It has been our experience, here at FIRN, that getting copies of our software into the hands of user data processing staff is a useful thing to do. Thus, the source code for certain of the System's programs will be stored as members on partitioned dataset FRN.DISTRICT.SOURCE at NWRDC. Where these programs have database interfaces, those interfaces will be deleted, making them easier to compile on user computing systems. Internal security features will also be deleted.

Users will need to have certain FIRN software as a matter of necessity. SRTS05 or SRTS05A and SRTS06 will be needed by RJE users to transmit and receive files to and from the System. Every institution that intends to acquire its own copy of the Division of Public Schools Master School ID file will find it useful to have a copy of program SRTS497, the program that reconstitutes the original 497 character record length file from the 80 character records that will be output to users' PUNCH queues. Appendix B details the procedure for the acquisition of this file, and also contains a copy of the file's format. A copy of the COBOL LE (Language Environment) format for this file may be retrieved from NWRDC dataset DPS.DISTRICT.FORMAT.YCCCC (where YCCCC is the academic school year, eg. Y9899) in the same way that programs are retrieved from FRN.DISTRICT.SOURCE (the member name for this format is F25031).

SRTS01 and SRTS03 edit requests and responses, respectively, and post records to the addressees' mailboxes. Users will find it useful to get copies of the versions of these programs from FRN.DISTRICT.SOURCE, which will contain only the data edit features. Users will be able to compile these programs on their local systems, and use them to edit test the request and response records their own programs produce for transmission to other districts. In this way, edit errors can be identified before they ever get to the System.

Three other programs that users may wish to get deal with report generating. SRTS11 produces the request report shown in Appendix T. SRTS12IS produces Interdistrict Records and Secondary Transcripts according to prescribed state formats (see Appendix U). Also, SRTS12IS is specially annotated for modifications that allow it to be compiled on an IBM AS400 machine. SRTS12CC produces a one-page Secondary Transcript Graduation Summary, also shown in Appendix U. SRTS12P produces a printer report from Postsecondary Transcripts, as shown in Appendix V. These programs can be used at the local level to produce the same reports they produce when executed at NWRDC.

Note that the return codes for programs SRTS01, SRTS02, SRTS03, SRTS05, SRTS05A, SRTS06, SRTS11, SRTS12IS, SRTS12CC, SRTS12P, SRTS21, SRTS22, SRTS31 and SRTS42 can be found in Appendix W.

Appendix F provides JCL that any institution can use to retrieve copies of each of the above programs. The programs will also be transmitted to the PUNCH queue you specify on the /*ROUTE PUNCH statement. Should you have any trouble using these programs or need to ask questions concerning their operation, please call FIRN Applications at SUNCOM 205-9763 (850/245-9763).