Online practice session

When you have completed all steps of the session, you can experiment with PFX-SAMP by adding, changing, and deleting segments. You can use PFX-SAMP whether or not you have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed on your system.

If you do not have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed on your system, you can still use the online practice session to become familiar with IMS Fast Path and actually perform some data entry and retrieval against DEDB databases.

If you do not have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed on your system, only some of the online practice session steps are available. Transactions DIVST6 through DIVST9 and DIVSTA are not available; therefore, you should not perform steps 8, 9, 10, 12, and 14.

To perform the online practice session

1. Log on to IMS and ensure that all PFX-SAMP transactions, programs, and databases are available for use.
2. Begin the testing process.

   IMS: Type /TEST MFS and press Enter:

   Type DIVST0 and press Enter. The PRIMARY MENU is displayed.

3. Select option 1 from the PRIMARY MENU and press Enter, or press PF13 to access the COURSE MENU.
4. Select function G from the COURSE MENU and press Enter.

   The first course segment on the university database is displayed. To retrieve the next course, press Enter.

5. To add a course segment to the database, type the following values and press Enter:

   FUNCTION            A
   COURSE NUMBER       12345
   COURSE NAME         ABSTRACT ALGEBRA

6. To move to the LOCATION MENU, press PF14.

   The course number is displayed on this panel.

   To add a location segment for the newly entered course, type the following values and press

   Enter :

   FUNCTION             A
   COURSE NUMBER        12345
   LOCATION CODE        UCLA
   LOCATION NAME        LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

7. To move to the INSTRUCTOR MENU, press PF15.

   The course number and location code are displayed on this panel.

   To add an instructor segment for the specified course and location, type the following values and press Enter:

   FUNCTION             A
   COURSE NUMBER        12345
   LOCATION CODE        UCLA
   INSTRUCTOR ID        98765
   INSTRUCTOR           SAM BROWNING
   INSTRUCTOR SSN       5912223333
   PHONE NUMBER         416 921 2888

8. You must have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed to perform this step. To move to the ACCESS VIA INSTRUCTOR SSN panel, press PF20.

   To access the instructor that you just added, type the following values and press Enter :

   FUNCTION              B
   COURSE NUMBER         591222333

9. You must have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed to perform this step. To change the instructor’s phone number and SSN, type the following values and press Enter: 

   

   FUNCTION             C
   SOC SEC #            000000000
   PHONE NUMBER         591 111 2222

10. You must have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed to perform this step. To browse this instructor, type the following values and press Enter:

    FUNCTION             B
    SOC SEC #            000000000

    Because this index was built using sparse indexing to exclude instructors with SSNs equal to 000000000, the instructor segment is not in the secondary index.

11. To retrieve the instructor, press PF15 to return to the INSTRUCTOR MENU. Type the following values and press Enter:

    FUNCTION             A
    COURSE NUMBER        12345
    LOCATION CODE        UCLA
    INSTRUCTOR ID        98765

    Enter a new SSN of 111111111 with a C function. It is rejected because the Instructor SSN index is a unique index, and that SSN belongs to another instructor on file.

12. You must have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed to perform this step. To access courses using the location code, press PF19. Then type UCLA and press Enter. All courses taught at this location are listed.

13. To add two students to the course and location, press PF16 to access the STUDENT MENU. Add the following students:

    FUNCTION             A
    COURSE NUMBER        12345
    LOCATION CODE        UCLA
    INSTRUCTOR ID        7777777
    SURNAME              SMITH
    FIRST NAME           FRED
    PHONE NUMBER         416 921 1489
    SOC SEC #            345678912
    ADDR1                ANYWHERE
    
    FUNCTION             A
    COURSE NUMBER        12345
    LOCATION CODE        UCLA
    INSTRUCTOR ID        8888888
    SURNAME              SMITH
    FIRST NAME           GEORGE
    PHONE NUMBER         416 222 3333
    SOC SEC #            545678912
    ADDR1                SOMEWHERE

14. You must have BMC AMI Fast Path Indexer for IMS installed to perform this step. To access the STUDENT NAME (INDEX ONLY) panel, press PF21.

    Use this transaction to perform a name search. Type the student name SMITH and press Enter. All students with the name 'Smith' will be listed. If you want more information about a specific student, enter that student's course, location, and student numbers in the top portion of the panel and press. The STUDENT MENU for the selected student is displayed.

    To display the ACCESS VIA STUDENT NAME panel, which is similar to the STUDENT NAME (INDEX ONLY) panel, press PF18. The ACCESS VIA STUDENT NAME panel retrieves information from the primary DEDB by using the secondary index database. ACCESS VIA STUDENT NAME also processes the Student Surname index in a stand-alone manner and uses the duplicate data of the secondary index database.