An End-User Perspective On Using NatQuery Query Scheduling T

The NatQuery open desktop. As an exercise the user wishes to see all the employees in all of the organizations' departments every other month. They will begin be clicking the new query icon. Note this ex. Of NQY is being run against ADABAS on Linux in a PC network environment. The following screen shots may differ in your env., the processing will be similar.

The user is about to select a File to apply query logic against, in this instance the user will choose the EMPLOYEE file.

The user wishes to retrieve all the employees by First and Last name and they wish to know what Department the employee is associated with.

The user is building a data mart based on specific Fields and will not need to have selection logic for this query. They have chosen to Read All Records, and this is reflected in the Current Selection Logic window.

Because this is a new query the Query Description window came up as soon as the user clicked the Send to Server icon. Our user wishes to be able to quickly identify this query from among his saved queries; they has provided detailed descriptions in both the Long and Short description boxes.

The users default Extract Type was set to Excel and this will suit their purpose for this project. Many different Extract Types will allow for scheduled submission. Please note that in the current version of NatQuery, Summary processing is not available to work with a Scheduled Submission; all other applicable extraction options may be used where permitted.

Using the Edit function our user has edited the Field, NAME, to be LAST NAME for clarity within the Excel report.

The Schedule Task window will default to Daily and the current time. The user may select a different option for Run This Task and the Time of Day must be set later then the current time. Because the user wants the most recently run query data they have checked the Allow Overlay of Data. The option, Interval [days]: means every 1 (24hours), 2 (48 hours), 3 (72 hours), etcetera, between submissions.

In this example the user has chosen the Monthly option and would like the query to run at 5:27 PM on the Third Monday of the month.

The user has decided that data from every other month beginning with February will give them the information they need. The query submissions will take place on the third Monday of every other month at 5:27 PM and the resulting data will overlay the previous results.

If this had been the users initial query request they would be required to provide one or more passwords prior to receiving the message box seen here.

The user has clicked the Check Server icon and we can see that they already have two Standard Requests Pending.

Clicking the Scheduled Request tab we see that although the query is visible it has a status of Open. This means that it has not been submitted as yet.

The user has clicked the Check Server for Updates and here NatQuery is telling the user there has been no change to report on the progress. If the user checks the query in between the time of submission (5:27 PM) and the return of the data they will see a status message of Pending rather then Open.

The user has clicked the Check Server for Update button and we can see that the query is Done. This visible report lets the user know the query results are ready for download, the total records they will be receiving, and the target they will view the data in. If the user were to hover their mouse pointer over the highlighted information they would be given a report with records read, records accepted, and records written out.

The user has clicked the Retrieve Request Output button and are now being asked if the default directory is okay for the download of this query results. They may change this default setting at will. NatQuery will now produce several more message boxes depending on the users response. In this example the user does wish to view the results in the original Excel target.

Here we see a sample of the 1107 records that were download.

Using Excel the user can sort the results to their satisfaction.

The user has alphabetized the list by Department and could further sort it by Last name should they wish to do that. For comparison purposes the user would save these results under a different file name such as Feb 06, such that he could then compare it with April 06 and June 06 and so on …

After minimizing or closing the spreadsheet the user is now back on the Check Server window of NatQuery and we can see that their query status has reverted to Open. Note that although this query is highlighted the Retrieve Data Output and the Clear Selected Request buttons are not enabled now.

Clicking the OK button on the Check Server window and closing (perhaps also saving) the Scheduled Query allows the user to access the Administer menu. Through the Administer menu the user can manage all of their Scheduled Tasks.

If multiple scheduled tasks are available the user will need to highlight the query of choice, once highlighted the user can Edit or Delete their query. In this example the user has clicked the Edit button and this action has brought up the Schedule Task window – the user is now free to modify this query. When they finish they will click the OK button on this and the Manage Scheduled Tasks windows. Clicking Cancel will revert this query to its original settings.

URL: South Main Streetwww.natworks-inc.com Northfield, VT T Great Ideas with Enormous Potential