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Files are displayed in reverse
cronological order so that the most recently spooled
files appear at the top of the list.
Deletion of files older than
a given number of days can be automated via simple
cron (unix scheduler) scripts which are
provided.
Integration
ProSpool has been designed so
as to be simple to integrate with Progress-based
applications like MFG/PRO,
without modification to the source application.
Data can be piped into ProSpool as
you do with the Unix lp print command or
an input file name can be given on the command
line.
There are a number of command
line parameters and switches for ProSpool that
determine the spool directory and allow modifications
to the generated file name such as prefixes, suffixes
and different numbers of incrementing digits.
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Printing
ProSpool has a number of printing
features that many users find invaluable like:-
- Printing multiple copies
at once
- Ability to print a
range of pages
- Dynamic parameter substitution
at print time (see below)
- Automatic font selection
(see below)
Dynamic
parameter substitution allows the ProSpool administrator
to set up printer devices so that when a user
selects one, they will be prompted for parameters
that will be substitued into the operating system
commands that are associated with the printer.
This means that is relatively
simple to set up a printer that prompts for an
e-mail address and subject which are then passed
to the operating system call of the e-mail command.
Another possibility is to prompt
the user for a fax number and other parameters
like attention to, company, etc that can be passed
to an automated fax system (like Hylafax).
When
output is spool via ProSpool, no control characters
(for printer initialization, font selection, etc)
are put into the spooled file. In this way the
file can be printed to different type of printer
devices without risk.
Each printer device in ProSpool
can have initializations strings entered for 80,
132, 172 & 255 characters wide output along
with printer initialise and reset strings. When
ProSpool prints a spooled file, it automatically
outputs the appropriate print width initialization
string to select the correct font for the printer
device. The only non-dynamic parameter is
the number of lines per page, which must be set
at the time of spooling.
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Viewing
It is common for users to send
report output to the screen. After viewing
the output on the screen, they might decide that
they do want a hard copy, but this quite often
means that they have to re-generate the report
without a spooling system in place.
By spooling output with ProSpool,
the user can view the report on the screen, and
then they can print (or e-mail), the report or
maybe just a selected page that has the totals,
if that's all they really want.
The ProSpool file viewer automatically
selects either 80 or 132 column mode (when supported),
and the user is able to pan the viewing window
from left to right by using the cursor keys and
they can page or scroll up and down as you would
expect too. A search string can be entered
and if found, the viewing window will be repositioned
to the appropriate row.
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| V-GST
(BAS Tools for MFG/PRO) |
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To be added soon...
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| VPMon
(Performance Monitor for PROGRESS) |
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VPMon is passive performance
monitoring tool for Progress-based systems.
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