In prior releases of Focus, I was able to call the Focus Engine via FOCUS.BAT to run via DOS batch. I can't find a way to do this in WF 5.2

Is that option completely gone?

Thanks,
Carol Dobson

Hi Carol:

What are you trying to accomplish? If you have ReportCaster that is how IBI typically recommends issuing batch mode type requests.

With that said, assuming you are referring to the WebFOCUS Reporting Server (and not Dev Studio) you have a few different commands you can call directly through a command line procedure. Look into:

From WebFOCUS Reporting Server system:
> edastart.bat [edastart in Unix]
> rdaapp.bat [rdaapp.sh in Unix]

From the WebFOCUS Client system:
> ibiweb.exe

These programs can be called from command lines within the various systems and they have different capabilities and parameters. They also are supported by IBI to varying degrees as some are intended for internal system development, not for customer use. Meaning they may change from release to release with limited backward support.

My guess is that you might first want to look at edastart.bat. At the EDACONF\bin\ directory, type in edastart -? to get a list of command options.

Before implementing a production system with one these options I would verify that it is documented in your WebFOCUS Manuals to ensure ongoing support. If in doubt contact Customer Support.

Good luck,
Sean

Sean,
Thank you for this information. Right now we run our batch from Focus Six for Windows using Dos on a Windows 2000 Server. This systems needs to read flags and checks to see if files exist before it can run. I don't see anything in Report Caster that checks for flags/files/COPIES/DELETES - that sort of thing.

We have WebFocus 5.2 in house and are using the product. I need to set up a similar batch scenario to check for flag files before this process can run and that's why I am asking this question.

We do use Report Caster to run reports.
I will look into edastart.
Thanks again,

Carol

Could you explain what rdaapp.bat is? I've used edastart.bat before.

Thanks,

Lenny

Sean,

To my knowledge the use of FOCUS.BAT was never documented in any manuals. I was told about this process by a product manager in NY. We use this process in conjunction with 3rd party download tools i.e. connect direct / file watcher to download and verify reciept of data files from the z/OS box. These files are then used in the FOCUS.BAT batch procedure to invoke batch MODIFYs to load FOCUS DBs on the Win2K server for subsequent access via WebFOCUS users. The loss of this capability would really hamper our current processing.

You can make any copy of WebFocus react like the old character Focus by bringing up the file EDASTART with the parameters -t. eg
RUN C:\IBI\srv52\wfs\bin edastart -t
This will even remember Defines and and is a persistent connection to WebFocus.

Great news, edastart.bat replaces the old Focus.Bat and works!

What replaces wfocus.exe?

I want to replace this old batch code that works with DOS; can anyone provide the syntax to do this?

start /normal /w C:\FOCUS\SYSTEM\WFOCUS.EXE temp=W:\focustmp EX MYPROGRAM

Thanks in advance!
Carol

What is the difference between saying
'edastart -t' and referencing tscom300 directly. In a batch file I say 'C:\IBI\SRV52\HOME\BIN\TSCOM300.EXE -x "EX IR_IGSX" ACCT=G01679,SDATE=2003/07/01
This runs the WebFocus report IR_IGSX.

Thanks everyone, I now have it working!