Concepts › CA IDMS Extractor Database Paths › Database Entry Point

Database Entry Point

A database entry point defines the beginning of a database path. A database path describes the records/sets that CA IDMS Extractor walks in your source database. You can have one or more entry points or database paths depending on your particular database structure.

An entry point can be a record, or a system-owned integrated index that is used to retrieve a record:

• If an Entry Record is used, the Database Extract Component needs to sweep the area in which the record resides to retrieve the record
• If an Entry Index is used, the index is used to retrieve the record without having to perform an area sweep.

However, if you specify CALC or IIX SORT keys by means of Field Level Selection Criteria for an Entry Record or an Entry Index, CA IDMS Extractor retrieves the Entry Record or indexed record by the specified CALC or SORT key value. This specification eliminates the need for CA IDMS Extractor to sweep an area looking for occurrences of the Entity Record and significantly speeds up extract time. See the chapter "Online Sessions" for more information about the Field Level Selection Criteria screen.