Journal Displays

The second class of output generated by CA IDMS Journal Analyzer is the Journal Displays. The Journal Displays provide you with the means to effectively monitor changes to sensitive record types, to scrutinize performance problems, and to assist in program debugging. The displays are extremely effective whenever you are most precise in defining the display selection parameters. The choice of parameter values can be influenced by close examination of the statistics produced by the Journal Reports.

The before and after images of database record modifications can be reported by several Journal Display types:

RECORD Display
DATABASE KEY Display
PROGRAM Display

Each Journal Display type can be produced for selected time periods or for the entire duration represented by the Archive Journal file. The Journal Displays can be produced in two formats:

Full Format—all record positions or fields are displayed with the changed values highlighted
Sparse Format—only the changed positions or fields are displayed.

While the Journal Reports present you with a broad survey of the database activity recorded in the Archive Journal file, the Journal Displays enable you to view the database changes at a precise, almost microscopic level in three logical sequences:

RECORD Display—displays changes for particular record types during specific time periods
DATABASE KEY Display—displays changes for particular record occurrences or particular database pages during specific time periods.
PROGRAM Display—displays database changes effected by particular application programs during specific time periods. Fragmented records are automatically recomposed.

In addition, you can request the PROGRAM Display to provide a program's subschema view of database changes as defined in the data dictionary. The Subschema Display provides PROGRAM Display information in a format which is better suited for the less technical end-user. The data is presented as individual fields, rather than complete records. Changes are paired in a Before/After, side-by-side format. All fields are identified similar to the original subschema definitions, and all values are converted to externally printable formats. Therefore, programmers and/or auditors can examine the Subschema Display with little or no interpretation by a database technician.