Conversion from DLS to xPression

[AmyStephens]

POST GENERATED FROM JANUARY 2010 SURVEY RESULTS

How did your DLS to xPression go?

[Kathy]

With the end of life announcement for DLS, we are looking at a conversion to xPression. We run our DLS application on the mainframe using the CICS Server and z/OS DLS Batch Assembly. All of our documents are DML. We produce either metacode or PostScript print files, depending on the documents being generated. We post process these files to merge other documents from various sources (mainframe COBOL batch reports, Sprinter forms, images extracted from our archive system, etc.) using a product called StreamWeaver. We then send the final print file to one of several printers (highlight color, Xerox laser, Xerox PostScript) again depending on what documents are contained with the file.

We have a proposal from EMC for doing this conversion. I have concerns about the impact this will have on performance, etc. Any comments, warnings, gotchas, etc. would be appreciated.

[programblin]

It's tough to compare apples and oranges. I don't know whether you're keeping all this on the mainframe or if the proposal is bringing it down to local servers.

We took an older ADABAS/Natural report process and brought it down to a Win server.

One of the reasons for doing so was that it was a line printer that you printed with special forms. We now do all the forms. It's easier to change the forms.

Yes the old system was a bit faster if you are comparing wall time. But the actual programs to get the data and send it to a printer are roughly the same. The only real difference is the time it takes to generate all the forms.

What used to be a very complex set of multiple batch print queues with forms that could not print together is now all in one place.

I think it depends on your priorities. Our priorities were not necessarily speed. I would express the concern to EMC and write it into the contract.

[Kathy]

While it would be wonderful to move everything to the xPression environment for this application, time, money, and resources prevent this from occurring. Our initial effort is to move the DLS Batch portion to xPression while retaining all of the other processing and interfaces that exist. That being said, we know we will be sending our customer data from the mainframe to xPression, running xPression Batch, and sending the print files created by xPression back to the mainframe.

EMC will be doing the conversion of our DLS documents to xPression. Everything else that needs to happen to make this work is up to us.