FTAM/9000 Programmer's Guide

60 Chapter 2

Using HP FTAM/9000

Using Parameters

This section discusses parameters to FTAM functions, focussing on the

input_dcb and inout_dcb parameters. For information on speciﬁc

parameters, determine the function using the parameter; then use the

Table of Contents to locate the chapter explaining that function.

Parameters are the mechanisms for exchanging information between

your application and the FTAM interface. Parameters may be any of the

following types:

• Mandatory or Optional

• Input to the function, Output from the function

• Exposed (in the function's parameter list) or Internal (as a component

of a data structure called a DCB in the parameter list)

Parameter Order

Parameters to FTAM functions are organized as follows:

• Input parameters precede output parameters.

• Exposed input parameters precede input DCB parameters.

• Exposed output parameters follow output DCB parameters.

NOTE Exposed parameters take precedence over the input_dcb parameters. For

example, if you specify both the exposed parameter ﬁlename and the

input_dcb->attributes.values.ﬁlename on the ft_select() function, the

exposed ﬁlename is the one used to select the ﬁle.