I am uploading file to mainframe and before uploading when I open it using notepad I am able to view it.
Once uploaded the administrator is complaining that he is not able to read the data in file and it appears as junk.
Is there anything else I need to do before uploading files to mainframes. I am using Chilkat component to upload the files to mainframes.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
It definitely sounds like an encoding issue. I had some files transferred from a mainframe earlier this morning that because I forgot to switch to ASCII were all rubbish.
Try switching to ASCII and transferring it, if you are using ASCII, switch to binary.
You also might check with the mainframe admin and ask him if there are any site commands you need to execute prior to sending so you set the record size and block type.
This sounds like an encoding issue. For example, you file maybe in ASCII and your mainframe is expecting something else. Hence, junk would be displayed on the other end.
Related
I am using CGI DSPSTMF command to display stmf file on web browser. I am copying a spool file to a stmf file using CPYSPLF *STMF option. Once copied i am passing IFS location to DSPSTMF command but it is going to download automatically and when i open the download file i am getting all Junk data any idea why?
Also, i noticed it is using CONTTYPES file in CGILIB and on my server it is empty. What should be the values in it and what should i do show correct data instead of junk. I tried to use different methods to copy the file to IFS like used cpytostmf instead of cpysplf but on IFS file looks correct not the download version.
What CCSID is the resulting stream file tagged with?
use WRKLNK and option 8=Display attributes
If 65535, that tells the system the data is binary and it won't try to translate the EBCDIC to ASCII.
The correct fix is to properly configure your IBM i so that the stream file is tagged with it's correct CCSID.
Do a WRKSYSVAL QCCSID ... if your system is still set to 65535, that's the start of your problem. But this isn't programming related, you can try posting to Server Fault but you might get better responses on the Midrange mailing list
I have a text file. Now I have changed its file type from .txt to .abc. My VB.NET program loads the text into textboxes from that file. After changing the file type, however, other apps like NotePad and Word are able to open and read my .abc file.
Is there any way that only my application will be able to open/read from the file and no other app would be able to do so? What I mean is, suppose I have a PhotoShop document .psd file, no other app, rather that photoshop itself, can open it. How do I make my file unreadable by other apps?
There is no way to prevent an app that you don't develop from opening any file. The extensions are just there for helping us humans, and maybe a bit for the computer to know the default app you select for an extension.
Like you said, a .txt file can be opened by many many apps. You can open a .txt file with Notepad, Firefox, VSCode, and many others.
Same way, a .psd file can be opened by many many apps. You can open that .psd file with Photoshop, but also Notepad, Firefox, and VSCode, and probably the same apps as above.
The difference is which apps can read and understand the file.
In order to make a file not understandable by other apps, you need to make it into a format that cannot recognize, because you planned it "in secret".
Like Visual Vincent said above, you could encrypt the file in a way, or you can have a binary file, that basically only your app knows know to understand.
Since you dont own the app you want the file to be understood by, then you either have to accept that it can be opened by any app that can open files, or you can try to encrypt the file outside the app, or like zipping it with a password, and then decrypting or unzipping when you want to use it.
Firstly, any file can be read unless it is still open by a particular process or service. Even PhotoShop files can be 'read' by NotePad - try it!
So, an attempt at my first answer...
You can try a couple of methods to prevent opening the file, for instance, applying a file lock. As an example, SQL Server .mdf files are locked by the SQL Server service. This happens because the files are maintained in an open state, however; your application would have to remain running to keep these files open. Technically, though, the files can still be copied.
Another way is to set the hidden attribute for the file. This hides the file from the less savvy users, but it will be displayed if the user show's hidden files.
And my second answer: You refer to the format of files by saying only PhotoShop can read or write its own files (not true, but I know what you're saying).
The format of the file must be decided by yourself. You must determine how you are going to store the data that you output from your application. It looks like you have been attempting to write your application data into a text file. Perhaps you should try writing to binary files instead. Binary files, while not encrypted, as suggested by Visual Vincent in the comments to your question, still provide a more tailored approach to storing your data.
Binary files write raw binary data instead of humanised text. For instance, if you write an integer to the file it will appear as a string of four bytes, not your usual 123456789 textual format.
So, you really need to clarify what data you want to write to the file, decide on a set structure to your file (as you also have to be able to read it back in to your application) and then be able to write the information.
We have a process in place built on Excel VBA that uploads a file to FTP Server. On the other side, our client downloads it. Very randomly, they complain that the file they received is blank (the file name is the same though). We then check at our end and see that the file that was uploaded was never blank. So here comes the problem: we're always arguing whether it was our error or theirs.
I figured that there might be a couple of reasons behind it but I have a few questions to ask before coming to conclusions:
If, say, the file was never uploaded (a possibility), what happens when the client runs a download process at their end? Can that download process generate a blank file with the same name as our output file? It sounds impossible to me but since the client is following up on this issue, I have to ask this silly question.
How does the mechanism work - what are the steps that happen on FTP server the moment my process completes uploading the file? I sometimes see that as soon as I upload the file, a 0kb file is created and then a second later (or less) the file with right size appears? Could it be possible that their process is running right before this actual file creation?
Thank you in advance for your help!
I have a problem about PDF file encryption using php.
Case: Let's say I have a local system (web based) to upload and download files, such as 4sh*red (dot) com, but it just allows PDF file. A user sign up and login to download the PDF files using his or her own personal computer. After users downloaded a PDF file from my system, the file can be viewed only on computer where they downloaded the file. But, if another user copy it (I mean: downloaded PDF file) to another computer, the file can't be viewed on that computer.
Note: I don't mean here about protecting the PDF files using password because nowadays there are a lot of softwares used to remove PDF's password protection. But, the file can't be viewed at all if copied to another computer.
Can we do that in php? If yes, do you know any algorithm to solve the case?
I really appreciate your response or answers.
Thank you.
The PDF format is an open format by Adobe. This means there are a lot of programs out there that can read it and quite same that can modify it.
If you write your own program and add some stuff to the PDF, then maybe you can do this.
Another question is - why don't you just make the document visible in the web browser to the user? Of course there's still going to be a way around for savvy users to get it, but most noobs wouldn't know how and you can easily close the simplest blocks (like right click / save).
What maybe interesting to do is what a lot of companies are doing with videos nowadays: you can dynamically add some hidden or visible 'info' to a PDF that identifies who you sent it to. In that way, if the PDF shows up somewhere else - you know who spread it.... Again - PDF is an open format, so anyone can always erase whatever you write in the main contents, so you'd have to add a hidden image to the content or something.
I've got VBA code that generates a text file with some pretty basic information included. I then upload that file via FTP.
I got a message from the server admin of the IBM mainframe today that my file was in variable blocking (VB) format and their job process uses a fixed blocking (FB) up to a max size of 256.
How is this done? During the file creation? 3rd party tool?
B
You can simply convert the VB file into FB in mainframe before running the actual process.VB to FB conversion JCL is a small JCL step to do your conversion
You can use Locsite to set the record format on the host dataset(File).
You can find all the list of FTP sub commands in the below user guide
IP User’s Guide and Commands SC31-8780-05
Sorry all, I have a feeling I didn't explain this correctly, because I do now have an answer which is rather simple. These 2 commands seemed to have setup the environment correctly for the file to be fb and not vb.
ftp> quote site lr=94
ftp> quote site rec=fb
If I rightly remember FB is in multiples of the block sizes, that is just how DASD stores the files on disk, it must fit in that multiple block size, which increases speed and throughput on the Mainframe. If the data file is not within the boundary of multiple block sizes (This has nothing to do with the actual size of the data), the DASD system just access files in blocks of 256 bytes...there will be a host of special fields inserted into the data file to describe the blocking and so on...which will get inserted when transferred to the mainframe and that data gets transferred to magnetic tape backups...
There should be a script available on the Mainframe to convert it using JCL (Job Control Language)..ask the Mainframe administrator to do it for you...
By the way it should be noted that the character set you used in your data file, just be aware that the mainframe uses EBCDIC character set...There are plenty of tools out there that can convert from ASCII data to the format to be readable by the mainframe, just something to bear in mind of...If the data gets converted that could impact the file size...Thought it would be worth mentioning and important!
There is a Unix/Linux utility that can convert the data to a fixed block size using the dd utility, although I do not think it would be the right way to do it...
Here's a useful link that will help you in understanding this. And also here on SO a similar user was asking about MVS/TSO data...