Parameter Descriptions

[signon]

Use the [signon] section of the dbridge.cfg file to enter information for signing on to the relational database and Databridge Server on the host.

The configuration file must include the ODBC data source, signon parameters to access the relational database, and a user and a password (unless you use a SQL Server database with Integrated Windows authentication, in which case the userid and password can be omitted).

When using the Client Console, these parameters are supplied at the time the data source is created. You need to right-click on the service in the tree view and select Add Data Source from the pop-up menu to get the dialog that allows you to supply these parameters.

Parameter	Description
`datasource`	Default: None Command-line option: `-O` This parameter is the name that identifies the ODBC data source used to access the ODBC database that holds the Client Control tables. This ODBC data source is configured using the Control Panel during the Client installation procedure.
`hostpasswd`	Default: None Range: 17 alphanumeric characters Command-line option: `-X` Use the host password parameter to specify the password associated with Databridge Server on the host. This parameter must match exactly the KEY parameter defined in the Host Server control file. For example: `DBServer KEY = "Secret" dbridge.cfg hostpasswd = Secret`
`password`	Default: None Command-line option: `-p` Use the password parameter to specify the password associated with the user ID for the relational database. The password must be valid for the user ID or the connection to the relational database server will fail. Passwords are limited to 30 characters. If your password contains non alphanumeric characters other than the underscore, you must enclose the password in double quotes, as follows: `password = "a$bb%"` NOTE:The password is always encoded in both text and binary versions of the client configuration file. For more information, see “Export or Import a Configuration File” in the Databridge Client Administrator's Guide or see “Export the Client Configuration to a File” in the Databridge Client Console Help. Passwords communicated between the Databridge Client and Databridge Server are not encoded.
`user`	Default: Login userid Command-line option: `-U` Use the user parameter to specify the user ID for the relational database. The user ID must have the appropriate resource privileges for the designated relational database, as explained in Setting Up a User ID in the Databridge Installation Guide.

[signon] parameters with equivalent environment variables

[signon] Parameter	Environment Variable	Option	dbutility Command
`datasource`		`-O`	All
`hostpasswd`	DBHOSTPW	`-X`	`define`,`redefine`,`process`,`clone`, and`switchaudit`
`password`	DBPASSWD	`-P`	All
`user`	DBUSERID	`-U`	All

[Log_File]

This section is the same as in the regular Databridge Clients. Refer to Appendix C: Client Configuration of the Databridge Client Administrator's Guide.

[Trace_File]

This section is the same as in the regular Databridge Clients. Refer to [Trace_File] in Appendix C: Client Configuration of the Databridge Client Administrator's Guide.

[PCSpan]

This section contains parameters specific to the Flat File Client. When using the Client Console or the Client Configurator, these parameters are accessed using the PCSpan or the PCSpan > Advanced Parameters nodes in the Client Configuration tree view. Names that follow these appear in parentheses and are either labels of controls or of groups of controls. In some instances where the names are very different, we provide both the control labels and the groups' names.

redacted_database

Default:0

Range:0-2

Maintain this parameter at 0 unless you would like to configure data redaction. Contact customer care on configuring data redaction.

add_item_names

Default:False

Range:True or False

Configurator: PCSpan (Options > Insert Column Names Record)

The add_item_names parameter is a boolean that adds a record with the DMSII item names to the start of all flat files. The names are the names used in the DASDL, except for items that have OCCURS clauses. The latter get the suffix " [n]" appended to the names to make the names unique, where n is the occurrence number of the item starting at 1. For example an item named XXX with the clause "OCCURS 5 TIMES" will result in columns named XXX[1] through XXX[5].

add_nl_chars

Default:False

Range:True or False

Configurator: PCSpan (Options > Add New Line Characters ... )

The add_nl_chars parameter is a boolean that causes the client to automatically add a CR LF to the end of fixed length records. This parameter is ignored the case of variable length records, as they must end with new-line characters.

decimal_char

Default:"."

Range:"." or ","

Configurator: PCSpan (Special Characters > Decimal Point Character)

The decimal_char parameter specifies the decimal point character to be used in numeric items. It defaults to "." and the only other allowable value is "," to be used for European sites.

delimiter

Default:","

Range:1 character string

Configurator: PCSpan (Special Characters > Column Delimiter)

The delimiter parameter defines the character that is used to separate items. This parameter is only meaningful when using CSV or COMMA formats. It defaults to ",". You can use a variety of characters as the delimiter, including the vertical bar and the TAB character. To specify tab you can use "\t" or simply TAB.

extracts_dir

Default:""

Range:String

Configurator: PCSpan (Directories)

The extracts_dir parameters allows you to place the extract records in a separate directory from fixup and update records. The default value of \"\" corresponds to the working directory for the data source. Typically you would set these to "extracts", "fixups" and "updates" to keep them separate. File names that contain special characters, must be enclosed in double quotes and if the name contains a backslash, you must use two backslashes (the single backslash is used as the force character, e.g. "\t" represents a TAB).

filename_mask

Default:0

Range:0..7

Configurator: PCSpan > Advanced Parameters (File Name Mask)

The filename_mask parameter allows you to include any combination of the starting AFN, ABSN and TIMESTAMP in the fixups and updates flat file names. Once the filename suffix has been established it remains in effect for the duration of the run. A bit mask of 1 indicates AFN, a mask of 2 indicates ABSN and a mask of 4 indicates TIMESTAMP. A value of 7 specifies all three.

fixups_dir

Default:""

Range:String

Configurator: PCSpan (Directories)

The fixups_dir parameter allows you to place the fixup records in a separate directory from extract and update records. The default value of \"\" corresponds to the working directory for the data source. Typically you would set these to "extracts", "fixups" and "updates" to keep them separate. File names that contain special characters, must be enclosed in double quotes and if the name contains a backslash, you have to use two backslashes, as \ is used as the force character (e.g. "\t" represents a TAB).

format

Default:CSV

Range:CSV, FIXED or COMMA

Configurator: PCSpan (Record Format)

The format parameter is only used to determine if the records are fixed-length or not, as it is nothing more than a collection of parameter settings. The three formats supported are: CSV format, FIXED format and COMMA format. The last two formats are meant to mimic COMMA FORMAT and FIXED FORMAT in DBSupport. While CSV format closely resembles VARYING FORMAT in DBSupport.

ltrim_zeroes

Default:True

Range:True or False

Configurator: PCSpan (Options)

The ltrim_zeroes parameter controls whether or not to strip leading zeroes for numbers in CSV format.

prefix_columns

Default:0

Range:Bit mask

Configurator: PCSpan > Advanced Parameters (Prefix Column Mask)

The prefix_columns parameter specifies a mask that is ANDed with the default_user_columns mask to determine which external columns are to be added to the start of the record (the remaining columns are added at the end of the record, just like in the standard Clients). The bits defined for the parameter default_user_columns were expanded to include the items that DBSupport allows. Some of the columns used by the standard Clients are not meaningful for the Flat File Client and are therefore not supported. Attempting to set them in the default_user_columns specification has no effect.

quote

Default:"'"

Range:"'" or "\""

Configurator: PCSpan (Special Characters > Quote Character)

The quote parameter allows you to use single or double quotes to enclose character data. This is only meaningful for COMMA and CSV formats.

real_format

Default:Scientific, 11, 6

Range:Scientific or Decimal

Configurator: PCSpan (Format DMSII REAL as)

The real_format parameter has 3 arguments, which specify the format type, the length and the scale to use when formatting a DMSII REAL in the flat files. The format type can be either scientific or decimal, just like in DBSupport. The remaining two arguments are the length and scale, which allow you to further control the format used to write the data to the flat file.

rtrim_spaces

Default:True

Range:True or False

Configurator: PCSpan (Options)

The rtrim_spaces parameter controls whether or not to strip trailing blanks in CSV format. COMMA format does not trim spaces, as it treats character data as fixed length. Furthermore, it does not do anything special with quote characters in the data that is enclosed in quotes, while CSV format uses two quote characters to represent a quote in the data (see the use_quotes parameter below). This parameter can be augmented by the [Params] section parameter set_blanks_to_null, which causes blank items to be represented as NULL (i.e. the empty string ",,").

span_date_delim

Default:\"/\"

Range:\"/\", \"-\", \".\" or \"\"

Configurator: PCSpan > Advanced Parameters (Dates)

The span_date_delim parameter allows the year, month and day to either be separated by slashes, dashes, or dots (or not separated at all). If you use a date delimiter, then the hours, minutes and seconds will be separated by colons and the time part will be preceded by a blank. If the delimiter is the empty string, then they are all run together to form a 14-digit number.

span_date_format

Default:21

Range:21 .. 26

Configurator: PCSpan > Advanced Parameters (Dates)

The span_date_format parameter, in conjunction with the span_date_delim and span_date_scale parameters, defines how dates are represented in flat files. The format uses the same date format codes as the standard Client. Currently, only the format with 4-digit years is supported.

span_date_scale

Default:0

Range:0 .. 9

Configurator: PCSpan > Advanced Parameters (Dates)

The span_date_scale parameter specifies how many digits after the seconds are to be added to represent fractions of seconds. When the scale is greater than zero a decimal character (dot or comma) is added after the seconds.

treat_real_as

Default:real

Range:real, time6 or binary

Configurator: PCSpan > Advanced Parameters (Treat DMSII REAL as)

The treat_real_as parameter indicates how the define and redefine commands are to treat all REAL items that are not customized. This parameter allows you to do this without the need to do any customization using SQL user scripts. There are 3 choices available: (1) a value of real indicates that a REAL should be treated as a floating point number; (2) a value time6 indicates that a REAL should be treated as a TIME(6) value; (3) a value of binary indicates that a REAL should be written out to the flat files as 12-hex digits, just like an RSN. If you have REAL items in DMSII that are timestamps, you need to treat them as BINARY (if you know that they are TIME(6) data, you can treat them as such). If you just treat them as REAL, the most significant bit of the item will be lost when the number is converted to scientific or decimal format, as this bit is unused for a floating point values on the A-Series machines. On the other hand timestamps use this bit, which is typically part of the date.

updates_dir

Default:\"\"

Range:String

Configurator: PCSpan (Directories)

The updates_dir parameter allows you to place the update records in a separate directory from extract and fixup records. The default value of \"\" corresponds to the working directory for the data source. Typically you would set these to "extracts", "fixups" and "updates" to keep them separate. File names that contain special characters, must be enclosed in double quotes and if the name contains a backslash, you have to use two backslashes, as \ is used as the force character (e.g. "\t" represents a TAB).

use_plus_sign

Default:False

Range:True or False

Configurator: PCSpan (Options > Use + for Positive Signed Numbers)

The use_plus_sign parameter is a boolean that controls whether or not positive signed numbers are always preceded by a + sign.

use_quotes

Default:True

Range:True or False

Configurator: PCSpan (Options)

The use_quotes parameter is a boolean that specifies whether or not character data should be enclosed in quotes. If this parameter is set to False the quote parameter is ignored. This parameter is meaningless when using FIXED format.

[params]

See Appendix C: Client Configuration of the Databridge Client Administrator's Guide for a description of these parameters. Note that several of the relational database Client parameters do not apply to the Flat File Client. We list these parameter below and only provide details if they are different than what is in Appendix C of the Databridge Client Adminstrator's Guide.

Define and Redefine Command Parameters

default_user_columns

Default:0

Range:0 -- 16383 (Some bit combinations are not allowed)

Configurator: Customizing > User Columns

The default_user_columns parameter adds non-DMSII columns (user columns) to all data sets in the client database. The Flat File Client supports more non-DMSII columns than the relational database Clients, see external_columns below for a complete list of these columns.

external_column[n]

Default:N/A

Range:N/A

Configurator: Customizing > User Columns

This parameter allows you to globally change the column name, sql_type, or sql_length of the non-DMSII columns described in Numeric Date and Time in Non-Contiguous Columns. The syntax is as follows:

external_column[n] = ["name"[,sql_type[,sql_length]]]

Where	Is
n	The corresponding bit number (dms_subtype value) for the non-DMSII column. NOTE: The brackets and value are required syntax.
name	Custom column name
sql_type	An integer value that represents the internal code for the SQL type that you want to use. The program only accepts data types that make sense for a particular column. For instance, you cannot set the AFN to a bit or a char, but you can set it to an int or a dec(10).
sql_length	A value that represents the length of the data type. Specify this value only if the data type requires it. If the data type does not have a length specification, specifying a value may cause an error.

For example, the entry below causes the audit_filenum column to be renamed AFN (the double quotation marks are optional since no special characters are involved); the sql_type and sql_length remain unchanged.

external_column[5]    = "AFN"
default_user_columns  = 0x0010

In the example below, the data type of the audit_block column changed to dec(12).

external_column[6]    = ,11,12

Define and Redefine Command Unchanged Parameters

allow_nulls
enable_dms_links
extract_embedded
flatten_all_occurs
force_aa_value_only
miser_database
read_null_records
sec_tab_column_mask
split_varfmt_dataset
strip_ds_prefixes
suppress_new_columns
suppress_new_datasets
use_binary_aa
use_date
use_column_prefixes
use_decimal_aa

Process and Clone Command Parameters {#b1iumwl7}

Process and Clone Command Unchanged Parameters {#b1jl0wwd}

See "Process and Clone Command Parameters" in Appendix C: Client Configuration of the Databridge Client Administrator's Guide for details.

alpha_error_cutoff
automate_virtuals
aux_stmts
century_break
commit_absn_inc
commit_longtrans
commit_time_inc
commit_txn_inc
commit_update_inc
convert_ctrl_char
convert_reversals
correct_bad_days
dbe_dflt_origin
defer_fixup_phase
discard_data_errors
display_bad_data
enable_doc_records
engine_workers
error_display_limits
inhibit_8_bit_data
inhibit_console
inhibit_ctrl_chars
linc_century_base
keep_undigits
max_discards
max_retry_secs
max_srv_idle_time
max_wait_secs
months
n_dmsii_buffers
n_update_threads
null_digit_value
numeric_data_format
set_blanks_to_null
set_lincday0_to_null
show_perf_stats
show_statistics
show_table_stats
sql_exec_timeout
statistics_increment
stop_after_fixups
stop_after_gc_reorg
stop_on_dbe_mode_chg
track_vfds_no links
use_dbwait
use_latest_si