TRANSFER Programming Manual

Deciding Whether to Use the TRANSFER Delivery System
Developing TRANSFER Applications
8–2 40970 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Deciding Whether
to Use the TRANSFER
Delivery System
Consider using the TRANSFER delivery system if your application requires delivery
of information to multiple correspondents, particularly across a network, or if it
depends upon the staging of transactions over time. These requirements need not be
the primary thrust of the application; even if they are only a small part of it, the
TRANSFER delivery system can still help you considerably.
The TRANSFER delivery system is not an application in itself; it delivers information
(packages), but does not process them. The TRANSFER delivery system does not
inherently allow you to defer the transport of packages that have already been sent,
nor does it guarantee their delivery in any particular sequence.
The TRANSFER delivery system emphasizes reliability of delivery rather than speed
of transmittal, and does not guarantee that a package will arrive at a precise time. The
TRANSFER delivery system cannot predict the exact amount of time that a package
will spend in transit. This makes the TRANSFER delivery system unsuitable for time-
critical applications such as real-time communication where one terminal operator
must converse online with another.
Specifying the
Functional Aspects
Your application will contain many interrelated objects, including correspondents and
the packages you send on behalf of correspondents. When you send a package, you
may want to send the package as part of a transaction.
Correspondents Identify the correspondents that send and receive packages. Consider whether these
correspondents are people, processes, devices, or other entities; your application must
interface with each of these types differently. Consider whether you want to provide
interest groups for correspondents.
The TRANSFER delivery system provides different levels of security for different
correspondents to prevent unauthorized access to the information maintained by an
application.
Privileges of Depot Owners
The owner of a depot is, effectively, any person or process who knows the
correspondent name and password for logon purposes. Depot owners can:
Create new folders, distribution lists, items, and packages
Make additions or changes to any of those objects that they create
Change many elements of their own profiles
Depot owners are the only ones who can examine or modify the contents of folders
belonging to their depot. Depot owners cannot change packages or any component
items of packages that are received from other depots or that are sent to other depots.
A user process, however, could create a new item that is a copy of the package or item
and then change that new item.