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Focal Point    Focal Point Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  WebFOCUS/FOCUS Forum on Focal Point     [SOLVED]Self-Serve reports reading same hold files

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[SOLVED]Self-Serve reports reading same hold files
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Michele Brooks
Guru
posted
I developed a self-serve report that creates multiple hold files. In order to make the hold files unique, we developers append the &FOCCPU parameter at the beginning of our hold file names so that the CPU time becomes part of the hold file name. Unfortunately one of our users ran a customer report in deferred status, and right after that submitted the same report for a different customer. The result was that she got the same data on both reports, although the report was run for two different customers. I had the user submit the report again, but this time I told her to run the first customer report and make sure it completes successfully before running the next customer report. The reports ran correctly. Evidently because the reports ran in deferred status at the same time, the same hold files were read for both reports. Does anyone know of a way where the users can run the same report simultaneously for different customers and not have this hold file issue?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Michele Brooks,


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
Francis Mariani
Expert
posted Hide Post
Add the Customer Name or Customer ID to the HOLD file name?


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, 2005Report This Post
Michele Brooks
Guru
posted Hide Post
Excellent suggestion. I will try it with a parameter and let you know. Thanks so much.


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
John_Edwards
Virtuoso
posted Hide Post
I would throw a random number generator into this to better guarantee the uniqueness of the name. JavaScript has a super-easy one you could pass as a parameter to the call, and the chance of a collision like this happening with it would be infinitesimally small. It returns 17 digit random real numbers between zero and 1.

var random = Math.random();


random comes into your focexec looking like this -- 0.05237350802380758



 
Posts: 1012 | Location: At the Mast | Registered: May 17, 2007Report This Post
Michele Brooks
Guru
posted Hide Post
Thank you both Francis and John. Francis' suggestion will work easily for our Self-Serve app because we already have a parameter for customer number that I can add to the hold file names. Each customer has a unique number. No two customers have the same number. On the other hand, John your suggestion can probably work for our Report Caster reports. Although the customer numbers are still unique, there are about 8 different parameters that we use in our reports for customer code, not just one as is the case for Self-Serve reports. How do I incorporate JavaScript into a fex? I would like to experiment with it. Thank you both so much. Focal Point is awesome.


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
Francis Mariani
Expert
posted Hide Post
If you're using WebFOCUS to determine the HOLD file name, use this to generate a random number and use it the -SET statement where you build the file name:

SET &RNDM1 = RDNORM('D7') * 1000000;


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, 2005Report This Post
Michele Brooks
Guru
posted Hide Post
Super, I will try it tomorrow. Thanks.

P.S. Thanks again for that awesome suggestion about the customer number. It appears to be working perfectly. I asked one of our users to also test it out.


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
John_Edwards
Virtuoso
posted Hide Post
I put random numbers on darn near everything. They keep IE from caching, which is invaluable during R&D. It's a solid hedge in production as well. It's a very rare reporting app where you want to look at old versions of the same page.

I want my browser to have a checkbox labeled "Never cache anything ever ever ever ever ever" next to it. Haven't found one that has that yet.



 
Posts: 1012 | Location: At the Mast | Registered: May 17, 2007Report This Post
susannah
Expert
posted Hide Post
speaking as a 77 developer, not 8, curious why you are parking your hold files outside of each agent? do they take so long to generate that you feel compelled to make them permanent rather than just let them die with the user's agent? Where are you holding them and how/when do you nuke them?



In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID
 
Posts: 3811 | Location: Manhattan | Registered: October 28, 2003Report This Post
Michele Brooks
Guru
posted Hide Post
Susannah, I am not building permanent hold files. I'm just assigning each file a unique name so that if the same report is run simultaneously for different customers, the correct hold file will be read. Once the report completes, the hold files are no longer available.


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
Francis Mariani
Expert
posted Hide Post
Michelle, in that case, susannah is right - you shouldn't have to - each report is run in a different server agent - simultaneous executions will never accidentally use the same HOLD file - each is created in their own temporary space. The only time there are collisions (as you've experienced) is if the files are directed to a named folder and the names are the same. If you don't use the technique you're using, you should be safe. Unless w're missing something...


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, 2005Report This Post
Michele Brooks
Guru
posted Hide Post
Francis, I'll discuss with my co-worker as to why we're holding files in this manner. I know we have been experiencing problems with overlapping data when schedules are run for the same report in ReportCaster. My co-worker would know about this. I'll get back to you on Monday when he comes back from vacation. Thanks for the input.


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
Michele Brooks
Guru
posted Hide Post
Francis, I do have my hold files going to a named folder and that's probably why the data collided. I am going to take out the folder name to avoid this problem. Thank you for the feedback.

Susannah, the only time we use permanent hold files is when the reports are complex compound PDF reports with graph and charts, etc. Some use MATCH and MERGE, and there are others using the APPEND function. These need to be FILEDEF’d hold files. Thanks so much for your response.


WF 8205, Windows 10
Oracle DBMS
EXL07/PDF Output
 
Posts: 244 | Registered: August 27, 2012Report This Post
susannah
Expert
posted Hide Post
you probably have an
APP HOLD someapp
command in there,
which is forcing everybody's hold files to the same directory called someapp.
you don't wanna do that.
run the job, and while its running, navigate to the server using windows explorer, and look into the edatemp directory where the job is running, and you can see your files getting created, then when the job is done, the edatemp directory empties out all by itself.
if you want help on how to do that, holler.



In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID
 
Posts: 3811 | Location: Manhattan | Registered: October 28, 2003Report This Post
Francis Mariani
Expert
posted Hide Post
Michele, when using FILEDEF in the complex programs, you do not have to specify a physical folder name. These are valid FILEDEF commands:

FILEDEF HTREE DISK HTREE.FTM
-RUN

some code here...

FILEDEF HTREE DISK HTREE.FTM (APPEND
-RUN

more code here...


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, 2005Report This Post
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