Hi all,

Quick reminder for all: before posting your question, please do some research first on your own. We noticed that quite often the question is asked however, it was a topic that has been discussed and answered before. If you can do some search on the board, you may be able to locate the answers from earlier discussions, which provide one of the most valuable parts of this message board.

If, by all means, you cannot find the answer by search, then of course, start your own topic!

If you are just getting started with the FOCUS/WebFOCUS/iWay products, a strong recommendation is to get some basic training classes. To find more info, check our Education website. An exciting news: We have a new training center in India now!! So please be sure to check the website.

Information Builders offers many other resources that may be of help as well:

* Technical Support, where you can search for online documentations on issues, techniques, new feature requests (NFR), etc.

* Documentation, where you can search for all kinds of manuals and tech memos

* Professional Services, if you need to bring consultants to your site for customized help

* User Groups, where you can meet and network with other customers in your area, share tips and techniques as well as experiences, talk to our product experts, and more!!

Thanks for everyone’s attention and cooperation. As always, please let Kathleen or myself know if you have any questions, comments, and suggestions.

Cheers,

Kerry

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

Thank you Kerry. I know I am not the only one who get frustrated with new users who want us to give them solutions rather than working them out on their own.

I agree for the most part, but as a newcomer to WF, the 'YGTBK' posts are something of a tutorial for me sometimes.

It's a little less intimidating to know that the questions are not the kind I'd expect to find on the "Challenge" pages in the back of Scientific American !

I'm sure I have questions that have been covered ad nauseam, but can't always find what I need in the "Help" pages, and I don't want to to be recipient of a YGTBK !

On the topic of "look before you ask," is there a way to search the forum by topic ?

Thanks for any help sorting through the Forum's "knowledge base" !

There are 3 search links on the forum, the one at the top left (right next to the New button) will search the forum. The two at the top right will search tecnical documentation and IBI is connected to GOOGLE. If I know a topic has been covered I will search the forum first. If I don't find what I want I go to GOOGLE. Preface your search with WebFocus.

Thanks Pat,

I hadn't thought of searching the "entire world" for answers, but I was surprised at the wealth of information available for WebFOCUS when I tried.

Thanks,
CL

and in defense of the unsearched...
new users often have no clue what to search for.. so out helping them by suggesting what they search FOR is not intended as an admonition, but rather an encouragement.

I am glad some people have become so smart that the rest of us are but gravel under their feet! To bad we can't talk to their mentors.

seadog,

I don't usually reply to posts like yours but I feel I must. When I started doing FOCUS in 1984, I got to take the 101/103 class. After that, my 'mentoring' consisted of poring over the manuals, experimenting with techniques, calling what was known as the Hotline back then, and attending user group meetings. We did not have the web or an international communitiy from which to draw information. I didn't get smart the easy way. Once the IBI website became available, I did a lot of advanced searches and found information that way. And now we have the Forum.

I have not, that I am aware of, ever dis'd anyone for asking a question on this forum. I have asked people to do some searches and do some reading in manuals which is all available electronically. I never ask people to do anything that I still don't do on a regular basis. We are getting ready to implement 765 at our site and I have read the new feature document virtually from cover to cover and have tested any of the examples/tutorials for features that appealed to me and my developer community. I find that I must still use tried-and-true learning techniques along with the electronic ones to keep up with changes in the product.

For the most part, I think most of the 'smart' posters just ask that a little effort be made to be a little more self-sufficient as many of the same questions are asked over and over again.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Graciously said, Ginny.

Seadog,
If you want to talk to my "mentor" go ahead, if you can find one! Ginny got the 101/103 class that's 2 more than I got. Someone else in the organization got classes. I got TABLE, DEFINE, JOIN and COMPUTE and a manual. Within 2 weeks I had passed up my "mentor". It took a lot of dedication, hard work and study. It took experimenting on my own. It took a lot of frustration searching for alternative solutions when the one I thought would work didn't. It did not take having someone else hand me the solution. Your comment was uncalled for and unfair. I think you owe everyone who responds to posts an apology. These people spend countless hours assisting "newbies" and I don't think any of us has ever treated anyone like "gravel under their feet"!

I apologize if I offended anyone. If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you have always got. Break the cycle you describe. Be a paradigm.

Ginny: I remember you from my days as an ex ibi'er (hotliner), although that was 25 years ago I believe.

Pbrightwell, Tom, Susannah, Ginny - All of us worked hard to get the knowledge we learned. We did not have it handed to us. Your replies are well thought out and sincerely appreciated. And are instrumental in helping make this forum the success that it is.

Seadog - there are always 2 ways to say something. I am sure you did not mean to say anything in an unconstructive way. (Glass half full not empty outlook).

To all the newbie's out there - a simple "I am not sure where to look to do...." is an easy way to ask for experienced assistance. And for us experienced ones a "check the forum under...." is an easy way to say hey "it has been asked many times before and this is the recommendation to find out that information"
Ok that is "JM2C" [just my $.02](a la Carol D.)

Ira
aix 533 WF 537(D)/533(P)/7.6.2(T)

Ginny/Susannah well said.
I find this forum and Google very helpful. Searching has helped me many times and is so much easier than the "Old Days" of trial and error and the "Hotline".
Thank you to all of you who post so many good ideas and suggestions on a regular basis. Keep up the good work.

HI friends ,

I owe a special thanks to all the wizards there especially TONY , GINNY , GAMP , Mcgrakin , DANIEL and all others. They have lots of patience becuause some ppl like me keep on asking the same questions again and again. and all these questions have already been answered . But , they still take the pains to answer it countless times.

I think this forum represents one BIG HAPPY WEBFOCUS FAMILY.

But i dont c any kids here LOL.

I search all the time, and find this forum to be an extremely valuable resource.

Sometimes, though, finding the answer I'm looking for requires me to have a WebFOCUS vocabulary that as a beginner, I don't always know the name for the feature/function I am trying to find.

I appreciate everyone's help and patience.

-CWM

CWM, We want you to understand that we are here to help and want to help those who will help themselves. It is why we may tell you to search on "GETTOK" OR "ARGLEN". That's why we also tell you to download the manual. They are broken down into sections to help you find topics (rather than needing the command) and you can use PDF to search them. Sometimes it's not fun (try searching the manual or the forum for MORE).