There will be times when changes are required to various members that reside in the Client Pack options dataset (ZDDOPTS) referenced by any ChangeMan ZMF Server. Inadvertently introducing a syntax error into any ZDDOPTS member can result in it being totally ignored. So how can one easily syntax check changes being made to members in these datasets?

In ZMF4ECL a useful option named 'Display ZDDOPTS parsing errors' exists under Window - Preferences - ZMF/Eclipse – Trace. This option should be enabled when testing ZDDOPTS changes, at a minimum. After making changes to the relevant ZDDOPTS member on your test ZMF system, logon to the ZMF Server, or right-click on the Server folder and select Refresh Options if already logged on. All ZDDOPTS members will be checked and any syntax errors will be reported at this point.

In ChangeMan ZDD, a similar effect can be obtained by right-clicking on the ZMF Server and selecting ZDD Network – Refresh settings. The new ZDDOPTS member will then be re-read and then validated, and any syntax errors reported, when the appropriate member is next used within ZDD.

Obviously customers should then continue to fully test the changes to the ZDDOPTS member to ensure that they also have the desired effect on processing.