The following types of output format can be sent from the NOF program to the application:
Output for administration commands
Output for ispecs
Output for copyispecs
Other output
Output for Administration Commands
For an administration command:
Output consists of the command and its parameters.
The first character must be a colon.
Output for Ispecs
The first five characters of the transaction identify the ispec. In earlier versions, ispec names were limited to a maximum of five characters which meant that the ispec field in the NOF format had length equal to five. In Agile Business Suite, full ispec names can be up to 65 characters in length. However, to maintain backwards compatibility, the NOF format continues to allow only five characters for the ispec name, and will therefore use the ispec Alias value (which is limited to five characters) to identify the ispec.
Use the ispec name ROC_I to access the Report Output Control system (ROC).
The sixth character (stored in the attribute Glb.Source) specifies the type of transaction, and must be one of the values shown in the following table:
| Value | Type of Transaction |
|---|---|
| N | Recall ispec screen. |
| T | Send ispec screen using the screen data that follows (details below). |
| space | Recall Teach screen using Teach screen name that follows. |
Screen data for ispecs must be in the following form:
number date month [ maint ] data
Details of these values are given in the following table:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| number | Transaction number to be stored in the built-in attribute TranNo. |
| date | Date (in the format DDMMMYY) to be stored in the built-in attribute Input_Date. |
| month | Account month (in the format YYMM) to be stored in the built-in attribute ActMth. |
| maint | Maintenance value, for ispecs that have one or more key fields, to be stored in the built-in attribute Maint. |
| data | Values of the various ispec attribute. |
Obtain the required format from the Field Description file for each ispec. These files are generated into the Interfaces\ProtocolAdapters folder and have names such as <ispec>-FieldDesc.xml, for example CUST-FieldDesc.xml. The start property defines the relative starting position for each attribute in the NOF format.
Note: In the Field Description file, the Ispec field is defined as length=65, which is the full length of an ispec name in the model. The start property value in the Field Description file for subsequent fields is based upon this length. However, in the actual NOF format, only five characters are allowed for the ispec name. Therefore, you must subtract 60 from the start property value of each field after the name to determine the actual starting position of that field in a NOF message.
For copied attributes, the start property defines the starting position of the first copy of that attribute. To find the starting position of the next copy, you need to add the length of this block of contiguous copied attributes to the start position of the first copy.
Output for CopyIspecs
The NOF format for CopyIspecs in a system migrated from EAE 3.x is identical to that in EAE 3.x, maintaining “safe passage”.
However, as changes are made to these ispecs (for example, copied attributes added) the order in which these copied attributes are positioned within the NOF message is different.
Message order for EAE 3.x
In EAE 3.x, all copied data items were contained in a single contiguous block in the NOF message. The layout of these fields in the NOF message is:
<1st copy of all copied fields><2nd copy of all copied fields><subsequent copies, etc.>
For example, if we have an ispec with 3 copies and with the following data items:
DA-BEFORE - before the copied ispecs
CF-DATA1 - for the copied ispecs
CF-DATA2 - for the copied ispecs
DA-AFTER - after the copied ispecs
Where, DA is data and CF are copied fields.
The NOF message format for this ispec would be:
<DA-BEFORE><CF-DATA1><CF-DATA2><CF-DATA1><CF-DATA2><CF-DATA1><CF-DATA2><DA-AFTER> <----first copy----><----second copy---><----third copy---->
Message order for Agile Business Suite
In Agile Business Suite, copied attributes do not have to be contiguous in the NOF message. You can assign any NOF order value to any attribute, and this value determines its relative position in the NOF message. It is possible to have non-copied attributes interleaved with copied attributes.
The layout of copied attributes in the NOF message follows the same rules as in EAE 3.x for each block of one or more contiguous copied attributes. It is possible to have multiple blocks of contiguous copied attributes in the NOF message. Each block follows the rules above, that is they will have the first copy of all copied attributes in the block followed by the second copy of all copied attributes in the block, and so on.
For example, if we have the following NOF order:
DA 1 NOF Order=1
C_DA2 NOF Order=2, copied 3 times
C_DA3 NOF Order=3, copied 3 times
DA 4 NOF Order=4
C_DA5 NOF Order=5, copied 3 times
DA 6 NOF Order=6
The NOF message format would be:
<DA1><C_DA2><C_DA3><C_DA2><C_DA3><C_DA2><C_DA3><DA4><C_DA5><C_DA5><C_DA5><DA6> <--1st copy--><--2nd copy--><--3rd copy--> <-1st-><-2nd-><-3rd->
Other Output
There are two types of other output to the application:
Sign on to the application (displays Fireup Ispec screen)
HI
This returns the Fireup Ispec screen.
Sign off from the application:
BYE
This returns a status line message of GOOD BYE.
Refer to Data Format Returned From an Application for more information.
Position of attributes with Direction=Out (equivalent of Usage INQUIRY)
All attributes with a Direction value of “Out” are grouped together at the end of the NOF message. This group of attributes is sorted according to their NOF order value. Therefore, the generalized layout of a NOF message is:
All Direction=In and Direction=InOut attributes sorted according to NOF order
All Direction=Out attributes sorted according to NOF order
An important exception to this general rule is for Copied attributes with Direction=Out — these attributes are sorted within the “In” and “InOut” attributes according to NOF order.