1. OVERVIEW › 1.5 Online Facility Tutorial › 1.5.1 Introduction to the Online Facility › 1.5.1.2 Major Features of the Online Facility

1.5.1.2 Major Features of the Online Facility

The online facility is a menu-based system that operates
under IBM's Interactive Systems Productivity Facility (ISPF)
and makes use of many of the features of the CA MICS
Information Center Facility (MICF).  If you are familiar with
ISPF commands, you will find that the online facility menus
behave like ISPF menus.  The major features of the online
facility include:

    o  Inquiry composition
    o  Inquiry modification
    o  Execution-time specifications
    o  Output replay
    o  Facilities for advanced users

Each of these features is generally applicable to both file
definition inquiries and analysis inquiries.


INQUIRY COMPOSITION

By completing one or a few online screens, you may create any
number of special capacity planning inquiries.  These
inquiries allow you to do the following:

o Create pre-designed capacity planning database files

o Create custom capacity planning database files

o Update and maintain these database files

o Perform analyses and forecasting based upon the contents of
  these database files

o Graphically present the results of forecasts


INQUIRY MODIFICATION

Once created, an inquiry may be stored in your private
catalog, recalled, copied, deleted, or modified.  You make
changes to an inquiry using the same online facility screens
that you originally used to create the inquiry.  You do not,
however, need to redisplay screens that did not change.


EXECUTION-TIME SPECIFICATIONS

You may define analysis inquiries so that key inquiry
parameters can be specified at the time the analysis inquiry
is executed.  This facility allows you to report against
varying data without changing the analysis inquiry.  File
definition inquiries do not support the execution-time
specifications feature.


OUTPUT REPLAY

You can save the output produced when you execute a file
definition or analysis inquiry, and replay it later.  The
output is saved by inquiry name, date, and time.  Your
CA MICS System Administrator can place inquiry outputs into a
shared replay catalog that can be used throughout your
installation.

When you replay an inquiry output, you can either view it on
your terminal or send it to a hardcopy device.  If you are
replaying color graphics output, you do not need to use the
type of device that was specified at the time the inquiry was
originally executed.  You can specify the color terminal,
color printer, or color plotter type to use at the time you
request the replay.


FACILITIES FOR ADVANCED USERS

If you are familiar with the CA MICS database and are
accustomed to programming in SAS, a feature which you will
find particularly helpful is the ability to include your own
data selection and data manipulation SAS statements in your
file definition inquiries.  Through the exits provided, you
can specify any valid SAS statement for inclusion in the SAS
statements that are generated by the online facility to
create and update capacity planning resource element files.
This facility allows you to define sophisticated data
selection logic and to generate new data elements to be
included in your capacity planning resource element files.