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The following lists new functions that have been added to AFP Toolbox. This document does not list any corequisites or prerequisites needed from other software or printer microcode. See the particular APAR for additional required system levels, corequisites or prerequisites needed. If you need assistance, please contact your IBM Printing Systems representative.
Toolbox for MVS (5655-A25)
 Toolbox for MVS (5655-A25)
Add extended color and shading to MVS (07/1997)
Rotated Page Overlays (12/1997)
Text Presentation Color (5/1999)
Set Units support through COBOL interface (03/2000)
Performance Improvements (07/1998-04/2000)
Tables Functions (07/2001)
2D Bar Code Functions (01/2002)
Complex page with multiple AFP images caused page not to print
 (PQ78091 - 09/2003)
Additional information
Migrating Applications from AFP API to AFP Toolbox (07/1999)
The following contains detailed information on the one-line summaries above. Check the RETAIN system for the most up-to-date PTF information.
AFP Toolbox for MVS is available as of January 1997 and also runs on OS/390 and z/OS. COBOL samples and copy books are supplied in addition to C and C++.
Add extended color and shading to MVS(07/31/1997)
APAR #:PQ06117
MVS PTF #:UQ08040
NOTE: This PTF also removes the SIA text control being built by default in order to allow Toolbox output to print on the 3820 printer.
Rotated Page Overlays (12/1997)
APAR #:PQ11063
MVS PTF #:UQ12689
This is a new Toolbox function call that allows page overlays to be included on the page and rotated 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees. This function requires PSF/MVS APAR OW29990. The call syntax is:
AFPRotateOvly (TBHANDLE pagehandle, DegRot rotation, char* overlayname);
Text Presentation Color (05/1999)
APAR #:PQ26667
MVS PTF #:UQ30096
For all AFP Toolbox users who need to use extended color to specify OCA, RGB, CYMK, CIELAB, and HILIGHT colors.
See the current version of the Toolbox User's Guide (S544-5292-03 or above) for descriptions of these new functions.
Set Units support through COBOL interface (03/2000)
APAR #: PQ30890
MVS PTF #:UQ41209
New function APAR to add CBLSetUnits to the COBOL interface as an alternative to ATXUNITS.
This allows COBOL applications to pass measurement parameters in inches or millimeters, rather than converting them to 1440ths of an inch, and provides better performance and ease-of-use than ATXUNITS.
This function is very involved in its description. Please see the current User's Guide (S544-5292-03 or above) for the full explanation of the user interface.
Performance improvements (06/1998-04/2000)
Add AFPDeletePage to delete storage (APAR #:PQ15876 MVS PTF #:UQ18337)
This APAR addresses performance enhancements and adds a new function requested by a customer to allow AFP pages to be built but not printed. Code was modified to produce AFP structured fields to eliminate many redundant copies of internal control blocks. Added new function AFPDeletePage(pagehandle) which will delete the storage for a page of output without actually producing any AFP document. This allows users to create and count pages in the document on an initial "pass" through the data, for example for building strings such as "page 1 of 50".
Storage leak and performance impact using multiple output codepages
(APAR #:PQ17771 MVS PTF #:UQ20534)
Performance problems occur if the user's program specifies more than one output codepage that is
different than the default codepage.
AESTRING processing was modified to use the codepage from the current font rather than creating a special font to be used only for translating from one codepage to another.
More efficient code page usage (APAR #PQ34752 MVS PTF #:UQ40475) This PTF fixes four coding problems as well as making a significant performance enhancement. Fonts using the same code page now share a single code page object. Previously, every time the AFPDefineFontByAttr was used, a new code page object was being built even if the information was identical and had already been stored in memory.
Storage leak (APAR #PQ36186 MVS PTF #:UQ41816)
Use of AFPSetTextCodepage was not being recognized by AFPPutText, and this may have caused incorrect translations. If the application was also using AFPWriteString with the same font, there may have been severe performance degradation and storage leaks. The APAR fixes these problems, and includes some other performance enhancements.
Migrating Applications from AFP API to AFP Toolbox
The AFP API was shipped with PSF MVS free of charge on releases 2.1 and 2.2. With PSF 3.1 for OS/390, the AFP API feature has been removed. The replacement for the API is the AFP Toolbox for MVS (product 5655-A25).
The main function that is in the API and not available in the Toolbox is areas. The original purpose of areas in the API was to allow users to create paragraphs of text that can be used more than once within a document. However, most customers used areas to avoid the API restriction of requiring that text be placed in the page from top-to-bottom order. This restriction does not exist in the Toolbox. There are currently no plans to add the ability to generate areas in the Toolbox, but since more than one page can be built at a time (another ability that was lacking in the API), this requirement has not been raised by customers.
There are also some differences in API calls, which mean that the majority of applications will take some rewriting. Of course, existing applications can continue to use the AFP API, as long as they have been debugged and are running satisfactorily. New applications should use Toolbox instead. The AFP API will be dropped from service when service for PSF/MVS 2.2 is withdrawn in April, 2002. See Appendix D of the User's Guide (S544-5292-03 or above) for an explanation of migrating applications.
Tables (07/2001)
Tables functions have been added to the MVS Toolbox and are described in the User's Guide, S544-5292-03 and above. These functions are mainly compatible with the tables function calls provided with the AFP API. Differences in the two are discussed in the "Migrating Applications from AFP API to Toolbox" appendix.
2D Bar Codes (01/2002)
The ability to create two dimensional bar codes has been added to the MVS Toolbox with APAR PQ56001. Printing 2D bar codes requires support in your printer microcode. The new bar code types are PDF417, Data Matrix, and Maxicode. Details will be added to the User's Guide when the -04 level becomes available.
Note: You need the AFP Viewer Plug-in to view these manuals on the Web.
Complex page with multiple AFP images cause page overflow (097/2003)
APAR: PQ78091
MVS PTF: UQ80655
CUSTOMER PROBLEM:
A large number of plotted lines of GOCA caused the entire page not to print. All pages following that page print normally. There was no nonzero return code from the program. There is an undocumented Toolbox internal limit of the number of bytes that can be placed in the page and document output buffers. This problem exists for all pages and is a Toolbox internal limitation. The limit was 256 kilobytes.
SOLUTION:
The limitation has been doubled to 512 kilobytes and a return code will be issued when the buffer overflows. The new return code for the End Page function will be 108.
DOCUMENTATION CHANGES (Toolbox Users Guide - document S544-5292-04):
To the return codes from the End Page function, add:
108 - The internal Toolbox page output buffer limitation has been exceeded. Reduce the complexity of the page being printed by placing fewer AFP objects in the page.
To Chapter 1 section "AFP Documents and Pages", add the note:
Note: There is an internal Toolbox limitation of the size of a page. The limitation is 512 kilobytes. This limitation will seldom be encountered and will probably be the result of printing a very large image or graphics object. A return code of 108 will be issued from the End Page function. To correct this it will be necessary to reduce the complexity of the page being printed by placing fewer AFP objects in the page.
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