File Tailoring Services

File-tailoring services read skeleton files and write tailored output that can be used to drive other functions. Frequently, file tailoring is used to generate job files for batch execution.

FTOPEN:

This statement marks the beginning of file-tailoring process. It opens the output dataset where the tailored data will be stored.

"FTOPEN [TEMP]"

• Here 'TEMP' is optional.

• 'TEMP' is specified - File-tailoring will be performed in a temporary dataset.

• 'TEMP' is omitted - the tailored output will be stored in the dataset assigned to the ddname 'ISPFILE'.

FTINCL:

This statement performs the actual file-tailoring process. It accesses the skeleton from ISPSLIB and performs file-tailoring.

"FTINCL skelmem [NOFT]"

• 'skelmem' denotes the name of the skeleton.

• If NOFT is specified, no tailoring will be performed and is equivalent to copy.

• When the file-tailoring is performed, the variables placed in the skeleton will be substituted with the values passed from REXX.

FTCLOSE:

This statement stores the tailored output in the output dataset and closes it.

"FTCLOSE [NAME (outmem)] [LIBRARY(outds)] [NOREPL] "

• Outmem: Output Member name output is PDS.

• Outds: Name of DD where output is saved. Default is ISPFILE.

• NOREPL: If specified, the existing member will not be overlaid.

FTCLOSE:

This statement erases a member from file-tailoring output library.

"FTERASE member	[LIBRARY(outds)] "

• Outmem – Member to be deleted from file-tailoring library.

• Outds - Name of the library where the member resides.

Example:

Sample Skeleton:

)CM skeleton program to generate job name based on user id.
)SET FLN = IBMMF.SAMPLE.FILE
//&USR.A JOB ,'&USR',CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=X,NOTIFY=&USR,
//	     MSGLEVEL=(1,1)
//*
//PROG	EXEC PGM=SAMPLE
//INPUT DD DSN=&FLN

Sample REXX to invoke Skeleton:

/* REXX */
/* REXX TO PERFORM FILE TAILORING USING SKELETONS */
USR = 'IBMMF'
ADDRESS ISPEXEC
"LIBDEF ISPSLIB DATASET ID('SKEL.DATASET')"
"FTOPEN TEMP"
"FTINCL SKELMEM"
"FTCLOSE"
"VGET (ZTEMPF) SHARED"
"VIEW DATASET('"ZTEMPF"')"

EXIT 0

When the above mentioned skeleton is tailored using the REXX the output will be as given below:

//IBMMFA JOB ,'IBMMF',CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=X,NOTIFY=&USR,
//	       MSGLEVEL=(1,1)
//*
//PROG	EXEC PGM=SAMPLE
//INPUT DD DSN=IBMMF.SAMPLE.FILE

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