For reasons beyond belief we used a small script written Microsoft J-Script to process our UPS orders, converting files from IDoc in XML format to UPS Worldship XML format. It required a dedicated Windows Server, and was as stable as a jelly in an earthquake.
A few weeks ago, just as we were in the middle of a major AIX hardware/software upgrade, the J-Script became even more unstable, requiring attention every 20-30 minutes.
After the new system went live, and in the gaps between snagging I wrote a small Perl application that does everything the J-Script did, only it now has error handling, logic checks, debugging, and full logging. It's about half the size of the J-Script, and isn't riddled with magic numbers and business logic.
Today the new Perl system went into a live test situation. It seems to work perfectly, all I had to was up the frequence that the script is run to make it more responsive. I even updated the "8D" issue log and the application documentation too! Next week we can decommsion the Windows server as well.
It's still not a final solution, that requires the removal of the SAP Business Connector step, but that can wait for a while. Today I'm a happy Perl M[ou]nger.
Re:Jelly during earthquakes
ajt on 2006-04-09T11:38:58
I suppose this is true, but it is still not very stable, plus it's hard to eat with all that wobbling too...
