ACS has developed a Scripted Request System to aid clients in requesting processes and/or jobstreams from scripts which run outside of Advantage.  Capsules have been created to allow users to communicate with the Advantage Monitor from the command line, wait until a process finishes and then return a success or failure code. This is not intended to replace the request screens but rather to give clients a way to interface with an enterprise scheduling system for selected processes or jobstreams. The processes still run under the control of the Advantage Monitor and the monitor notifies the scheduling system when the process or jobstream is complet

The interface to the scripted request system is a powershell named advantage_submit.ps1 that is distributed with Advantage Revisions starting at 2011r1.

This script file has a –help parameter which allows you to list the parameters that are needed for a given process or jobstream. For instance, when requesting the CIR410 process with the –help parameter, you would receive the following message:

Sequence Option Name   Reqd  Prompt                      Default

0140     ERR-OPT       No    Continue on Error?          N

0500     PUB-CDE       Yes   Publication Code

0520     CE-MODE       No    Processing Mode             M

0540     CE-VALD       No    Validate Database?          N

0560     CE-SL         No    Sub Liability Rpt?          Y

0580     CE-LBL        No    Produce Labels?             N

This shows the user that the CIR410 process must be requested with a PUB-CDE parameter and what the defaults are for the other parameters. Those defaults can be overridden when requested at the command line. Providing invalid or misspelled parameters results in the process or jobstream not running. Error/Success codes returned:

 0 Success  1 Only help was displayed -1 No Jobstreams with the name supplied -2 Bad Name or setting in the parameter string -3 Blank name or setting in the parameter string -4 Missing Parameter -5 Invalid or Closed Parameter (possibly misspelled) -6 Invalid Process Name -7 Problem Launching Process -8 Invalid pub directory on command line

The results of the request are displayed on the screen as the process runs. The Scripted Request System uses the Process_Notification capsule to notify the waiting script that the process has finished. A new environment variable, SCRIPTLOC, has been added to control where the scripted request temporary files are created. SCRIPTLOC defaults to pub\scripts and the directory that SCRIPTLOC points to must be created before using the Scripted Request System.

Usage of these capsules could allow system administrators to use scheduling systems to schedule backups and then run processes as soon as the backup finishes.

Have you ever wanted a quick way to tell a customer the cost of a subscription without entering an order?

You can use the Calculate button within the Publication Lookup view, which was introduced at 10R1.

Calculate a subscription's cost based on publication, promotion and ship-to location.

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4)       Next enter the Country Code (in this case blank), Zip Code, Billing Currency, Promotion Code, Promotion Choice, Copies and Delivery Code

5)       Click the Calculate button in the dialog and the order cost results display in the dialog

6)       Change Promotion, Choice, Copies or Delivery Code to recalculate another price

7)       Click the Order button to route to order entry

ACS is pleased to welcome Rachel Larson as a full-time member of the Advantage family.  Rachel has been working as an intern in the engineering department part-time during school years and full-time over the past four summers.  She graduated from the University of Michigan this spring with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the engineering school. (It's also possible to study computer science through the college of Literature, Science and the Arts.)

A dyed-in-the-wool engineer, Rachel freely labels herself a computer nerd.  She has always liked math and science and does not get at all excited about writing assignments.  Her favorite entertainment genre is science fiction, whether it's books, movies or games.  And yes, she's a Trekkie—original series all the way.

A member of the development team led by Howie Brooks, Rachel is working on translating code. She enjoys programming and says that Howie is a great boss.

Born in New Jersey, Rachel moved to Ann Arbor when she was 7 years old and has lived there ever since.  She remembers wanting to go to the University of Michigan from a very early age and now that she has graduated, she has no plans to leave.  She is the oldest of four children and enjoys spending time with her family. 

Welcome, Rachel!

Maney Reaches 100 Journals

Reprinted with permission from Maney Publishing

Maney Publishing, one of the fastest-growing independent journal publishers, has published its 100^th journal with the release of the first 2011 issue of JournalofSpinalCord Medicine. The imprint, whose first journals appeared only in 1998, has become a significant publisher of British society journals and in recent years has extended its publishing activity world-wide, working now for a growing number of learned societies, professional bodies and universities in North America and Australia.

"When I launched the imprint of Maney Publishing in 1997," Michael Gallico, Maney's Managing Director, notes, "the company, since its founding in 1900, enjoyed a very high reputation as a typesetter and printer for societies in the humanities.  Now we have developed the full range of skills of a competitive journal publisher, including a strong electronic presence, but have retained that original ethos of individual service and attention to our clients' needs.  Starting from a position where we published not a single journal, to have reached the century mark is a great vote of confidence in our philosophy by a wide range of partners with whom we have much enjoyed working – and to whom we firmly expect to add others in the years ahead."

By the end of 2011 Maney will have published seven further titles that build upon existing strengths in materials science, archaeology, and the health sciences. From only six staff in 1997, Maney now employs 44 people in the UK and America, and Michael is the first to acknowledge their contribution to Maney's success. "Our experienced team in the UK and USA play a vital role in the development of the company, maintaining successful relationships with our existing publishing partners and attracting new business to take Maney forward into its twelfth decade."

Mark Simon, Maney's Publishing Director, has been instrumental in the growth of Maney's activity in the last decade and particularly its extension into America, where Maney incorporated in 2007. "It has been a great pleasure working with and gaining the confidence of academics and society officers who appreciate Maney's interest in what it publishes and its high standards of service. Maney is a company that is committed to learning and it has been able to share the benefits of innovation with authors and readers in many different areas of research. We continue to develop the best systems for publishing our journals internationally, but at the same time we have been able to maintain the personal attention that society partners expect."

In re-engineering the former Maney business, the global publisher has formed strong alliances with leading technology groups and suppliers worldwide. "Without the strong support and innovation we have achieved from our partners," Michael notes, "it would have been impossible to achieve our current success. From Advantage and Aries in America, to Charlesworth Press and Publishing Technology in the UK, and then to MPS in India and the Charlesworth Group in China, with our agents and aggregators worldwide, we have developed a strong network that allows us to support our authors, editors and customers at the highest level."

Maney now looks forward to another decade of growth and development, building on its reputation for supporting and promoting research, knowledge and innovation in publishing.

About Maney Publishing

Maney Publishing, formed in 1997, is a leading independent publisher of academic and professional journals. Specialising in materials science and engineering, health and life sciences, and the humanities, Maney is committed to technical and editorial innovation for the international dissemination of peer-reviewed scholarship and research. With traditional values of quality and collaboration, Maney delivers personalised service to authors, societies, readers and libraries, and publishes extensively for learned societies, universities and professional bodies around the world. Maney's offices are in Leeds and London in the UK, and Cambridge and Philadelphia in North America.

www.maney.co.uk

To Alan Cherney, programming is an art and he happily bears the title of artist.  Programming satisfies his creative urge because, as he says, "you're building something and it involves design and structure."  Alan has always been interested in art and computer graphics, and throughout high school he built a portfolio intending to apply to art school.  When he began using his computer graphics in simple web programming, he found he had a real knack in that area and changed his focus to computer science, with emphasis on art and design.  During his last several years in high school and all through college, Alan was able to earn money and gain experience doing freelance computer graphics.

Alan became an intern at ACS while still attending the University of Michigan, and joined fulltime when he graduated with his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science.  Here at ACS, Alan has been able to make good use of his graphic abilities in the design of GUI interfaces, splash screens, logos and icons and much more.  

Coworker Ashley Richter has this to say about working with Alan:  I've worked with Alan, the artist, not Alan, the programmer.  And, as an artist he's done a wonderful job with a major development project I'm working on.  Before Alan got onboard, it was--frankly--rather ugly and we got told so on multiple occasions.  But, with Alan's artistic input, it now looks really good and we've gotten lots of compliments on its appearance.  I don't know what we would've done without Alan."

Alan grew up in Ann Arbor and wanted to go to the University of Michigan ever since he can remember.  It's somewhat of a family practice; Alan's grandmother was the first woman to graduate from U of M with a PhD in organic chemistry.  That was in 1935, so the tradition runs deep.

Alan is a member of the product development team led by Howie Brooks.  In addition to using his graphic skills, Alan has worked for many clients on numerous software modifications.  He has also worked on such major development projects as "internationalizing" Advantage for easy translation into languages other than English, a new client billing system, and –his favorite—rebuilding customer relationships in Advantage.  Alan appreciates Howie's leadership style, saying that he is supportive and quick to offer help.  Howie is also a great resource, says Alan, and if he doesn't know the answer, he knows who to talk to in order to get it.

In return, Howard appreciates Alan's varied abilities.  "In addition to being a great programmer, Alan has an artistic streak.  He's known around the office for his whiteboard drawings and he loves to pitch in designing color schemes, icons and other UI elements whenever he gets the chance."   Howie values Alan for another reason as well:  "When a group of engineers work late into the evening, Alan's the guy who usually organizes dinner.  This makes him an indispensible member of the team, along with his excellent engineering skills of course."  And Howie has great respect for those skills, saying:  "Alan has taken the lead on many large and complex development projects.  Most recently he has been working through some very sophisticated alternate delivery functionality for some of our clients in Europe."

Co-worker Stan Bisgaier also comments on both the light and serious sides of Alan.  "I always enjoy working with Alan," Stan says.  "He has a great sense of humor and often has us laughing with a joke or song rendition, but he is always professional about his work.  I'm continually impressed with how much he contributes to the software with his design and artistic talents, in addition to his solid programming skills."

Alan lives in Saline with his wife, Veronica and their infant son, Joaquin.  Coming from a family of ten siblings, Alan loves a big family atmosphere and recently became interested in genealogy.  He has traced his family line back five generations, and was successful in finding records on 31 of the 32 family members.

In his leisure time, Alan enjoys spending time with his family—son "JoJo" is just getting to the age where he appreciates Dad's attempts at being a growling bear and the two are learning to wrestle together.  Hockey is another interest, and Alan is a goal tender on a local hockey team.  He is also training for the Chicago marathon later this year.  An accomplished runner, this will be his third marathon.   Serving as a youth leader at a local church is also on Alan's list of interests, and if there is any time left, Alan likes to indulge his love of art with drawing—graphite his medium of choice.

 We're glad that Alan is able to practice his art with Advantage as his canvas.

When you call the main ACS phone number (734-327-3600), you now have the option of hearing the greeting and prompts in French as well as English.  Also in the works is a French version of the Advantage website which will be launching in the next few months.  Formidable!

For many of you, the letters CPNPMO, when put in that order, conjure up thoughts of vast amounts of detailed information about promotions, views full of item information and pricing, and perhaps some questions about how it all is organized.  Well, I have some good news – these issues have been addressed in a re-design of the campaign and promotion setup workspace.  In fact, the re-design is so intuitive, we barely need these words to describe it!

For starters, the data has been grouped more clearly by type of promotion, so that all costs for e-promotions are near one another, for example.  Also, the workspace uses script technology, where you can customize the way the workspace appears for users establishing different kinds of promotions and campaigns.  Why force a user to wade through information that may not apply to their situation?  Your marketers will LOVE it! 

Since responses to e-promotions are measured in ways unlike other promotions (such as by e-clicks, opens, impressions, etc.) we have grouped these related fields clearly for the user.  What's more, we have added more ways of measuring promotion success – continually enhancing the intelligence the system can provide to the innovative marketer.  All these new measures are immediately available for analysis.

Now, for those of you who do the set-up of promotions and campaigns, you can customize a workspace to have all the views you want in one place.  Do you use lots of offers?  Add that view.  Do you want to see item details when choosing the items for your promotion?  Add that view as well.  The ability to put all the information into one workspace will increase your efficiency and turn great ideas into successful promotions in a fraction of the time it took before!

In 2011r2, you will see a re-design of the inquiry views (the old CPNINQ).  Details will be forthcoming.  Enjoy the re-designs and please let us know what you think.