 






           Software
           Product
           Description

           _________________________________________________________

           PRODUCT NAME:  DECintact, Version 2.0        SPD 29.58.04

           DESCRIPTION

           The DECintact product provides a foundation for building sim-
           ple and complex transaction processing applications on one
           or more VAX systems under the VMS operating system. The DECin-
           tact product runs as a collection of services and several
           processes under the VMS operating system. DECintact supports
           either single-threaded (per-process) or multithreaded (server)
           application program design methodologies. Multiple versions
           of the DECintact product can execute at the same time and
           share the same physical memory, while remaining completely
           independent. The DECintact product offers the following ma-
           jor facilities:

           o  Front-end services

           o  Database services

           o  Two-phase commit

           o  DECtrace support

           o  LSE templates

           o  Security and menu dispatching

           o  File management and restart/recovery

           o  Queue management

           o  Network management

           Front-end Services

                                    DIGITAL                July 1991

                                                         AE-LC69E-TE

 



           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           The DECintact product supports DECforms forms or DECintact
           forms within DECintact terminal-based applications. A sin-
           gle system menu can display multiple applications, some us-
           ing DECforms and some using DECintact forms. However, a sin-
           gle application can not mix forms products.

              DECforms forms

              Access to DECforms services is available through a set
              of DECintact routines. For more information on DECforms,
              refer to the DECforms Software Product Description (SPD
              19.90.xx).
             
              DECintact forms

              DECintact forms supports VT100, VT200 and VT300 (in VT200
              emulation mode) series terminals as though they were in-
              telligent block-mode terminals. Programmers create screen
              forms interactively through the Terminal Forms Editor (TFE).
              Forms are virtual in length, and multiple forms can be
              windowed on a single terminal. Fields on a form have video
              and/or edit attributes, which are handled by the termi-
              nal management facility. A user-written edit routine fa-
              cility exists, which allows character, field, and form
              editing to be augmented by the programmer. The ability
              to print a hard copy of the screen is a built-in service
              of the terminal management facility.

           Database Services

           The DECintact product allows multithreaded applications to
           access synchronous resource managers such as VAX Rdb/VMS and
           VAX DBMS. Also included are facilities to monitor/configure
           this environment (that is, control the number of server pool
           instances, and monitor overall server pool throughput).

           Two-Phase Commit





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           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           Utilizing the DECdtm component of the VMS operating system,
           the DECintact product can coordinate distributed transac-
           tions to perform atomic updates to multiple and/or differ-
           ent resource managers that are DECdtm compliant (for exam-
           ple, VAX Rdb/VMS, VAX DBMS, and DECintact queues).

           DECtrace Support

           The DECintact product allows the collection of performance
           event data by DECtrace at two levels. The first level al-
           lows the collection of performance event data from within
           the DECintact code. The second level involves allowing ap-
           plication programmers to insert DECtrace calls into their
           application code.

           LSE Templates

           The DECintact product provides LSE DECintact routine tem-
           plates to allow programmers to generate DECintact applica-
           tions more quickly and accurately.

           Security and Menu Dispatching

           The DECintact product provides a comprehensive security and
           menu system. A mechanism for establishing security profiles
           for local/remote users and terminals is provided. The DECin-
           tact product makes use of a hierarchical menu system that
           permits references to both lower-level menus and to menu func-
           tions directly invoking applications. All menu items can be
           protected, and users are shown only those items for which
           they have proper entitlement. Hours of operation, password
           expiration, transaction audit, and response-time reports are
           among the features of the DECintact security system.

           File Management

           Digital's Record Management Services (VAX RMS) is used for
           file and record access. The DECintact File Management fa-
           cility improves upon its use of the VAX RMS facility by sup-
           porting shared relative files, logically deleted records,

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           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           and implicit file openings. The DECintact product also sup-
           plies its own hash file access support, which provides a high
           performance method of inserting and retrieving records. All
           record operations are considered atomic for the purposes of
           restart/recovery.

           There are two options for recovery of VAX RMS files: DECin-
           tact Recovery and RMS Journaling. Both coordinate with DECdtm
           (Two-Phase Commit) to provide both recovery-unit journal-
           ing and after-image journaling. DECintact users can choose
           either recovery method (DECintact or VAX RMS Journaling) on
           a file by file basis.

              DECintact Recovery

              This service is provided as part of the base DECintact
              product.

              VAX RMS Journaling

              This is an optional service. For information on VAX RMS
              Journaling, refer to the VAX RMS Journaling Software Prod-
              uct Description (SPD 27.58.xx).

           Queue Management

           The DECintact product provides a comprehensive set of rou-
           tines that support the creation of disk-based and/or memory-
           based queues. A queue consists of items that are priority
           ordered with up to 65,000 priority classes per queue. Queue
           items may be inserted FIFO or in priority order and are re-
           moved either FIFO or atomic for the purposes of restart/recovery.
           All disk-based queues are fully recoverable. The DECintact
           product supports remote queues, queue sets, multiple queue
           insertions, enqueue-level threshold alarms, and proof and
           reconciliation statistics.

           Network Management


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           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           The DECintact product supports explicit and implicit remote
           access at the menu-item level and uses DECnet facilities for
           intersystem communication. Network access is supported at
           two levels: peer-to-peer and front-end-to-host. Peer-to-peer
           access allows users with sufficient entitlement to invoke
           applications remotely on another participating DECintact sys-
           tem. Front-end-to-host access provides a transparent method
           of off-loading forms management (including both built-in and
           user-written validation) and menu level security from a host
           onto a VAX front-end system. A VAX front-end system also of-
           fers automatic host failure rollover in the event that a CPU
           within a host VAXcluster system fails.

           VAXcluster Features

           The DECintact product supports the building of simple, as
           well as complex, VAXcluster applications. All DECintact file
           accesses, as well as all disk-based queue operations, uti-
           lize the VMS distributed lock manager to arbitrate cluster
           wide system resources. The DECintact system support of VAX-
           cluster features in conjunction with its own restart/recovery
           strategies can be used to simplify the implementation of high
           availability applications.

           Development Option

           The DECintact Development Option provides all features of
           the product for the application development environment.

           Run-Time Option

           As a subset of the Development Option, the DECintact Run-
           Time Option allows existing, developed applications to be
           run in a production environment under an alternate license.
           This option does not provide the facilities for developing
           applications.

           Remote-Access Option



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           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           As a subset of the Run-Time Option, the Remote-Access Op-
           tion provides the ability to off-load the Terminal Manage-
           ment Facilities in a distributed application environment,
           to ``remote'' or ``front-end'' systems under an alternate
           license.


           HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

           VAX, MicroVAX, VAXstation or VAXserver configuration as spec-
           ified in the System Support Addendum (SSA 29.58.04-x).

           SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS*

           For Systems Using Terminals (No DECwindows Interface):

           VMS Operating System

           For Workstations Running VWS:

           VMS Operating System
           VMS Workstation Software

           In addition to these requirements, DECnet-VAX is required
           for the Remote-Access Option.

           *  Refer to the System Support Addendum (SSA 29.58.04-x) for
              availability and required versions of prerequisite/optional
              software and for information regarding components of VMS
              DECwindows.

           ORDERING INFORMATION

           Development Option

           Software Licenses: QL-VF1A*-**
           Software Media: QA-VF1A*-**
           Software Documentation: QA-VF1AA-GZ
           Software Product Services: QT-VF1A*-**


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           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           Run-Time Option

           Software Licenses: QL-VF2A*-**
           Software Media: QL-VF2A*-**
           Software Documentation: QA-VF2AA-GZ
           Software Product Services: QT-VF2A*-**

           Remote-Access Option

           Software Licenses: QL-VF3A*-**
           Software Media: QL-VF3A*-**
           Software Documentation: QL-VF3AA-GZ
           Software Product Services: QT-VF3A*-**

           *  Denotes variant fields. For additional information on avail-
              able licenses, services, and media, refer to the appro-
              priate price book.

           SOFTWARE LICENSING

           Licensed by Digital Equipment Corporation from Advanced Sys-
           tems Concepts.

           This software is furnished under the licensing provisions
           of Digital Equipment Corporation's Standard Terms and Con-
           ditions. For more information about Digital's licensing terms
           and policies, contact your local Digital office.

           LICENSE MANAGEMENT FACILITY SUPPORT

           This layered product supports the VMS License Management Fa-
           cility. License units for this product are allocated on a
           CPU-capacity basis.

           For more information on the License Management Facility, re-
           fer to the VMS Operating System Software Product Descrip-
           tion (SPD 25.01.xx) or the License Management Facility man-
           ual of the VMS Operating System documentation set.



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           DECintact, Version 2.0                      SPD 29.58.04


           SOFTWARE PRODUCT SERVICES

           A variety of service options are available from Digital. For
           more information, contact your local Digital office.

           SOFTWARE WARRANTY

           Warranty for this software product is provided by Digital
           with the purchase of a license for the product as defined
           in the Software Warranty Addendum of this SPD.

           [TM]The DIGITAL Logo, CI, DEC, DECdtm, DECforms, DEC-
               trace, DECnet, DECnet-VAX, DECintact, MicroVAX, VAX,
               VAX BASIC, VAX C, VAX CDD/PLUS, VAX COBOL, VAX DBMS,
               VAX FORTRAN, VAX Pascal, VAX RMS, VAXcluster, VAXft,
               VAXserver, VAXstation, VMS, VT100, VT1200 and VT300
               are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.
























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