Need Some Help? Date simulation testing forces many 2200 users to dedicate computer resources to validate code changes. However, some businesses cannot afford to re-allocate dedicated machine time for production runs in order to test their applications. AccommoDATE helps businesses who are faced with this quandary by enabling them to set a simulated date for program testing without having to reboot and without affecting mission critical production runs. AccommoDATE assists users who need to test programs with dates other than the current date, such as quarterly or year-end programs. AccommoDATE can also be used to allow programs to run with a simulated date from the past. This means if a critical bug is discovered on the target transition date in a program that was thought to be correctly coded, the program could be run with a simulated prior date until a modification is made to eliminate the error.

Why Use AccommoDATE? There are two primary benefits of AccommoDATE: First, AccommoDATE enables users to test a variety of programs over a range of dates, without arranging special time on a computer booted with a simulated test date. It also means that different programs may be tested simultaneously, each using a different date. A second benefit of AccommoDATE is that it requires no changes to existing runstreams or programs. Are you inserting special code to "date-test" your software, only to remove it after testing is completed? With AccommoDATE installed on your system, you can place your programs directly into production after testing, without code modifications.

How it Works Programmers and testers use the AccommoDATE Administrator Utility to create a table of runids and/or TIP transaction names, and simulated dates or offsets. The date can be entered either as an absolute date or a relative date, but is saved as a relative date. Any date, past or future, can be specified in the table. The table is saved in a separate system file. By default, the file can store 2000 entries, but this value can be changed via a GEN parameter when building the system. Each entry in the table defines a single runid (or transaction id) and its associated date. Prior to beginning a test session, the system operator activates AccommoDATE. When a run (whose id is entered in the table) requests a date through one of the standard date-fetch ERs (i.e., TDATE$, DATE$, DWTIME$), the system returns a date as specified in the internal AccommoDATE table. All high-level languages can perform these requests internally. Processor Language Date Requests MASM Meta-Assembler ER DATE$, TDATE$, and DWTIME$ ACOB ASCII COBOL ACCEPT DATE, DAY, DATE-TIME, and CALL C$CURDATE FTN ASCII FORTRAN CALL ADATE, FDATE UCOB UCS COBOL ACCEPT DATE, DAY, DAY-OF-WEEK MOVE FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE CALL ADATE, UCSTDATE$, UCSDWTIME$, UCSCNVTIM$ UFTN UCS FORTRAN CALL ADATE, UCSTDATE$, UCSDWTIME$, UCSCNVTIM$ UC UCS C time, acstime, ctime, and localtime functions U... UCS other ADATE, UCSTDATE$, UCSDWTIME$, UCSCNVTIM$ The system returns the date in the same format as the request, based on the ER used. The dates entered in the table will progress just as the actual date would progress. That is, if AccommoDATE is on at midnight, the dates entered in the table are increased by one day.

Additional Considerations AccommoDATE is supported on the following system base levels.  SB / HMP Level Exec Levels SB / HMP Level SB 4 43R8 SB4 SB 5 44R4, 44R4A, 44R4B, 44R4C, 44R4D SB5BASE SB5DELTAS SB 6 45R1, 45R1A, 45R1B, 45R1C, 45R1D SB6 SB 7, HMP 3.0 45R2 SB7 HMP 3.1 45R2A HMP3 HMP 4 46R1, 46R1A, 46R1B, 46R1C, 46R1D HMP4 HMP 5 46R2, 46R2A HMP5 HMP 6 46R3 HMP6  HMP 6.1S  46R4, 46R4S HMP61S  HMP 6.1V  46R5, 46R5S HMP61V  CP OS 2200 7.0 46R6 HMP7 CP OS 2200 7.1 46R7 HMP71 CP OS 2200 8.0 47R1 HMP8 CP OS 2200 8.1 47R2, 47R2A HMP81 CP OS 2200 9.0 47R3, 47R4, 47R4B HMP9 CP OS 2200 10.0 47R5, 47R5A HMP10 CP OS 2200 10.1 47R5B, 47R5C HMP10-1 CP OS 2200 11.0 47R5D HMP11 CP OS 2200 11.1 48R1 HMP11-1 Installation is performed through the standard COMUS/SOLAR process and requires changes to OS 1100. UCS object module execution must be supported. This includes support for extended mode by OS 1100 and installation of the LINK and URTS products. Care must be exercised when testing databases to avoid entering this date information into a live audit trail. Typically, this means setting up a separate application within the system to do the testing.

Documentation A comprehensive installation and user guide is included with the product.

What To Do Now For more information about AccommoDATE, order the Product Overview. We'll send you a complete technical overview and product pricing. We'll also include information about our comprehensive product maintenance program. Order the latest AccommoDATE Release

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