FTP a IMG file into mainframes in a flat file

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Hi, Did any one work on IMG files. I am trying to FTP a IMG file into mainframes in a flat file and then trying to copy it to VSAM file. But i am not able to FTP the file into mainframes. If anybody worked on it before please share your knowledge

When i try to FTP it in Binary mode it fails with timeout error

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:11 am

Hello Radha and welcome to the forums,

As i saw nothing in your request that was COBOL oriented, i moved your question to this part of the forum.

What is the size and content of your IMG file?

If it is a win-based graphic file, it will probably not go directly into a vsam file. How familiar are you with vsam?

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Hi ,

Thank you for the response. Ths size of file is 241KB, The contents are

It has first 12 bytes of a numeric key to identify the Image and next field is the Image(I do not know the length of this field). The requirement is that I need to read this IMG file after copying it to VSAM file with Key of first 12 bytes, get the image and update into another VSAM file

My experiance with VSAM files is simple operations like creating,reading and updating

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:52 am

You're welcome.

Has anyone on your system done anything like this or is this the first attempt?

How was this 241k file built? How did 12 bytes of "key" info get placed in the file "in front of" the actual image?

If this image is transferred to the mainframe, how will it be used there?

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

I will have to talk to the person who created this file and will get back to you with answeres to your questions

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Hi Dick Sherrer,

Here are the answeres for your questions.

1. This is first time we are doing this kind of task in our bank. We have a existing process but it uses a utility and have very less knowledge how it works and it is a package took on lease which will expire next year so we are trying to build this functionality in house

2. The images of checks for a perticular bank will come to our system and a system called ATRIL will load those images into SQL server with extension .TIF These images are fetched thru a VB program and this VB program will create the IMG file. The first 12 bytes of Image Key is taken from the Image name when it is fetched from SQL database and so this is how it is created. The other part of story is we will also create a statement for the same bank in AFP format which is Variable length file created by a utility MCCD in a JCL. So, this AFP file will have this Image key which i will read and go across the IMG file and fetch the Image of this perticular statement and place it back in AFP file. I hope i did not confuse you

Please let me now if you need any further details apart from this. I am attaching a sample IMG file with One record for your perusal after copying it to Notepad. I asked the VB programmer to write the Length of IMage in the file. So, first 12 bytes are Image key and a hyphen then length of image and hyphen and then the Image.

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:21 am

Hello,

What is the plan to use this data once it is stored in a vsam file?

It will not display on a CICS screen. . . .

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Hi,

We will not use the VSAm file on CICS screens. The VSAM file is just used to fetch the Image for a perticular Image key and store the image in corresponding record on AFP file and This AFP file will be printed to generate the bank statement

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:45 am

Hello,

How is the interface to the AFP file implemented?

What do you provide to the "add" to AFP?

It is sounding like you will need to split the IMG file into pieces before uploading them and recombine them out of VSAM before presenting them to the AFP add.

This will depend on how the add to AFP is accomplished.

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Hi,

The AFP file will be generated thru a JCL by using a utility program and the file will be a variable length record file. So, I will read the Image Key from this AFP file and search that in the IMG VSAM file to fetch the IMAGE

Then I will write a new AFP file with Image by creating a new AFP file

Hope I answered your question.

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:11 pm

Hello,

stodolas · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:31 pm

Dick,

If the ftp is in binary and the key data is in ascii hex format the key portion of the record won't be in clear text on the mainframe. I can offer a solution of writing the key file and img file seperate and ftping the key file as ascii and the image file as binary.

I doubt you can implement this solution but I think it would be better:
I seems to me that using VSAM for the image stores is putting extra parts into the system. If DB2 was used to store the images, you could get away with this just a hair easier on the mf side.

The VB program could read them from SQL and write them into DB2 directly. That assumes quite a few things are in place such as LAN connection to the mainframe DB2 systems that are needed and drivers for VB to talk to DB2 on the mainframe. That way the VB programmer could read the data right out of SQL Server and insert it directly to DB2 for use.

dick scherrer · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:30 am

Hi Steve,

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Steve\Scherrer

Thanks for your valuable inputs and suggestions. I was talking to my lead on DB2 option and we are positively thinking on this option. We still have to involve some more people to conclude on this. I will let you know once we conclude on this.

We might go for DB2 option.

dick scherrer · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:55 pm

Good luck

We'll be here if there are questions.

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Thank you

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Hi Scherrer,

We tried with one more alternative. The IMG file was stored in a server and i used a FTP jcl to pull it into a variable length record and it worked
and i stored the data in binary mode in a variable file.

Now the question is what record length should i give for the file so that i will FTP the file properly

in today's sample file case i knew the maximum record length and i gave the same for the variable file while doing FTP

So is there any maximum length that i can give for a variable record file?

Below is my JCL

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=FTP,REGION=4M
//SYSI040 INCLUDE MEMBER=SYSI040
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSPUT DD SYSOUT=*,DCB=BLKSIZE=0
//INPUT DD DISP=SHR,DSN=BPTSO.PR33785.LIB(SUN)
// DD *
cd /local/data/meta/encrypt/in
bin
LOCSITE RECFM=VBA CYL PRI=1 SEC=1 LRECL=39898 BLOCKSIZE=0
GET imagefile 'BPTN.RTD.ADS.img.file2.bin' (REPLACE
QUIT

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

I am sorry what i said is in correct. Even though i gave 39894 as record length the jcl created a file with only 256 record length and the data was scrolled to next record. so, the image was stored as multiple records

i think this may not work. sorry for the earlier mail

stodolas · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:31 am

Were you able to view the file and confirm it was indeed 39898 large? I have found that when you go beyond the ~32k lrecl, most tools can't view the contents of the file.

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:34 am

Hello Radha,

What you ask is why i suggested splitting the image into "known" sized pieces before the transfer.

So far, i've not changed the length of the mainframe receiving file dynamically. Something else you may need to consider is when the image file is longer than you can write into a mainframe record.

MRADHA · New User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 11 Location: San Juan

Yes Scherrer. Also, i tried to create a VBA file with 32760 as LRECL and it created the file and when i try to create the file with more than 32760 it started giving error saying LRECL exceeds maximum length. So, I concluded that file cannot exceed the 32760 length

So, we are trying for some more alternatives like making sure the IMAGE size is not greater than 10K bytes and so on. I need to do some testing and will post you with updates

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:11 am

Good luck

We're here when you'd like to "chat" about alternatives.

stodolas · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:29 pm

You can indeed have records beyond 32760, you need to give a RECFM=U (I think) look up spanned records for VSAM

dick scherrer · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:03 am

Hello,

While vsam can handle the larger record(s), i'm not sure how to get them transferred from the remote to the mainframe "in one piece".