12 Commit as Soon as Possible

Commit As Soon As Possible (Commit ASAP) allows users to schedule the commit process for workbook data so that it executes as soon as all the system resources are available. Commit ASAP is an option in the File menu of the RPAS Client. Procedures for using Commit ASAP are provided in the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server User Guide for the Classic Client.

Commit ASAP takes a copy of the data to be committed. Unlike Commit Later, which adds a workbook commit process to a queue that is run in batch, the data that is eventually committed is the data that was present at the time the commit instruction was issued. With Commit Later, if the user makes further changes to the workbook and saves that workbook before the batch commit process is run, those changes will also get committed.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Using Commit ASAP
Managing the Workbook Queue Using showWorkbookQueues
Commit ASAP Settings Using configCommitAsap

Using Commit ASAP

After attempting to commit a workbook using Commit ASAP (File\Commit ASAP), the user sees a message in the client that the workbook has been scheduled for a commit. The user can continue working. The system then tries to commit the workbook as soon as it can, taking into account any other scheduled commits. If the commit cannot be done prior to the domain's Commit ASAP deadline, it will be canceled and listed as failed.

There are four states for commit processes to be added to the Commit ASAP queue.

Pending: The commit process is queued up to take place at some point in the future.
Committing: The workbook is currently being committed.
Success: The commit succeeded.
Failed: The commit failed.

The status of each Commit ASAP process can be viewed by accessing a dialog window called Commit Status from the File menu. This dialog window displays all of the Commit ASAP processes with their respective status for all processes that have not been purged (see below). This dialog can be used to sort the tasks based on any of the columns.

Entries can be filtered in a variety of ways. If the check box All Users is not checked, users will only be able to view their own entries. If it is checked, any user will see the entries for all users. The check boxes in the Status To Display group allow a user to filter the output in order to see only the processes with the specified statuses. The window can be updated by using the Refresh button. The dialog remembers the settings based on the last use.

Note:

If a user attempts to commit a workbook using the Commit ASAP option, and the workbook already has a process in the queue, the original processes is removed from the queue. That means that only one Commit ASAP can be pending in the queue for a given workbook/user/template name combination at any given time.
Data within the workbooks can be committed without saving the workbook. When users click Commit, and if the workbook has not been saved by then, RPAS Classic Client provides an option to Save, Commit, or perform both actions separately on the workbook.

Managing the Workbook Queue Using showWorkbookQueues

The RPAS utility showWorkbookQueues is used for viewing the status of Commit ASAP processes and for purging entries in the Commit ASAP status window.

The purge option requires a date before which entries will be removed, as well as specification for which entries to remove: succeeded, failed, or both.

showWorkbookQueue Usage

showWorkbookQueues -version
showWorkbookQueues -d domainPath -show [all|pending|waiting|working|success|failed]*
showWorkbookQueues -d domainPath -purge date [success | failed]*

Table 12-1 provides descriptions of the arguments used by the showWorkbookQueues utility.

Table 12-1 showWorkbookQueues Arguments

Argument	Description
-version	Prints the RPAS version, revision, and build information of the utility.
-d domainPath	Specifies the path to the domain.
-show	Lists the contents of the queue in the order in which the parameter is specified. Possible values: all, pending, waiting, working, success, and failed.
all	Used with the -show parameter. This lists all of the workbooks in all statuses.
pending	Used with the -show parameter. This lists all workbooks that are waiting to be committed.
waiting	For Oracle Retail development use only.
success	Used with the -show parameter. This lists all workbooks that have been successfully committed.
failed	Used with the -show parameter. This lists all workbooks that did not successfully commit.
-purge date	Purges entries in the Commit ASAP status window. Entries before the date provided will be removed. The date should be a string of the following DateTime format: YYYYMMDDHHmm For example "200406071529" equals June 7, 2004 3:29 PM. An administrator must select to purge commit processes that either succeeded or failed.

Commit ASAP Settings Using configCommitAsap

There are two settings for Commit ASAP that are managed by an administrator. Both are set using the utility configCommitAsap.

Maximum number of simultaneous commit processes (property MaxProcesses, default value is 4).
Deadline by which all pending processes must be completed, after which they will be cancelled and marked as failed.

This deadline will likely be used by administrators before beginning the nightly batch processes (property deadline, default value is 00:01 [meaning 12:01 AM], in 24-hour time).

A commit process that starts before the deadline is reached will be processed. Commit requests that were in the queue before the deadline that did not get processed will be cancelled and marked as failed. Commit requests added to the queue after the deadline will use the deadline of the following day.

configCommitAsap Usage

configCommitAsap -d pathToDomain [-maxProcs numProcs]
[-deadline time] [-display]

Table 12-2 provides descriptions of the arguments used by the configCommitAsap utility.

Table 12-2 configCommitAsap Arguments

Argument	Description
version	Prints the RPAS version, revision, and build information of the utility.
-maxProcs numProcs	Sets the maximum number of concurrent commit processes where numProcs is an integer greater than 0. Workbooks can be committed in parallel if they do not require access to the same measure databases. If they do share databases, they will be committed sequentially.
-deadline time	Indicates the time of the day when all outstanding commit ASAP operations will time out. If a commit ASAP operation is submitted after this time, it will not timeout until the deadline time on the next day. This string must have the following format: HH:MM For example "13:30" refers to 1:30 PM.
-display	Displays the current commit ASAP settings.
-loglevel level	Sets the logger verbosity level. Possible values: all, profile, information, warning, error, or none.
-noheader	Disables timestamp header use.

Logging and Technical Information

A log file is available in the Commit ASAP directory that should be checked if a user reports an error with a Commit ASAP submission. The file is named rpasServer.log and is in the following directory: <Path to domain>/commitAsapQueue.

Another log file is generated for each Commit ASAP process and stored in a user's directory (users/<userid>/asapLogs). The format of the log file name is "orig_<original workbook name>asap_<temporary workbook name>.log." RPAS creates a temporary workbook in this process to capture a snapshot of the data that needs to be committed. Temporary workbooks are never viewed by a user. An administrator can use this log if something does not properly commit.

Note:

These "snapshot" workbooks cannot be viewed or used in the RPAS Client.

An example of this log file is orig_t1_asap_t5 where "t1" is the name of the original workbook and "t5" is the name of the snapshot workbook.

The following directories are used to store the copies of the workbook as they are processed through the system:

Pending directory: Contains one file per submitted Commit ASAP that has not yet been processed. These files are, in general, binary and cannot be easily read.
Working directory: Contains one file per submitted Commit ASAP that is currently in the commit process.
Success directory: Contains one file per submitted Commit ASAP that has successfully completed its commit process.
Failed directory: Contains one file per submitted Commit ASAP that either had a failure during its commit process or could not be committed prior to the deadline.
Unknown directory: If the Commit ASAP process detects a corrupted queue file, a message gets logged and the file gets moved into the unknown directory.