Problem Analysis and Resolution
I cannot talk to the Rochade Repository
Firstly, there are really few things in RoAccess that can go
wrong. RoAccess depends on the Rochade Repository server and the Rochade
batch client working. In the vast majority of the cases where there
were access problems, it was the Repository server.
RoAccess does not keep a database that can get damaged. It only
uses the RIM and related system tables. If the Rochade Repository gets
damaged, then RoAccess will not display and access it correctly because
the information received from the Repository, if at all, can contain errors
and inconsistencies.
RoAccess uses the perl installation and the Rochade client. If
any of these have changed because of a new installation or disk re-structuring,
they can cause a problem.
Each of RoAccess' screens is a small application. Using the "Environment,
Capture and Trace" facility, you can actually see what is happening in
great detail. RoAccess is designed to be simple and modular to assist
problem resolution. An example is DEFINITION is defined by Autopilot
to be one line long, but will allow you to enter multiple lines.
Should RoAccess perform improperly, the nature of what you will see
is data that is typically incorrectly formatted or perhaps missing.
This can always be verified by using Autopilot on the same data.
How to run the Environment Capture and Tracefacility.
This is one of the nicest things about RoAccess. It allows your
program development debugging and can allow us to solve a problem that
occurs only at your site.This facility is enabled to help isolate problems that cannot be duplicated
at our location. There are many "data" related problems, where one's
database is slightly different from another, and an unexpected display
results. Most of the times, the symptoms can be duplicated here,
which would allow us to either correct the problem or report it to Viasoft
it the problem lies in the server or batch client.
The basic idea is to have two screens up. One is the
trace screen, the other has the normal RoAccess screens. You then
enable the Trace Flag right before the screen that has the problem, and then
run that screen. It will display a lot of additional information on
the screen.
The Diagnostic Utilities screen controls the trace facility.
You get to
this screen by
- Bringing up RoAccess in a new window
- clicking on the "References, Tools and Utilities" icon
on the first screen
- This brings up RoAccess/Documentation/Help page.
From here, click on the "Diagnostic Utilities" link. This bring
up the desired page, "Diagnostic Utilities".
- Click the red ball next to the "Set the
Trace/Environment Capture flag" list of utilities
- This scrolls the Utilities screen to the "Set
RoAccess Trace/Environment Capture" section
- Click the "Click Here" link to pop up the screen to
set/reset the trace flags
- A new window with radio buttons pops up.
- In the starting window, bring up RoAccess again.
Do NOT create a new window to run RoAccess in. The RoAccess window and
the trace flag window must have started from the same window.
Below is the screen to allow you to toggle
the trace flag on and off:

There are two sets of Flags -
RoAccess Trace Flag displays the data passing phase from one screen to another
plus internal information for each screen.
The process phase show what is done with that data, what queries are issued,
what the results were and what processing then ensued.
- Stored Procedure Trace Flag. This allows
one to trace the stored procedures.
So you have two screens up:
- The "Trace Flag Summary" screen.
- the RoAccess Documentation/Help screen you clicked on to bring it up.
Use the BACK button on the Documentation window until the RoAccess first
screen come up.
- Select "NO FRAME" mode and go to the screen that
you have the question about.
- Now, on the Trace Flag Summary screen, set
the "RoAccess Trace Flag" button. Any screen
run by RoAccess from this point on will display the additional environment/trace
information. NOW click the button that displays the screen that has the problem
and all the trace info will be displayed. It is not pretty to look
at, but contains a world of information. To view the results, either
click on "View/Page Source". Then save this text file. If you are
sending this to RoAccess support, send this file in .ZIP format.
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