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Date:         Tue, 14 Apr 1992 12:46:08 CDT
Reply-To:     "J. Philip Miller" <phil@WUBIOS.WUSTL.EDU>
From:         "J. Philip Miller" <phil@WUBIOS.WUSTL.EDU>
Subject:      Tech support via e-mail
Comments: To: SAS Mailing List <SAS-L@ohstvma.ircc.ohio-state.edu>

Here are some more details about tech support via e-mail

TSNEWS-L

This is a new list running on the LISTSERV program at SI.  It provides a way
for tech support to distribute annoucements.  It is not a discussion list.
Anyone can subscribe by sending mail (TELL & SEND will not work from Bitnet
sites) with any subject to LISTSERV@VM.SAS.COM with the single line:

SUBSCRIBE TSNEWS-L <your name>

There are also a number of files available for retreival, by sending the
command:

INDEX TSNEWS-L

you will learn about the files that are available.  You can also subscribe for
AFD so that you will receive notificatipon of changes to any files.

One of the files that you can receive is EMITS ANNOUNCE which tells of how to
submit problem reports via e-mail.  Here is a copy of that file:

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Instructions for using SAS Institute's Electronic Mail Interface to
Technical Support (EMITS):

========================== Background =================================
EMITS uses your E-mail address as your account id. Your E-mail address
will be extracted from the mail header of your messages.  Therefore,
you need to use the same host system for sending mail that you use to
register. You can register separately from each of your hosts if you
need to correspond with EMITS from different hosts.

All E-mail should be sent to support@sas.com and each E-mail message
must contain the text "EMITS" in the subject.

Each of the following sections describes the commands that are recognized
by EMITS. A command contains the control information that EMITS needs to
process your request. Some commands may actually require several separate
control records (or lines) in the text of your mail. Control information
should appear first in the body of your E-mail. Control information begins
with a './' in column 1. EMITS is not case sensitive. That is, your commands
can be in uppercase, lowercase, or both.

EMITS can process one type of message for each E-mail message sent. For
example, you would need to send two separate E-mail messages to
support@sas.com to register and to get help. You will receive mail
confirmation of all requests. If we have a problem identifying or
processing your request, you will be notified and will receive additional
reference information on available commands.

========================= Registration =============================
You need to be registered to use EMITS. You must be a SAS Software
Consultant or SAS Software Representative to register.

To register, send mail to support@sas.com. The body of your message
must have all of the information listed below. The information in
brackets (< >) should be provided by you.  Mail that is syntactically
incorrect or is missing one or more items below will be returned to you.

Control records should begin in column 1. That is, the './' must begin
in column 1. You will be notified via E-mail when your account has been
added.

./register=<your name>
./site=<your site number>
./company=<your company name>
./phone=<your phone number>

Here are some examples:

------- Begin Example 1
./register=Bjorn Borg
./site=0000000005
./company=Wimbledon, Inc.
./phone=(487)336-6629
------- End   Example 1

Example 1 provides all the required information.

Note: Your phone number does not need to conform to this syntax.
      You can specify phone numbers in the form 487-336-6629 or
      487.336.6629.

You can provide more than one site number if your site is licensed for
multiple CPUs. Here is another example:

------- Begin Example 2
./register=Marty Hogan
./site=0000000002
./site=1234567890
./company=Strings, Inc.
./phone=(746)244-6448
------- End   Example 2

Notice that Marty is registering for two site numbers. You can also
specify multiple site numbers on the same line (for
example, ./sites=0000000002,1234567890).

=========================== Obtaining Help =========================
You can obtain help by sending the following command:

./help

================= Getting Your Account Information =================
You can get a report of your account information by sending the
following command:

./account

Here is a sample message that you will receive after submitting your
account information request.

-------------------- Begin Sample
Here is your current account information:

  Your name:      Marty Hogan
  Company:        Strings, Inc.
  Phone number:   (746)244-6448
  Site number(s): 0000000002,1234567890

-------------------- End Sample

================= Updating Registration Information ================
If you would like to modify your phone number or site number,
use the ./update command in the body of your message. You can
have only one phone number per registration,  but you can have
multiple site numbers.  The ./update command can be used like the
./register command.  Only the information you specify is changed.  If
you request that new site numbers be added, we will ensure that the site
numbers you have specified are valid. Again, only site numbers and
your phone number can be changed using the ./update command. If you need
to modify other information, please call Technical Support.

Here are some examples of using ./update:

Example 1 changes the phone number to (919)555-9000.

------- Begin Example 1
./update
./phone=(919)555-9000
------- End   Example 1

Example 2 adds site 00000001 to your registered site numbers.
Again, we validate the site numbers before adding them.

------- Begin Example 2
./update
./site=00000001
------- End   Example 2

====================== Tracking New Problems =======================
Before tracking problems it is important to understand what types of
information Technical Support needs and how to send each type. There are
two types of information: text and data.

Text is a description of the problem or question. That is, text is
the information that will be uploaded to the Technical Support tracking
system. The tracking system is the system that the Technical Support
Division uses to keep descriptive information on each call received.  A
consultant will view the information you send in the form of pages that
are 10 lines by 80 columns. You are limited to two pages of text per mail
message. Refer to SAS Technical Report U-117, SAS Software Consultant's
Guide for the SAS System, to see what kinds of information you should
include when tracking a problem.

Data in this context are any supporting information for your problem
description. This could be a log, output, uuencoded data, and so on
(uuencoding allows you to transform a binary file into a printable,
mailable file.  Most UNIX and VAX platforms have the uuencode utility).
Basically, 'data' can be any 'mailable' information. The data you send
are not entered into the tracking system but are stored in a file that a
Technical Support Consultant can access. If you send data with your
problem description, the consultant working with your problem or question
will automatically be notified that you have provided data. Some
examples include SAS source code and raw data files.

EMITS will respond with a tracking number via E-mail.

The syntax for tracking a new problem is simple. You should include
the following information at the beginning of your mail. Items
that you fill in are in brackets (< >). A description follows each item.

  ./tn=new
    - This lets us know that you want to track a 'new' problem.

  ./phone=<your phone number>
    - You need to provide your phone number. Although you provide
      a phone number at registration, we want to ensure that
      the telephone number that we have is current.

  ./site=<site number>
    - You need a valid site number. You must be registered for the
      site number that you provide. If you omit ./site=, the first
      site number that you registered for will be used. Specifying
      ./site= only makes sense if you are registered for multiple
      site numbers. Specifying ./site= is not required.

  ./area=<area of your question>
    - You must let us know what your question is about. Please
      limit your area to nineteen characters. Everything beyond
      nineteen characters will be ignored. Area is used to route the
      question to the appropriate Technical Support Consultant. Here are
      some examples of valid areas and how they would be interpreted
      at SAS Institute:

      FSP         - question regarding SAS/FSP software
      INSTALL/MVS - question regarding installation of the SAS System
                    on the MVS operating system
      AF          - question regarding SAS/AF software
      CONNECT     - question regarding SAS/CONNECT software
      JMP         - question regarding JMP software
      PROC CATMOD - question regarding PROC CATMOD
      GRAPH/DEVICE- question regarding a graphics device
      DATA/SYSTEM - question regarding the DATA step
      SASC        - question regarding the SAS/C Compiler
      SASC/AMIGA  - question regarding the SAS/C Compiler for the
                    Amiga/DOS operating system

         Please see SAS Technical Report U-117 for a complete list of areas.

  ./release=<release of your SAS Institute Product>
    - You must specify your product release

  ./os=<Operating System/Platform name>
    - We need the operating system and platform your product is running
      on. Here are some examples:

      UNIX: Sun4, Sun3, HP300, HP800, HP700, Mips, Apollo,
            DG-UX

      Mainframe: CMS, MVS, MVS/XA

      Mini: VMS, AOS, PRIMOS

      PC: PC DOS, OS/2, Windows

      It is important to convey the platform that you are running on.
      Once we know what platform you are running on, we can infer the
      operating system (for example, use 'Sun4' instead of 'Sun-OS'
      since Sun-OS is the operating system used on both the Sun3
      and Sun4). Your response is limited to seven characters.

  ./text
    - Information following a ./text line will be uploaded to the
      tracking system. The purpose of this information is to describe
      your problem to Technical Support. You are limited to 20 lines by
      80 columns. This section is required.

  ./data
    - Everything following a ./data line will be stored in a data file.
      that Technical Support can access.  This is useful if you want to
      provide source code or other data that has many lines or exceeds
      80 columns. You can use multiple ./data lines and a separate file will
      be created for each ./data command that you use. Sending data is
      optional.

Here is an example of a problem with all of the information Technical
Support needs:

------- Begin Example
./tn=new
./phone=(919)677-8008 (x7560)
./site=1234567890
./area=install/unix
./release=6.07
./os=HP700
./text
I am having problems installing SAS on my HP 720. The installation
worked fine, but when I run the SAS System I get the following error:

  ERROR: SAS license has expired

I received information from SAS Institute with information that
should extend my license but when I run the SAS System with the
-SETINIT option, I get errors in my log. I have sent along my SETINIT
log.

./data

<you could include the entire text of the file SETINIT.LOG here>

------- End Example

There are some important things to note about the above message:

  - The control records (./) begin in column 1
  - The six control records appear at the top of the mail message
  - The area (install/unix) was fewer than 19 characters
  - The text of the problem did not exceed 80 columns
  - The text of the problem was less than 20 lines
  - The ./data command was used to separate the SETINIT.LOG file

======== Sending Information Related to Existing Problems ==========
You can send text or data, or both, for existing problems by specifying
a tracking number after ./tn=. You can only specify tracking numbers
that correspond to outstanding problems. That is, you cannot send
information for a tracking number that has been resolved. You will be
notified by E-mail if a problem you reference has been resolved.  The
only commands needed for updating existing tracking numbers are:

  ./tn=<tracking number>
  ./text
  <text you want to add to the problem description>

You can send information for any outstanding problem regardless of
how the tracking number was initiated. For example, you can send
source code for a tracking number that was initiated by calling
Technical Support.

Here is an example:

------- Begin Example
./tn=123456
./text
Here's more information regarding the problem we talked about earlier:

The SAS files are mounted Read-Only from a file server. Please send
your response via E-mail since I will be in and out of the office
the rest of the day.
------- End Example

The information will be added to tracking number 123456 if tracking
number 123456 has not been resolved.

============= How and When Technical Support Responds ==============
Technical Support will normally respond via E-mail within the next
business day. Technical Support may, however, respond with a phone
call if the consultant needs more information or you indicate in your
problem description that you prefer a phone call instead of an E-mail
response.  You can also call Technical Support regarding a tracking
number that was initiated using EMITS. Remember that it may take up to
two hours for your tracking number to be uploaded to the tracking
system that Technical Support uses.

======================= Quick Reference ============================
Here is a summary of each type of correspondence and the information
required for each. First, some important rules are:

Rule 1: control lines should appear first
Rule 2: control lines must begin in column 1
Rule 3: each mail message can contain only one type of request (or
        command)
Rule 4: the subject must contain the text "EMITS"

Registration:
  ./register=<your name>
  ./site=<your site number>
  ./company=<your company name>
  ./phone=<your phone number>


Obtaining Help:
  ./help


Getting Your Account Information:
  ./account


Updating Registration Information:
  ./update
  ./phone=<your phone number>
  ./site=<new site number>

  Note: only one of ./phone or ./site is required.


Tracking a new problem:
  ./tn=new
  ./phone=<your phone number>
  ./site=<your site number>
  ./area=<area of your question>
  ./release=<release of your SAS Institute Product>
  ./os=<Operating System/Platform Name>
  ./text
  <text of your problem>
  ./data
  <information related to text of your problem>

  Note: ./site is optional; the first site number you registered for
              will be used if you are registered for multiple sites

  Note: ./data is optional and you can have more than one


Sending Information Related to Existing Problems:
  ./tn=<tracking number>
  ./text
  <text to add to your problem>
  ./data
  <information related to text of your problem>

  Note: ./data is optional and you can have more than one


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--
     J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067
	 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110
     phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet  (314) 362-3617 [362-2694(FAX)]
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU