​It's that time again to gather ideas for the Panel Discussion segment of our quarterly OVUG meeting coming up on April 16. 

*** If you are interested in participating as a Panel Member, please contact Marc Hebert.

With a forum this large and the fact it is virtual, we'd like to get an idea of some of the topics the Optim users would like to be covered. This is necessary since the panel will be allotted a set period of time at the meeting, so there will need to be a focused number of topics to discuss.

We will use this thread to gather topic ideas, so we are requesting your input as follows:

1. *** Please read through the replies with topic ideas before posting a new one.

2. If someone posted a topic you like, you may vote for it by clicking the 'RECOMMEND' box in the upper right corner of the post.

3. If you don't see your topic already posted, feel free to add a reply to this thread with a topic you'd most like to see discussed with the panel.

4. If you see someone posted the same idea as yours already, just click the 'RECOMMEND' box in the upper right of the post and please do not post the same topic again.

5. Please do NOT post items in this thread that are unrelated to a Panel Discussion question. Other items can be directed to Marc or via a new thread.

The top recommended questions will make their way into the discussion.

The panel is still a newer idea for the group, so there will be some learning curve on having this run smoothly in a virtual setting. We appreciate the patience as we work through this and are looking forward to the topics the users would like to discuss.

Thank you for your participation and input.

------------------------------
Keith Tidball
Progressive Insurance
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#InfoSphereOptim
#Optim

​We have received zero (yes, 0) topics from our user group for the panel discussion on April 16. We use this forum to discuss Optim topics that interest you from a user perspective (IBM doesn't run the panel; users do). If we don't get any discussion ideas, we will be forced to pick some for you, which kind of defeats the purpose. We still have a couple days, so please submit your ideas by responding to this post. Thanks!!

------------------------------
Keith Tidball
Progressive Insurance
------------------------------

1.  For Optim Connect queries against multiple archive files, how are you handling differences in the character sets?
2. Since Optim Connect does not seem to support UTF16, how do you handle retrieving and displaying the multiple bytes that are returned.  SQL Server XML fields are stored as UTF16 so it appears that Optim Connect returns the data as single byte characters so we get what appears to be a hex 00 between each character that is returned. 
3. How do you handle the environmental settings, like pst_varnum environmental variables given they are at the OS level when your queries are hitting multiple archives that require different settings based on the data?
4. What tools are you using to query Optim Archives? Products like DBVisualizer are good.  However, one issue we have is that Optim Connect changes CLOBs/BLOBs to be returned as strings.  When this happens, this prevents DBVisualizer from storing the columns as  external files.  How are you handling the query of CLobs/blobs that need to be stored as separate files so that they are usable?

------------------------------
Joe Hattaway
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 11, 2019 04:24 PM
From: Keith Tidball
Subject: Panel Discussion Topics for April 2019 Meeting

​We have received zero (yes, 0) topics from our user group for the panel discussion on April 16. We use this forum to discuss Optim topics that interest you from a user perspective (IBM doesn't run the panel; users do). If we don't get any discussion ideas, we will be forced to pick some for you, which kind of defeats the purpose. We still have a couple days, so please submit your ideas by responding to this post. Thanks!!

------------------------------
Keith Tidball
Progressive Insurance
------------------------------

1. Is Adobe Flash Player still required for Optim?  And Mozilla Firefox the recommended browser?
2. Accessing Optim Manager via the web has never worked well for me.  It seems to be extremely slow.  Any hints to figure out why?  Documentation I could read?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Deborah Gresham
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri April 12, 2019 08:17 AM
From: Joe Hattaway
Subject: Panel Discussion Topics for April 2019 Meeting

1.  For Optim Connect queries against multiple archive files, how are you handling differences in the character sets?
2. Since Optim Connect does not seem to support UTF16, how do you handle retrieving and displaying the multiple bytes that are returned.  SQL Server XML fields are stored as UTF16 so it appears that Optim Connect returns the data as single byte characters so we get what appears to be a hex 00 between each character that is returned. 
3. How do you handle the environmental settings, like pst_varnum environmental variables given they are at the OS level when your queries are hitting multiple archives that require different settings based on the data?
4. What tools are you using to query Optim Archives? Products like DBVisualizer are good.  However, one issue we have is that Optim Connect changes CLOBs/BLOBs to be returned as strings.  When this happens, this prevents DBVisualizer from storing the columns as  external files.  How are you handling the query of CLobs/blobs that need to be stored as separate files so that they are usable?

------------------------------
Joe Hattaway
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 11, 2019 04:24 PM
From: Keith Tidball
Subject: Panel Discussion Topics for April 2019 Meeting

​We have received zero (yes, 0) topics from our user group for the panel discussion on April 16. We use this forum to discuss Optim topics that interest you from a user perspective (IBM doesn't run the panel; users do). If we don't get any discussion ideas, we will be forced to pick some for you, which kind of defeats the purpose. We still have a couple days, so please submit your ideas by responding to this post. Thanks!!

------------------------------
Keith Tidball
Progressive Insurance

Thank you for the questions, these will be added to the docket.  

I was also asked recently about the best way to handle ​selectively removing data from older archive files, where some of the records need to be purged while others must be retained longer. Since Optim AFs are immutable, this should be an interesting topic for feedback on various ways to achieve this goal.

------------------------------
Keith Tidball
Progressive Insurance
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri April 12, 2019 10:56 AM
From: Deborah Gresham
Subject: Panel Discussion Topics for April 2019 Meeting

1. Is Adobe Flash Player still required for Optim?  And Mozilla Firefox the recommended browser?
2. Accessing Optim Manager via the web has never worked well for me.  It seems to be extremely slow.  Any hints to figure out why?  Documentation I could read?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Deborah Gresham
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Fri April 12, 2019 08:17 AM
From: Joe Hattaway
Subject: Panel Discussion Topics for April 2019 Meeting

1.  For Optim Connect queries against multiple archive files, how are you handling differences in the character sets?
2. Since Optim Connect does not seem to support UTF16, how do you handle retrieving and displaying the multiple bytes that are returned.  SQL Server XML fields are stored as UTF16 so it appears that Optim Connect returns the data as single byte characters so we get what appears to be a hex 00 between each character that is returned. 
3. How do you handle the environmental settings, like pst_varnum environmental variables given they are at the OS level when your queries are hitting multiple archives that require different settings based on the data?
4. What tools are you using to query Optim Archives? Products like DBVisualizer are good.  However, one issue we have is that Optim Connect changes CLOBs/BLOBs to be returned as strings.  When this happens, this prevents DBVisualizer from storing the columns as  external files.  How are you handling the query of CLobs/blobs that need to be stored as separate files so that they are usable?

------------------------------
Joe Hattaway


Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 11, 2019 04:24 PM
From: Keith Tidball
Subject: Panel Discussion Topics for April 2019 Meeting

​We have received zero (yes, 0) topics from our user group for the panel discussion on April 16. We use this forum to discuss Optim topics that interest you from a user perspective (IBM doesn't run the panel; users do). If we don't get any discussion ideas, we will be forced to pick some for you, which kind of defeats the purpose. We still have a couple days, so please submit your ideas by responding to this post. Thanks!!

------------------------------
Keith Tidball
Progressive Insurance