 1000 fexes. Is there any way to apply that command globally?

Thanks Alot

And we are using Self service application to run the IBI reports. We are not using IBI dashboard. So does this APP PREPENDPATH works in self service environment??

Thanks Alot

quote:

So does this APP PREPENDPATH works in self service environment??

Actually that's where is works best, as APP PATH is exclusive to the Reporting Server. BID/MRE Domains do not follow the same rules for accessing stuff.

As for the original request, can you tell us more about what you have *now* and plan to keep in the future?

You asked if there is a way to point the same fex to different acx files, but then you said that you need to have two copies of each report.

Depending on what exactly you want to have the strategies may be slightly different.

In either case, how will your users be able to select which version of the report to run????

hi njsden,
Sorry for the confusion. We want to maintain only one copy of the report, but point this to different databases depending on the url user clicks. So we have got only one reporting server, one wf client but 2 synonyms folders. 1) Synonyms_dev whose acx files point to Dev database 2) Synonyms_test whose acx files point to test database. In our self service app table we have two records 1) Test Report in DEV 2) Test report in INT.
We have a generic Fex(kind of a template fex) which was included in all the Fexes where we can turn on/off features globally across all the reports.
So when the user login to application, he sees 2 links. When the user click a link, it passes a parameter called &P_report_id which can be read in the generic fex and set PREPENDPATH
depending the database value of that report_ID in the table. We use html coposer to build the launch pages and thats what gets called in the URL. Now the issue is &P_report_id can't be read/passed to the generic fex as it dies in the launch page and we can't change all the launch pages now to take this parameter in.

Is there a way to pass the parameter in URL to send to Fex which was tied to the launch page?

Thanks,
DD

quote:

Is there a way to pass the parameter in URL to send to Fex which was tied to the launch page?

quote:

we can't change all the launch pages now to take this parameter in

Hmmm, I don't think that's going to be easy without changing the launch pages directly to parse the URL and pass this extra parameter to the target procedure.

Perhaps it could be done in your application by setting a cookie when the user clicks the hyperlinks (some Javascript might be needed to capture the click event, set the cookie and return true so the request continues). In your WebFOCUS Client Custom Settings you could expose those cookies as amper variables so they are "always there". Your template .fex could now evaluate the variable and set APP PREPENDPATH accordingly.

In my rather weird mental world it all seems to make sense, but you'll still need to make changes to your application to alter the hyperlinks, set the cookies, alter the WF Client config, etc. ... it may actually be easier to adjust each launch page.

Sorry, I don't seem to be able to find anything simpler.

Thanks Alot njsden. let us wait for other experts if they have any ideas.

Thanks once again and have a great weekend.

Actually it is easy to alter the application Urls as we built that dynamically using a oracle package which reads the data from a table.
Would you Please give me some examples on how to do this cookie and wf client config settings?

Thanks,
DD