Software Product Description ___________________________________________________________________ PRODUCT NAME: DECintact Version 2.1 SPD 29.58.05 DESCRIPTION The DECintact product provides a foundation for building simple and complex transaction processing applications on one or more VAX sys- tems under the OpenVMS VAX operating system. The DECintact product runs as a collection of services and several processes under the OpenVMS VAX operating system. DECintact supports either single-threaded (per- process) or multithreaded (server) application program design method- ologies. Multiple versions of the DECintact product can execute at the same time and share the same physical memory while remaining completely independent. The DECintact product offers the following major facil- ities: o Front-end services o Database services o Two-phase commit o DECtrace support o LSE templates o Security and menu dispatching o File management and restart/recovery o Queue management o Network management Front-end Services DIGITAL June 1993 AE-LC69F-TE The DECintact product supports DECforms forms or DECintact forms within DECintact terminal-based applications. A single system menu can dis- play multiple applications, some using DECforms and some using DECin- tact forms. However, a single application can not mix forms products. DECforms Forms Access to DECforms services is available through a set of DECin- tact routines. For more information on DECforms, refer to the DEC- forms Software Product Description (SPD 29.90.xx). DECintact Forms DECintact forms supports VT100, VT200, VT300, VT400 (in VT200 em- ulation mode) series terminals as though they were intelligent block- mode terminals. Programmers create screen forms interactively through the Terminal Forms Editor (TFE). Forms are virtual in length, and multiple forms can be windowed on a single terminal. Fields on a form have video and edit attributes, which are handled by the ter- minal management facility. A user-written edit routine facility ex- ists, which allows character, field, and form editing to be aug- mented by the programmer. The ability to print a hard copy of the screen is a built-in service of the terminal management facility. Database Services The DECintact product allows multithreaded applications to access syn- chronous resource managers such as DEC Rdb for OpenVMS VAX and DEC DBMS for OpenVMS VAX. Also included are facilities to monitor/configure this environment (that is, control the number of server pool instances, and monitor overall server pool throughput). Two-Phase Commit Using the DECdtm component of the OpenVMS VAX operating system, the DECintact product can coordinate distributed transactions to perform atomic updates to multiple and different resource managers that are DECdtm compliant (for example, DEC Rdb for OpenVMS VAX, DEC DBMS for OpenVMS VAX, and DECintact queues). DECtrace Support 2 The DECintact product allows the collection of performance event data by DECtrace at two levels. The first level allows the collection of performance event data from within the DECintact code. The second level involves allowing application programmers to insert DECtrace calls into their application code. 3 LSE Templates The DECintact product provides LSE DECintact routine templates to al- low programmers to generate DECintact applications more quickly and accurately. Security and Menu Dispatching The DECintact product provides a comprehensive security and menu sys- tem. A mechanism for establishing security profiles for local/remote users and terminals is provided. The DECintact product makes use of a hierarchical menu system that permits references to both lower-level menus and to menu functions directly invoking applications. All menu items can be protected, and users are shown only those items for which they have proper entitlement. Hours of operation, password expiration, transaction audit, and response-time reports are among the features of the DECintact security system. File Management Digital's Record Management Services (VAX RMS) is used for file and record access. The DECintact File Management facility improves upon its use of the VAX RMS facility by supporting shared relative files, logically deleted records, and implicit file openings. The DECintact product also supplies its own hash file access support, which provides a high performance method of inserting and retrieving records. All record operations are considered atomic for the purposes of restart/recovery. There are two options for recovery of VAX RMS files: DECintact Recov- ery and RMS Journaling. Both coordinate with DECdtm (Two-Phase Com- mit) to provide both recovery-unit journaling and after-image jour- naling. DECintact users can choose either recovery method (DECintact or VAX RMS Journaling) on a file by file basis. DECintact Recovery This service is provided as part of the base DECintact product. VAX RMS Journaling 4 This is an optional service. For information on VAX RMS Journal- ing, refer to the VAX RMS Journaling Software Product Description (SPD 27.58.xx). Queue Management The DECintact product provides a comprehensive set of routines that support the creation of disk-based and memory-based queues. A queue consists of items that are priority ordered with up to 65,000 prior- ity classes per queue. Queue items may be inserted FIFO or in prior- ity order and are removed either FIFO or atomic for the purposes of restart/recovery. All disk-based queues are fully recoverable. The DECin- tact product supports remote queues, queue sets, multiple queue in- sertions, enqueue-level threshold alarms, and proof and reconcilia- tion statistics. Network Management The DECintact product supports explicit and implicit remote access at the menu-item level and uses DECnet facilities for intersystem com- munications. Network access is supported at two levels: peer-to-peer and front-end-to-host. Peer-to-peer access allows users with suffi- cient entitlement to invoke applications remotely on another partic- ipating DECintact system. Front-end-to-host access provides a trans- parent method of off-loading forms management (including both built- in and user-written validation) and menu level security from a host onto a VAX front-end system. A VAX front-end system also offers au- tomatic host failure rollover in the event that a CPU within a host VAXcluster system fails. VAXcluster Features The DECintact product supports the building of simple, as well as com- plex, VAXcluster applications. All DECintact file accesses, as well as all disk-based queue operations, use the OpenVMS distributed lock manager to arbitrate clusterwide system resources. The DECintact sys- tem support of VAXcluster features, in conjunction with its own restart /recovery strategies, can be used to simplify the implementation of high availability applications. 5 Development Option The DECintact Development Option provides all features of the prod- uct for development and deployment of an application. Run-Time Option As a subset of the Development Option, the DECintact Run-Time Option allows existing, developed applications to be run in a production en- vironment under an alternate license. This option does not provide the facilities for developing applications. Remote-Access Option As a subset of the Run-Time Option, the Remote-Access Option provides the ability to off-load the Terminal Management Facilities in a dis- tributed application environment, to ``remote'' or ``front-end'' sys- tems under an alternate license. Conformance to Standards Standards Industry Practice Conformance There are no relevant formal standards, industry specifications or prac- tices, certificates or conformance documents that DECintact adheres or conforms to. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS VAX, MicroVAX, VAXstation or VAXserver configuration as specified in the System Support Addendum (SSA 29.58.05-x). SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS* For Systems Using Terminals (No DECwindows Interface): OpenVMS VAX Operating System For Workstations Running VWS: 6 OpenVMS VAX Operating System OpenVMS Workstation Software In addition to these requirements, DECnet-VAX V5.4 (or DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS VAX V5.5) is required for the Remote-Access Option. * Refer to the System Support Addendum (SSA 29.58.05-x) for avail- ability and required versions of prerequisite/optional software and for information regarding components of OpenVMS VAX DECwindows. ORDERING INFORMATION Development Option Software Licenses: QL-VF1A*-** Software Media: QA-VF1A*-** Software Documentation: QA-VF1AA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-VF1A*-** Run-Time Option Software Licenses: QL-VF2A*-** Software Media: QL-VF2A*-** Software Documentation: QA-VF2AA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-VF2A*-** Remote-Access Option Software Licenses: QL-VF3A*-** Software Media: QL-VF3A*-** Software Documentation: QL-VF3AA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-VF3A*-** * Denotes variant fields. For additional information on available li- censes, services, and media, refer to the appropriate price book. 7 SOFTWARE LICENSING Licensed by Digital Equipment Corporation from Advanced Systems Con- cepts. This software is furnished under the licensing provisions of Digital Equipment Corporation's Standard Terms and Conditions. For more in- formation about Digital's licensing terms and policies, contact your local Digital office. License Management Facility Support This layered product supports the OpenVMS VAX License Management Fa- cility. License units for this product are allocated on a Unlimited System Use basis. For more information on the License Management Facility, refer to the OpenVMS VAX Operating System Software Product Description (SPD 25.01.xx) or the License Management Facility manual of the OpenVMS VAX Operat- ing System documentation set. SOFTWARE PRODUCT SERVICES A variety of service options are available from Digital. For more in- formation, contact your local Digital office. SOFTWARE WARRANTY Warranty for this software product is provided by Digital with the pur- chase of a license for the product as defined in the Software Warranty Addendum of this SPD. 8 [TM]The DIGITAL Logo, CI, DEC, DECdtm, DECforms, DECnet, DECintact, DECtrace, DECwindows, MicroVAX, OpenVMS, VAX, VAX RMS, VAXclus- ter, VAXft, VAXserver, VAXstation, VMS, VT100, VT300, and VT400 are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. 9