Technical Tips

Tracking PREFERENCE Reader Activity

The following summarizes steps that need to be taken for collecting reader activity data, including help request data, using the PREFERENCE Reader Tracking feature.   The collected information is not formatted as a summary report, but provides data that can be utilized to produce such a report.  The data consists of a list of ‘hits’ to individual screens, and identifies the location and index term associated with the screen.

SET-UP FOR DATA COLLECTION

1. Determine what volumes contain help screens.  If you do not know the name(s) of the PREFERENCE volume(s) containing help screens, find out by contacting a PREFERENCE writer familiar with these volumes.

2. Access the Reader Tracking Facility in each volume containing help screens by typing ‘track’ at the main writer menu prompt in each volume.

3. Activate tracking for the entire volume by pressing ENTER with the cursor located in the first input field, then type “Y” in the field beneath VOL (track the entire volume) and type “Y” under ACTIVE (activates data collecting).  Press ENTER to save.   This must be done for every volume for which you wish to track reader activity.

4. Data is now being saved in the GSPREC and GSPRECX files.  Unless testing, you must allow a reasonable amount of time for reader data to accumulate for a representative listing.

GENERATE LISTING DURING END OF DAY PROCESSING

1. Run the GSPSPLR utility.  This utility will copy the GSPREC and GSPRECX files to an off-line RECOUT file.

2. The RECOUT file records associated with tracking are identified by “$TRACK”.  The user may wish to execute utility GSPRSEL to select only the “$TRACK” reader tracking records from this GSPSPLR RECOUT file.

3. We recommend that you sort this “$TRACK” reader tracking data prior to executing GSPTRACK.  This will permit the user to create a report sorted by the reader’s volume location.  Please refer to the “Record Layout of OUTREC file Input to GSPTRACK” table below for sort key locations within the file when defining the sort key for your sort program.  Below this table you will find some recommended Sort Key Definitions to align the data for producing specific reports.

4. Run the GSPTRACK utility for the final report.

SAMPLE GSPSPLR JCL

JCL for using GSPSPLR to spool log and recording file data is shown below:

The following is a description of the above JCL:

SAMPLE GSPTRACK JCL

JCL for using GSPTRACK to list reader tracking records is shown below:

The following is a description of the above JCL:

GSPTRACK REPORT

The report displays the following statistics for each reader tracking record:

• The date the tracking request was made

• The time of day the tracking request was made

• The user-ID (or cross-region sign-on ID) associated with this tracking request

• The home volume name (i.e., the volume that the user has signed on to)

• The current volume location (volume-file-item #)

• The source volume location (volume-file-item #) to identify the source of an embed

• The last used index term

• The reader tracking entry name/title

• The type of reference (POPUP or REFER)

Record Layout of OUTREC file Input to GSPTRACK

RECOMMENDED SORT-KEY-DEFINITIONS

Sort Key Definitions to Track Volume Location Accessed (volume/file/date/time)

1. Primary Start Location 149 for length 6 Ascending (current volume name)

2. 2nd Start Location 497 for Length 6 Ascending (current file name)

3. 3rd Start Location 186 for Length 3 Ascending (date accessed)

4. 4th Start Location 179 for Length 2 Ascending (time accessed)

Sort Key Definitions to Track Help Requests by UserID (type/user-ID/date/time/volume/file)

1. Primary Start Location 563 for length 5 Ascending (Type of Reference - "POPUP" for Help Request)

2. 2nd Start Location 249 for length 9 Ascending (Cross-Region User-ID for Help Requests)

3. 3rd Start Location 186 for length 3 Ascending (date accessed)

4. 4th Start Location 179 for length 2 Ascending (time accessed)

5. 5th Start Location 149 for length 6 Ascending (current volume Name)

6. 6th Start Location 497 for length 6 Ascending (current file name)

DOCUMENTATION

1. http://www.pathlore-mainframe.com/PHOPREF-Doc/PHOPREF-Doc.htm (PREFERENCE Documentation, then PREFERENCE System Utilities Guide, then Chapter 6, then GSPSPLR)

2. http://www.pathlore-mainframe.com/PHOPREF-Doc/PHOPREF-Doc.htm (PREFERENCE Documentation, then PREFERENCE System Utilities Guide, then Chapter 6, then GSPTRACK)

3. Online PREFERENCE documentation volume wguide (Writer Guide), Y08A (Tracking Reader Access).