Terms and Structure
Familiarization with the following terms is helpful in creating Control Files:
- Element: A Control File component consisting of a start tag, data, and an end tag.
- Start Tag: The first component of an element. The format is the less than character (<), the element name, and the greater than character (>). For example:
<element>. - Element Data: The second component of an element. This is the data that is entered in the OpCon database. In some cases, the data is optional.
- End Tag: The last component of an element. The format is the less than character (<), a slash character (/), the element name, and the greater than character (>). For example:
</element>.
- Start Tag: The first component of an element. The format is the less than character (<), the element name, and the greater than character (>). For example:
Example
The following example shows a single complete element:
<mypay>
$1000
</mypay>
The element name is mypay and the data associated with the element is $1000.
- Nesting: The placement of one element inside another. A parent element requires one or more child elements placed in its data.
- Parent Element: An element requiring one or more nested elements in its data.
- Child Element: An element placed within the data of another element. If a child element is not placed within the parent element, the data is invalid.
Note
Some elements can be both parent and child elements.
Example
The following example shows nested elements in a parent/child relationship:
<jobdef>
<schedname>Schedule1</schedname>
<jobname>Job1</jobname>
</jobdef>
The schedname and jobname child elements are nested in the jobdef parent element.