IBM Infoprint Server
IBM's Infoprint server is an AS/400 - iSeries application by IBM (released with V5R1 of OS/400) that allows users to set up print writers on the AS/400 that can write PDF output to IFS folders. While the output can be automatically written to IFS folders, the IFS folder structure the Infoprint Server creates is very confusing. Each report essentally gets it's own IFS folder. This scenario is not very useful for automated routing of reports or archiving to user specified IFS folders.
As of V5R1, Infoprint contains limited support for automatically routing the generated PDF files via email. Customers must write their own exit point code for the automated emailing process. The AS/400 SMTP server is also required to send the email. The Native AS/400 SMTP server is very unstable for routing mission critical email messages.
Beyond the limited email exit point coding, the IBM Infoprint Server has no automation steps built in for emailing or archiving reports.
RJS Email Report Server/400
The Email Report Server/400 software allows multiple AS/400 output queues to be automatically monitored and reports are delivered automatically using the customers standard corporate email system. Supported mail systems include MS Exchange, Lotus Domino, Novell Groupwise or any mail server that uses industry standard SMTP for mail delivery. Reports can also be manually sent via the RJS interactive WRKOUTQ and WRKSPLF replacement commands. The MAILSPLF command can be used to email reports from within a user application. The system also supports its own address book system for creating individual or group email addresses for manual or automated emailing of reports.
Reports are automatically delivered in several industry standard formats:
- Adobe Acrobat - PDF
- MS Word - RTF
- HTML
- ASCII text
- CSV or SLK spreadsheet formats.
Email addresses can be automatically assigned by:
- Output queue
- Selected spool attributes - spool file, user data, job name, form type or user defined data.
- Selecting email addresses from within the reports.
- Scanning for a text string within a report.
- Setting the email address info in the user defined data.
- Using the MAILSPLF command to email reports from within an application.
Note: The Email Report Server can also deliver output generated by the IBM Infoprint Server if a customer wants to use Infoprint as an AFP to PDF report converter to convert electronic forms for emailing. The RJS Infoprint Integrator product would be required for this option to work.
RJS AS/400 Report Splitter
The AS/400 Report Splitter software allows multiple AS/400 output queues to be automatically monitored and reports are split into segments for delivery. Up to 10 fields within a report can be used to determine how the report will be split. Once split the reports can be automatically delivered via the Email Report Server/400 software.
Note: IBM offers no product that does what the report splitter does.
