Support

RapidGen aims to resolve most customer support requests within 24 hours.

Problems which cannot be resolved immediately are escalated to a member of the development team for expert attention.

Software Support

support@rapidgen.com
UK 01732 850081
International +44 1732 850081

General Inquiries

info@rapidgen.com
UK 020 7993 4240
International +44 20 7993 4240


Frequently Asked Questions

General Inquiries

Requesting an obligation-free quote is easy! Please use any of the available options at Contact RapidGen to describe your requirements. We will be happy to provide a copy of our current pricing list and provide a flexible and competitive quotation for your systems.
We will be happy to discuss pricing and provide a flexible and competitive quotation for your systems. Use any of the available options at Contact RapidGen to describe your requirements.
Sorry, we do not currently offer an online store.

Technical support is available on a 24/7/365 basis and we can normally resolve most queries within an e-mail or telephone exchange. If you have a current maintenance and support contract, there is no limit to use of this service.

We recommend using e-mail for most support queries as this allows detailed information, debug details and screen dumps to be supplied.

Please use support@rapidgen.com or +44(0)1732 850081 to contact our support team. Support calls can be escalated to allow remote diagnostics to be performed.

We can bring your support and maintenance agreement up-to-date and provide you with the latest software releases.

We will waive retrospective payments due if you sign a new agreement for a minimum of 2 years. Read further details here.

Use any of the available options at Contact RapidGen to request an evaluation kit for testing the software.

Our support team will assist with any installation and configuration issues.

The software is available on most operating systems and architectures, including: Windows, Linux, Unix, and OpenVMS.

For a full list please see Supported Systems.


Platform Support

OpenVMS modernisation

RapidGen Software can assist existing customers in modernising their OpenVMS installations.

From September 2023, a commercial, production version of OpenVMS on the x86-64 architecture (V9.2-1) is available from VMS Software Inc. (VSI). VSI’s rolling Product Roadmap is here and their YouTube channel with latest webinars here.

RapidGen has been testing its Genius software on VSI’s earlier x86 versions and is available to discuss with customers their pathways in porting to V9.2-1, or later versions when released.

Contact RapidGen to discuss your requirements.

Architecture & Features

RapidGen software is implemented in RPL (Rapid Programming Language), a fully-featured programming language. RPL represents decision tables precisely and is compiled into efficient machine code using a fast single-pass compiler. Compiled programs are stored for reuse and mapped directly into memory for execution under the control of a low-footprint, highly-portable runtime system.

The compiled code is very efficient and performs most conditions and actions inline, making calls into the runtime system only for more complex operations such as file system I/O and database access.

Decision table rules are stored in a machine register and manipulated using bitwise logic instructions for maximum efficiency.

While the format of decision tables in the RPL language differs from that described in the DMN standard, the logic of the tabular format of conditions or rules and actions, remains the same.

Decision Tables are structured yet very flexible. In theory it is possible to have a very large number of conditions and actions.

Very complex logic can be simply expressed; even disconnected conditions and actions can be handled simultaneously. The way the decision tables are named and the conditions and actions listed can help with documenting the process logic.

Commercial experience

The RapidGen Team brings decades of experience in business critical installations in a broad range of industry and organizational environments including aerospace, nuclear, telecoms and healthcare.


Software Licensing

Three standard classes of licence are available.

  • Genius Suite(GS)
  • Genius Client(GC)
  • Genius Runtime(GR)

Each customer is required to have at least one GS licence. GC & GR licences allow all customer developed applications to be deployed and run on other desktops or servers. GC licences in addition allow users to use the interactive reporting, query and BI tools.

On OpenVMS and Unix servers, licences can be restricted to a maximum number of concurrent users. All licences are matched to specific named machines and a matching number of CPUs. Special Disaster recovery licences are available which can be used on any machine with no restriction.

All licences that we issue have an expiration date as well as a start date. You can check the valid date range for your installed licence by selecting the “Help on/Licence” option from the main RSR menu. For short term or temporary licences a warning message will be displayed each time you run an application if your licence has less than 7 days to run.

Use the “Help on” Licence option from the main RSR menu program or other menu program. Check the date range displayed to determine the expiry date.

Yes, the warning message by default pops up each time the RapidGen runtime system is started 7 days before the licence will expire. It takes the form:

%RSR-W-LICEXPIMM, WARNING ! - licence #000002-00-0015 will expire on ccyymmdd

This would normally give you time to arrange a replacement or extension licence. If you are fed up with the reminder or it gets in the way of operational activity it can be switched off by setting an environment variable RSR_EXPIRY_WARNING to any number of days before the licence expires. On OpenVMS system the logical RSR$EXPIRY_WARNING is used. To switch the message off permanently (not advised) just set the value to 0 days.

Use any of the available options at Contact RapidGen to contact our support team and request a new or updated licence. Licence files are issued with installation kits or separately as e-mail attachments. Depending on your existing licence, there may be a charge for a new licence.

Each licence that we issue is intended and restricted to use on a single machine identified by its network address and processor type/number. If you change your machine hardware your existing licence will work on the new configuration if the network and processor configuration remains the same.

You can transfer a licence to an identically configured machine as long as you de-install & delete the installed software from the previous machine. Each new machine will require a new separate licence. Upgraded processors may also require new licences for which there may be a charge. Ask our support service for further details.

We normally provide licences for DR sites which operate on any machine, operating system, for any number of users and CPUs. This allows complete freedom when (hopefully never!) you suddenly find that you need to run your applications on a spare machine or at dedicated DR service bureau. These licences are issued on a quarterly basis and will operate for 100 days.

Contact our support team at Contact RapidGen and give us the details of the new hardware. Run the RSRCONF utility program to collect all the relevant hardware and environment details. We can usually issue a replacement licence immediately but if the upgrade takes your computer into a higher machine category there may be a charge for the upgrade.

If the network identification and processor configuration remains the same, you may transfer your existing installation or reinstall a new version from a release kit and install your existing licence. If the upgrade or change puts your computer in a different licensing bracket or involves a change to the network identification, you will require a new licence for which there may be a charge.


License Installation

Licence files are text files which contain a few simple configuration parameters and a validation checksum. Their contents are somewhat sensitive to format so be careful not to edit or change the content or format unless instructed to do so. The full installation procedure should be supplied with each issued licence but if not here are some guidelines.

On OpenVMS systems, login as SYSTEM, transfer the file to your machine in ASCII format, and copy the file to the RapidGen RSR$DEFAULT directory, SET DEF to there and then execute the DCL command procedure RSR$SYSTEM:GENIUS_LICENCE.COM. Follow the prompts, select the licence and confirm the selection.

On Windows systems, login as an administrator, transfer the file as a text document to a convenient folder, run the Licence Installer option from the RapidGen Start Menu group If you have no start menu set up, you should run the licence program which you will find in the RapidGen installed folder “C:\Program Files\RapidGen\Genius Solution\WNT\X86\licence.exe” or in the release kit. The program prompts you for the licence file which you should locate and then click the Open button to check and install the licence.

On Unix and Linux systems, refer to the operating system specific release notes.

Common problems that occur during the licensing procedure are:-
Cannot find the licence file.Make sure the file is named RGnnnnnn.LICENCE where nnnnnn is the licence number with leader zeroes. Check the file security attributes to make sure it can be opened and read.

The licence is not valid for your machine. Check the contents of the licence file which will look something like this.

Cross Chemicals Inc
        003009-00-0000-2001-19970212-20130831-WNT.KISOL-0000040080000724-NXSTVLZQ
        003009-00-0001-0001-19970212-20130831-WNT.KGMJJ-0000040080000724-XMMVJKMW
        003009-00-0002-2001-19970212-20130831-WNT.KGMKG-0000040080000724-XXQRJKQP
        003009-00-0003-2001-19970212-20130831-WNT.KISMP-0000040080000724-YHMTJPPS
        003009-00-0004-0001-19980717-20130831-WIN.LITRZ-0000040080000724-NNNMMQMP
        003009-00-0005-0004-20011201-20130831-VMS.0086.63.1022-000404008000077F-VYXJKRYL
        003009-00-0006-0016-20011201-20130831-VMS.0492.50.0003-000404008000077F-JHQLQNJS

The first line contains your user, company or site name and the remaining lines contain one entry for each licensed computer. Each line is made up of:

LicenceNumber-Group-Sequence-ProcessorCount-
        StartDate-EndDate-OS.NETID-FacilityMask-CheckSum

Make sure that that the entry for your computer matches the licensing requirements displayed by the RSRCONF utility.

The licence is not a valid licence file. Sometimes when transferring licence files from e-mail attachments the text file format will become corrupted. This normally happens with OpenVMS licences where the file has been transferred via FTP and the ASCII transfer mode has not been set. Check the RMS file Record Attributes of the licence file and make sure that they are set to “Carriage return carriage control”

Check the installation and release notes to make sure that you have not missed out an important pre-requisite for the licensing process. Make a note or preferably a screen dump/log dump of the problem that occurs or error messages and e-mail these to our support team at support@rapidgen.com.


Software Installation

Before installation, the following steps are recommended:

  • Check that sufficient disk space and virtual memory are available.
  • Decide where the Genius solution is to be installed. This need not be the root filesystem, and in many cases a different physical disk may be preferable. The main directory for the Genius solution will be identified by environment variable RSR_ROOT and will contain other directories as well as regular files. It must exist before installation starts; the other directories will be created automatically by the installation procedure if they do not already exist.
  • Perform a backup of this disk using tar, cpio or a similar utility.
  • Decide where the Genius solution commands are to be installed.

We recommend reading the installation guide supplied with the release kit before any installation. As with most Unix and Linux systems, installation procedures and packages vary depending on the version and variant of the operating system in use. The installation notes will provide full details.

We recommend reading the installation guide supplied with the release kit before any installation. You will need access to an SYSTEM account or an account with SETPRV privilege. Use the standard DCL command procedure SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL and follow the prompts and questions.

Insert the release CD or DVD media into your machine and follow the instructions and prompts given in the installation kit. If you have no media but have been issued with downloaded software, locate and run the SETUP.EXE program.