Manage Your CMS Files With PKZIP and PKUNZIP.

Included free with Reporting to the MAX's DOS Programs are PKZIP and PKUNZIP. - compression tools that allow you to save valuable disk space and download/upload time.

WITH OUR DOS PRODUCTS, we include a third-party product named PKZIP. This product is a very handy shareware utility from PKWARE, Inc. It is a file compression/decompression program that we utilize in our backup/restore menu option. When you backup or restore using the menu options in Reporting to the MAX including Point of Sale and Non-profit Versions, our program shells out to the DOS operating system and executes PKZIP.EXE to backup or PKUNZIP.EXE to restore files. This usage is a very basic example of PKZIP's capability.

When used from the DOS command line, PKZIP can be a very powerful tool. Its power comes from a series of command line switches that invoke different options for managing files. You can read about these options by typing PKZIP /? on the command line and pressing the ENTER key. This brings up the on-line help for PKZIP. By using the on-line help, you can learn to backup, restore, and transport files easily and safely. (Our install program copies PKZIP and PKUNZIP. into the CMS data file directory. Change to this directory in DOS to use PKZIP from the command line).

One of the most useful features of PKZIP is its ability to compress files to a fraction of their original size and span them across multiple floppy diskettes. Without PKZIP, the task of storing large data files on floppy diskettes for backup or transport is cumbersome. PKZIP can compress an unlimited number of data files into one file (called a zip file) and span the file across multiple diskettes. The command line syntax to do this is: PKZIP -& ZIPFILE.ZIP *.*

In the above example, PKZIP is followed by a hyphen (-) and an ampersand (&). The ampersand is the command line switch which tells PKZIP to span the zip file across multiple diskettes. All command line switches in PKZIP are preceded by a hyphen, and followed by the name of the zip file, which can be any DOS acceptable file name with the extension .ZIP. Following the zip file name is the name of the file(s) to include in the zip file. You can use DOS wildcards to specify which files to include, such as *.*in the above example, which tells PKZIP to include all the files in the current directory.

PKZIP is a versatile and powerful tool. With the appropriate command line switches, it can make data file management much easier. It has the ability to compress data for storage or transport by diskette, tape, zip disk, or modem. It can make backups of your data and update your backups by overwriting only files that have been modified since the last backup. It can scramble and password protect data so that unwanted intruders cannot access it. It is a must for anyone who transports large amounts of data from one computer to another.

Data Exchange Helps Save Inventory of 30,000

Reporting to the MAX'S DATA Exchange module can be used for many things besides importing and exporting data to and from other software applications. One work-saving application is to use it as a global updating utility when a large number of records need to be modified. A customer recently called our Technical Support line and was upset because he and his staff had manually entered his entire Inventory without putting the General Ledger Sales Account number on the master record of each item. He had been using the Order Entry module for months not integrated to General Ledger. He wanted to start using General Ledger as of the first of the year but when he turned on the integration he was unable to post invoices because the account number is required for posting to General Ledger. Now he was faced with pulling up more than 30,000 inventory items and adding the account number to each record.

Our customer was happy to learn that we could easily use Data Exchange to accomplish this task for him. We first created a file transfer that exported just the stock numbers to a dBase file. Then we created a second file transfer that imported the stock numbers back in using the merge transfer method. In the Field Mapping screen, we highlighted the Stock Number and linked it to the IN_STOCK field. Then we clicked on Insert. This brought up the Field Properties dialogue box. In the Calculated Field Expression field, we typed "4300" which is his General Ledger Sales Account number enclosed in quotation marks. In the Calculated Field Name field, we typed General Ledger Account. Next we clicked on OK to return to the Field Mapping dialogue box. We highlighted General Ledger Account and linked it to IN_ACCT. We clicked on the Import button and the process was done in less than 30 minutes. When the transfer was finished, all of his stock items had the GENERAL LEDGER Account Number in the appropriate field and he was able to post without any problems.