Finding Information

Loading an Application into the Database

Chapter 4: Start Here for the Tutorials

This chapter introduces the tutorials, which comprise the remainder of this book.

4.1 Overview

The tutorials form a tour of SmartFind Plus and show the process to follow when using SmartFind Plus. They also show the basics of how to use SmartFind Plus and demonstrate the key analysis stages.

The tutorials are interdependent. You must follow the tutorials in sequence before going on to any later ones, although you can stop between tutorials. There is one exception to this, the optional tutorial on group working, for which details are given in the paragraph on that tutorial at the end of this section.

The tutorials in Part 2 Finding and Analyzing Date Issues show the process to follow if you are verifying an application. If you are intending to fix applications, the process is broadly the same, and so for learning purposes these tutorials are still as valuable. In both verifying and fixing, you need to find the date issues and analyze them, but your focus is slightly different when analyzing. The tutorials highlight the difference in focus in the relevant places.

The tutorials in Part 2 Finding and Analyzing Date Issues cover:

1. Creating a project and loading the database - Before starting the year 2000 analysis, you need to carry out an inventory of all the COBOL source, copyfiles, BMS files, JCL files and so on that comprise the application. In this first tutorial, you create a project for the sample application and load its source files into a project database.

   This tutorial applies equally whether you are verifying or fixing the application.

2. Finding the date issues - The first stage is to find all the potentially problematic data items and statements, and add these to the worksheet. In this tutorial, you run the Verify - all research analysis tool, which populates the worksheet with the potentially date-related problems and categorizes them according to the type of problem.

   This tutorial applies equally whether you are verifying or fixing the application.

3. Analyzing and categorizing the statements - The next stage in the process is to systematically examine each statement in the worksheet. When you understand the statement fully, you categorize it according to the type of issue and whether or not it is a genuine problem. Your focus of attention depends on whether you are verifying applications or intend to fix them, as follows:
   • If you are verifying applications, categorizing is a fundamental part of the process. Here your objective is to record the level of compliance, such as, which issues have been fixed correctly, which fixes have been missed, and which issues need further investigation.

   • If you intend to fix applications, categorizing is not essential but can be a useful aid for focussing on the problems to fix.

   In this tutorial, you categorize every statement according to whether it is a problem or not, as A-Yes or A-No.

4. Analyzing the data items and checking their year types - The next stage is to examine the data items that are used in the statements that are a problem. You check that the data items have the correct date formats, which are known as year types in SmartFind Plus.

   Although a statement might appear logically correct, it might not be if the data items that are expected to hold dates in the same format actually contain conflicting formats. For example, the statement MOVE DATE-A to DATE-B looks fine, but if DATE-A is of CCYYMMDD format and DATE-B has MMDDCCYY format, the statement will cause a problem.

   Your focus of attention depends on whether you are verifying applications or intend to fix them, as follows:

   • If you are verifying, this analysis provides a more in depth investigation and completes a thorough verification. To thoroughly verify year 2000 compliance, you need to ensure that statements that operate on multiple dates are working with consistent date formats.

   • If you intend to fix, your main focus here is to ensure that the date issues in the worksheet are complete and consistent. In particular, all the date data items that are problems must be in the worksheet and they must have the correct year types so that SmartFix generates the fixes correctly.

   In this tutorial, you check the year types of the problem data items to make sure they are assigned correctly, and that they are used consistently.

5. Reporting on the worksheet - The worksheet is now complete and contains all the information on your investigations.

   You can produce predefined verification reports that document the application's compliance status. Alternatively, you can produce remediation reports documenting the extent and status of the remediation.

   This tutorial shows how to report on the worksheet and your investigations.

The tutorial in Part 3 Fixing the Date Issues relies on your having completed all the preceding tutorials. This tutorial shows how to automatically generate fixes for the date problems you found in the earlier tutorials. In this tutorial, you adjust some of the generated fixes and finally apply the fixes to the source code.

The tutorial in Part 4 Group Working is independent of the others. Providing you have followed the first two tutorials to create a project and a worksheet, you can follow this tutorial. This tutorial discusses group working and shows how to create and maintain a group worksheet.

These tutorials assume you are familiar with COBOL and the year 2000 problem, but that you have never seen SmartFind Plus or any other Micro Focus software before. They also assume you have only a basic knowledge of using Windows.

Finding Information

Loading an Application into the Database