Use Holding Files Only for Development

The Director Toolkit lets you keep files in the input directory after they are processed. Held files are renamed after they are processed with the extension .hld. eFORMz provides this feature to help development and testing of eFORMz projects. You should generally not keep these files in the input directory on your production system for the following reasons:

• Held files take a great deal of space as the number of held files grow.
• Held files increase processing time as the Director searches for the next file to process.
• Java on iSeries loads the entire input queue when looking for a file, which needlessly consumes large amounts of system resources.

To avoid these problems on your production system, use one of the following methods instead. The configuration steps are explained in Director Setup for Windows:

• Archive the files. Use the Director to move processed files to a local or remote archive location. You can configure the Director to archive files at regular intervals or by other criteria.
• Delete processed files. If your ERP, shipping, or other software supports reprinting forms or labels, you can simply reprint from there. You can find details on handling processed files at Using the File Age Selector.