RIMAS for UNIX Software Installation

To: All Users of SLG User Configurable Menus

From: The SHARED LOGIC Group, Inc.

Re: Setting Company, Date and Printer, then Starting a Menu

Date: July 15, 1994

Unix systems provide a means of storing parameters in an "environment", allowing you to set values that our programs can retrieve and act upon. Shared Logic uses this technique extensively in its "User Configurable Menus", as documented in the manual describing our menuing system.

Some of you use a "startup" program, which is run automatically when a user logs into the system. Historically, the purpose of this startup program was to force the user to choose a company, date and printer for subsequent processing, to remind the user to set "caps lock" and "num lock" on, and finally to place the user in his/her specific menu.

The standard startup programs (CS.STARTUP for the Flat Rolled Steel system, SP.STARTUP for the Recycling Industries system, MC.STARTUP for the Maintenance Management and Costing system) have been modified to use the environment to allow the program to send the company, date, and/or printer automatically when the user logs in. A total of four (4) environment variables are now used in these startup programs:

1. "SLGMENUCOMP" may contain the user's initial company selection, if it is set to a valid company number.

2. "SLGMENUDATE" may contain either "TODAY" or "today", if you want the initial effective port date set to the current system date.

3. "SLGMENUPRIM" may contain the user's initial printer selection, if it is set to a printer that is acceptable to the program. Note that this environment variable will not include the dollar sign ($) normally included at the beginning of the printer name. Examples of valid printer selections are "LPT0", "LPTSCALE", "LPTBARCODE", "SCREEN", "DISC", etc.

4. "SLGMENUSTART" may contain the name of the first menu that is to be run for the user.

Any combination of these environment variables may be used or not used. The first three (3) result in responses that the operator would normally input to the company, date and/or printer requests. The responses are validated as though the operator actually typed the entries, and will be accepted or rejected in the same manner. This was done to validate your environment values and to allow the program to operate correctly in a multitasking environment.

The fourth environment variable is used to start a specific menu for the user. If no value is present in this variable, the application's main menu is started. If an invalid menu is contained in this variable, the user is logged off.

To activate these new startup features, do the following:

1. Using a text editor (e.g., "vi"), add the following lines near the end of "/etc/profile" (if your entries are to apply to all users) or the individual user's ".profile" (if the entries are to apply to a specific user):

"SLGMENUCOMP=01;export SLGMENUCOMP"

"SLGMENUDATE=TODAY;export SLGMENUDATE"

"SLGMENUPRIM=LPT0;export SLGMENUPRIM"

"SLGMENUSTART="MC.MENUW";export SLGMENUSTART"

Of course, the company and printer may vary from user to user. The reference to "MC.MENUW" is an example, using a menu ID appropriate to the Maintenance Management and Costing system. You may use any menu in your system.

2. Change or add the following as the last line in the user's ".profile":

"exec RUN MC.STARTUP"

You should reference one of the standard startup programs (unless Shared Logic has provided a custom startup program for you)

The next time the user logs into the system, the company, date and/or printer will be entered and displayed automatically. The specified menu will be started after the operator depresses the "Enter" key to accept the company, date and printer.