Introduction

The Standard Legacy Interface Kit (SLIK) is a real-time data integration tool that provides you with the ability to maintain and control data housed in multiple and disparate relational databases and/or operating systems.

The SLIK server is a multi-threaded Windows NT application that processes user-defined batches (or interfaces) that consist of one or more jobs.

This guide is designed to give users detailed information on how to use the SLIK application and has been written for users at both the user and system developer level. 

Basic familiarity with using forms and reports in Windows applications is assumed.

SLIK Functionality Overview

SLIK uses the SLIK Control Database - a repository for all configuration, batch and job details that the SLIK server users to control the processes it performs.  This allows you to efficiently manage recurring interfaces to different databases and integration to NT system processes and the J D Edwards OneWorld application suite. 

SLIK's functionality can be broken down into the following areas:

Scheduling

Using the scheduling facility you can assign a schedule to a batch to determine how frequently the batch is run.  Daily, weekly, monthly, single and multiple period scheduling are supported.

Batch Administrators

SLIK assigns an Administrator to each batch.  The administrator can be one or more people responsible for managing the associated interface.  Should a processing error occur, SLIK will send a message to the administrator(s) advising them of the error.  Error notifications can be sent via a system generated email or pager message.

Job Operations

A Job can be one of twenty different predefined operation types. Operation types can range from a simple email alert message to more complex actions such as calling and activating other SLIK Batches. 

Job Processing Logic

SLIK processing is sequential.  Should a job fail any remaining jobs in the batch would not be processed.  This allows you to correct the error and restart the batch at the point of failure.  Note: this standard configuration option can be overridden using the Job Level Processing options available in SLIK.

Database Transactions

SLIK database operations are automatically performed within one database transaction.  If the transaction fails it will automatically be “rolled back”.  This setting is the default setting but can be disabled by using the “Outside of DB Transaction” processing option.  This may be necessary in the case a SQL statement, such as TRUNCATE TABLE, must be performed outside of database transactions.

Note: this applies to databases that support database transactions only. 

Processing History Logs

Recognising the importance of audit trails, SLIK writes a detailed set of log records documenting batch and any associated job transactions.

SLIK Control Database

The SLIK Control Database holds all SLIK batches and jobs. It is possible to have multiple control databases, i.e. Test and Production.