Ben Powell <ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK> replied: > Dear Howard, with the push of a button -- exactly! I've got the > functionality down now, although it is a bit of a spider's web (1 program, > 7 macros and submacros, 3 .exes by X, 3 vbs scripts and 2 batch files and 2 > ftp scripts all by X) which I should probably tidy up a bit. All in all 3 > parameters are required and a further 5 or so are generated.

If you don't me saying so.. ick. If you *do* mind me saying so, then I apologize.

> Here is the top level macro below, including the ftp engine waits but none > of the scripts or sub-macros. In order to produce the report, sas checks 2 > files on the sun server by X and vbs, then ftps a file to sun where oracle > validates the data; sas detects when this is complete and tells oracle to > run a second report, which again is detected on completion and the results > imported and archived.

This process seems like it could all be done in one Perl (or Python) program, saving yourself some administrative headaches. I usually recommend using languages that are really strong on admin tasks when admin tasks are desired. And interaction with Oracle can be done in plenty of ways, including Perl's DBI and DBD modules.

But if this works well, and won't be a maintenance nightmare, then nice work.

David -- David Cassell, CSC Cassell.David@epa.gov Senior computing specialist mathematical statistician