Caché Utilities

Caché "Buttons" utility

Aimed at making the life of Caché VARs, Solution Providers, and End Users easier when it comes to collecting technical information for problems, InterSystems has developed a new tool, nicknamed "The Buttons". The reasoning for the name is based on its extreme ease of use (even for inexperienced users); therefore its activation is almost like pressing a button.

The utility has two options: the "little button" (the basic option) provides most of the information required for InterSystems Technical Support to analyze a medium complexity problem. The data this option generates should be present on every problem logged into InterSystems' support system. The "big button" (the more advanced option) is sometimes required on complex problems where Support needs more in-depth information about a system's behavior. It includes all the information contained in the basic option and adds a lot more. All the information is stored in a single HTML-formatted file.

The whole process should not take more than 5 minutes to complete. The Buttons tool is written in Caché ObjectScript and is available for all Windows platforms (9x, ME, NT, 2000 and XP), all brands of UNIX supported by Caché and OpenVMS. It runs on all Caché versions starting from 3.2.1 on supported Operating System platforms. It does not run on Caché 2.x.

For the rare instances where Caché is completely down, making it impossible for the Caché ObjectScript-based Buttons to run, there are Operating System-level scripts that can be run to collect all the system information available outside of Caché. These scripts are an integral part of the Buttons tool and are available for 32-bit Windows (NT, 2000 and XP), several UNIX platforms and OpenVMS.

Once the report has been run you may zip the output up into a single file and then submit the report, along with a problem description using the WRC. Just login using your customer account and then "Open New Problem". Once the problem description has been saved you will see a link called "Add File" in the problem detail view. Clicking on this will bring up a screen that allows you to upload a file over HTTP. This will "tie" your report file to the problem. This can also be done to an existing issue. This process can take a long time and for very large files greater than 5 MB it may be more efficient to FTP them to the ftp.intersystems.com machine and just provide the name of the file in the problem description. If you are under maintenance and don't have an account to use the WRC feel free to e-mail support@intersystems.com and we will gladly assist you.

The Buttons support tool is available from the InterSystems Web site.

CacheButtons.zip - Updated December 1, 2005

For more information, please Contact InterSystems Worldwide Response Center at:
+1 617 621-0700 or
Support@intersystems.com