Customizing Policy Processing

This topic provides the information you need to customize policy processing by creating an exit routine, (for example, a dynamic-link library [DLL]). This exit routine enables you to perform these tasks:

•

Extend archive indexing by retrieving data from outside the archived report, for example, from ERP or legacy systems, to use as index entries.

•

Export data from reports to third-party systems (for example, ERP or legacy systems).

•

Extend policy processing beyond its standard functions.

For example, if a report contains a geographical region name, and a third-party database contains the name of the salesperson responsible for that region, you can generate a customized policy file that extracts the geographical region name, locates in the database the name of the salesperson that matches the geographical region name, and returns the salesperson's name as an index entry in the report.

A policy exit routine can export any of these functions:

Function	Description
EXTStartProcessing	Initializes the exit, by correlating the exit routine and the policy file.
EXTProcessSearchableArea	Processes data within a searchable area (that is, an area from which you can extract data).
EXTAddExternalMetadata	Adds metadata from a binary file.
EXTProcessInputFile	Processes data from an input file, adds Report IDs, and provides a candidate policy list.
EXTProcessTable	Modifies group data.
EXTEndProcessing	Ends processing started by EXTStartProcessing.
EXTFreeData	Frees storage used for data to be added to the searchable area or table.

To create a policy exit routine

1.

Initialize the exit. See Initializing the Exit — EXTStartProcessing.

2.

Process data from a searchable area. See Processing Data from a Searchable Area — EXTProcessSearchableArea.

3.

Add metadata from a binary file. See Add Metadata from External File — EXTAddExternalMetadata.

4.

Process data from an input file. See Processing Data from an Input file — EXTProcessInputFile.

5.

Process table data. See Processing Table Data — EXTProcessTable.

6.

End exit routine processing. See End Exit Routine Processing — EXTEndProcessing.

7.

Free buffered data. See Freeing Buffered Data — EXTFreeData.