Tag Archives: file
File Processing Systems
Even the earliest business computer systems were used to process business records and produce information. They were generally faster and more accurate than equivalent manual systems. These systems stored groups of records in separate files, and so they were called file processing systems. Although file processing systems are a great improvement over manual systems, they do have the following limitations:
Data is separated and isolated.
Data is often duplicated.
Application programs are dependent on file formats.
It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. Data is separate and isolated. Recall that as the marketing manager you needed to relate sales data to customer data. Somehow you need to extract data from both the CUSTOMER and ORDER files and combine it into a single file for processing. To do this, computer programmers determine which parts of each of the files are needed. Then they determine how the files are related to one another, and finally they coordinate the processing of the files so the correct data is extracted. This data is then used to produce the information. Imagine the problems of extracting data from ten or fifteen files instead of just two! Data is often duplicated. In the record club example, a member’s name, address, and membership number are stored in both files. Although this duplicate data wastes a small amount of file space, that is not the most serious problem with duplicate data. The major problem concerns data integrity. A collection of data has integrity if the data is logically consistent. This means, in part, that duplicated data items agree with one another. Poor data integrity often develops in file processing systems. If a member were to change his or her name or address, then all files containing that data need to be updated. The danger lies in the risk that all files might not be updated, causing discrepancies between the files. Data integrity problems are serious. If data items differ, inconsistent results will be produced. A report from one application might disagree with a report from another application. At least one of them will be incorrect, but who can tell which one? When this occurs, the credibility of the stored data comes into question. Application programs are dependent on file formats. In file processing systems, the physical formats of files and records are entered in the application programs that process the files. In COBOL, for example, file formats are written in the DATA DIVISION. The problem with this arrangement is that changes in file formats result in program updates. For example, if the Customer record were modified to expand the ZIP Code field from five to nine digits, all programs that use the Customer record need to be modified, even if they do not use the ZIP Code field. There might be twenty programs that process the CUSTOMER file. A change like this one means that a programmer needs to identify all the affected programs, then modify and retest them. This is both time consuming and error-prone. It is also very frustrating to have to modify programs that do not even use the field whose format changed. It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. This last weakness of file processing systems may seem a bit theoretical, but it is an important shortcoming.
File Processing Systems
Even the earliest business computer systems were used to process business records and produce information. They were generally faster and more accurate than equivalent manual systems. These systems stored groups of records in separate files, and so they were called file processing systems. Although file processing systems are a great improvement over manual systems, they do have the following limitations:
Data is separated and isolated.
Data is often duplicated.
Application programs are dependent on file formats.
It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. Data is separate and isolated. Recall that as the marketing manager you needed to relate sales data to customer data. Somehow you need to extract data from both the CUSTOMER and ORDER files and combine it into a single file for processing. To do this, computer programmers determine which parts of each of the files are needed. Then they determine how the files are related to one another, and finally they coordinate the processing of the files so the correct data is extracted. This data is then used to produce the information. Imagine the problems of extracting data from ten or fifteen files instead of just two! Data is often duplicated. In the record club example, a member’s name, address, and membership number are stored in both files. Although this duplicate data wastes a small amount of file space, that is not the most serious problem with duplicate data. The major problem concerns data integrity. A collection of data has integrity if the data is logically consistent. This means, in part, that duplicated data items agree with one another. Poor data integrity often develops in file processing systems. If a member were to change his or her name or address, then all files containing that data need to be updated. The danger lies in the risk that all files might not be updated, causing discrepancies between the files. Data integrity problems are serious. If data items differ, inconsistent results will be produced. A report from one application might disagree with a report from another application. At least one of them will be incorrect, but who can tell which one? When this occurs, the credibility of the stored data comes into question. Application programs are dependent on file formats. In file processing systems, the physical formats of files and records are entered in the application programs that process the files. In COBOL, for example, file formats are written in the DATA DIVISION. The problem with this arrangement is that changes in file formats result in program updates. For example, if the Customer record were modified to expand the ZIP Code field from five to nine digits, all programs that use the Customer record need to be modified, even if they do not use the ZIP Code field. There might be twenty programs that process the CUSTOMER file. A change like this one means that a programmer needs to identify all the affected programs, then modify and retest them. This is both time consuming and error-prone. It is also very frustrating to have to modify programs that do not even use the field whose format changed. It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. This last weakness of file processing systems may seem a bit theoretical, but it is an important shortcoming.
How To Submit Rss Feed For Your Website
One of the best ways to keep users of your website is to have them coming back for more. You can accomplish this by providing RSS feeds. RSS Stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is a coded method of informing website users of new news, activities happening, contests you are running, anything you really want to know. The process of RSS Feeds is relatively easy, when you know how to do it. But for the beginner, it may be a little intimidating to learn how to submit an RSS feed for your website.
One way to submit an RSS feed for your website is to put up a blog or “weB LOG” Blogging software usually contains built in code that will submit your feed to RSS directories every time you make a new post. For some people, however, this can be tricky. Blogging software out of the box can be a little intimidating, and they usually provide very little to no documentation. Hosted blogs like WordPress and Blogger usually contain those built in codes, but customizing your blog to your liking can be difficult.
Another, less used but highly popular, method is to create the RSS Feed yourself. This is done through eXtended Markup Language, or XML. XML is almost like HTML in its design, except for the fact that RSS XML Files contain usually only three or four items. These items are the title, description and link. You can embed multiple items into one XML file, which creates your feed.
An RSS feed is a grouping of items chained together. This is called a “channel” and is referenced by the “channel” and “/channel” tags at the beginning and end, respectively, of your XML file. The last thing you need to do at the top of your file is indicate it is an XML file by using the XML and RSS tags. See your favorite web design book or website on how to do this.
So, you’ve spent all this time creating your XML file, it works, and all is well, now what do you do with it? Well, you need to submit it of course. The best way to submit an RSS Feed is to use one of the multitude of RSS Directories out there. I won’t list any, just google it. Once you’ve found one, submit your XML file like you would a web page, and within minutes, your newly acquired RSS Feed will be screaming across the internet at the speed of light, both to your current users, and also attracting new users at an alarming rate.
The benefits of RSS are great. You can keep your users informed of happenings on your site, you can attract new users, and you can ensure that your news will get out to the world with ease.