DISPATCH8 manages and conducts the printing of reports in a network. It allows the site to distribute reports via the GCOS-8 network to remote printers or printer like devices.
DISPATCH8 was designed to provide:
Easy to use implementation techniques.
A comprehensive real-time Report Management System.
An independent Printer Network Manager.
Report device independency
Comprehensive usage/performance statistic
DISPATCH8 utilizes the forms management capabilities within TP8, giving the site complete control over it's printing environment. The printer network manager is controlled from TP8, but is not part of it and is therefore removing the overhead incurred by the more traditional techniques of report distribution from within a real-time environment.
DISPATCH8 features:
Simple user-interface for report building.
User hooks for report-validity-checking, configuring new printer types etc.
Comprehensive authority checking.
Report device independency.
Accounting (Optional)
Assured data integrity.
Customisation of many modules.
Comprehensive range of support utilities.
DISPATCH8 collects reports produced by either TSS, Batch, DMIV-TP or TP8 applications and directs these reports to the appropriate destination device.
┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌──────────┐
┌┴───────┴┐ ┌┴───────┴┐ │ ├─┐
└────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬─────┴─┘
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
└───────────┐ │ ┌───────────┘
│ │ │
┌───┴────┴────┴────┐
│ │ ┌───────────────┐
│ DISPATCH8-Server ├───────┤ SYSOUT-File │
│ │ └───────────────┘
└───┬───────┬────┬─┘
│ │ │
│ │ └──────────┐
┌┘ └───┐ │
│ │ │
┌───────┐ ┌───┴────┐ ┌───┴────┐ ┌──┴────┐ ┌───────┐
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ TSS ├───┤ BATCH │ │DMIV-TP │ │TP8COM ├───┤ TP8 │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
└───────┘ └────────┘ └────────┘ └───────┘ └───────┘
All communication between applications and DISPATCH8 is via standard GCOS-8 Intercom I/O. The TP8COM gateway is used by the TP8 to transform TP8 Process communication via Shared Segment to standard GCOS-8 Intercom I/O.
┌────────┐
┌┴────────┴┐
Configurable ┌──┤ Matrix │
Collected Report ┌───────────┐ │ └──────────┘
┌─────────────┐ │ Logical │ │
┌┴────────────┐├─────────┤ to ├────┤ ┌──────────┐
│Logical ctrl.├┘ │ Physical │ │ │ Laser │
└─────────────┘ └───────────┘ └──┤ │──┐
Mapping └──────────┴──┘
The characteristics and necessary control information for a report and the information necessary to service printers, e.g. Physical printer characteristics, stationary definitions etc., are held on an Integrated IDS2 database, the report content being held on a relative file. The printers may either be stand alone devices or VIP printers connected via a terminal (SAP).