Novell exteNd Composer 5250 User Manual
Novell exteNd Composer
5250 Connect
™
5.0
www.novell.com
USER’S GUIDE
Legal Notices
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 SilverStream Software, LLC. All rights reserved.
Title to the Software and its docum entatio n, and pa tent s, copy rights and a ll other prop erty rig hts applicable theret o,
shall at all times remain solely and exclusiv ely with Silve rStrea m and its licensors, a nd you shall n ot take any actio n
inconsistent with such title. The Software is protected b y co py right l aws an d i nte rnat ion a l trea ty pro visi ons . You
shall not remove an y copyri ght no tices or oth er prop rietar y notices from the Sof tware or its docum entati on, and y ou
must reproduce such notices on all copies or extracts of the Software or its documentation. You do not acquire any
rights of owne r ship in the Software.
Novell, Inc.
1800 South Novell Place
Provo, UT 85606
www.novell.com
exteNd Composer 5250 Connect User’s Guide
January 2004
Online Documentation: To access the online documentation for this an d o ther Novell products , and to
get updates, see www.novell.com/documentation.
Novell Trademarks
eDirectory is a trademark of Novell, Inc.
exteNd is a trademark of Novell, Inc.
exteNd Composer is a trademark of Novell, Inc.
exteNd Director is a trademark of Novell, Inc.
jBroker is a trademark of No vell, Inc.
NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc.
Novell is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc.
SilverStream Trademarks
SilverStream is a registered trademark of SilverStream Software, LLC.
Third-Party Trademarks
All third-party trademark s ar e the p rop e rty of the ir respective owners.
Third-Party Software Legal Notic es
Jakarta-Regexp Copyright ©1999 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved. Xalan Copyright ©1999
The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved. Xerces Copyright ©1999-2000 The Apache Software
Foundation. All rights reserved. Jakarta-Regexp , Xalan and Xerces software is licensed by The Apache Software
Foundation a nd r e distribution and use of Ja ka rt a -R e ge xp , Xalan and Xe r ces in source and b ina r y f orm s , with or
without modification, are permit ted provided that the following condit ions are met: 1. Redistributions of sour ce code
must retain the above copy righ t n otic es, this list of conditions and the fo llowi ng di sclaim e r. 2. Redistributions in
binary form must reprod uce th e ab ov e cop yrigh t n otice , t his l ist o f c on dit ions a nd th e foll owin g disc laim e r in the
documentation a nd /o r other materials pr o v ide d w ith the distribution. 3. The end-user do c um e nta tio n inc lu de d w ith
the redistribution, if any, must include the following acknowledgment: "This product includes software developed
by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/)." Alternately, this acknowledgment may appear in the
software itself, if and wherever such third-party acknowledgments normally appear. 4. The names "The Jakarta
Project", "Jakarta-Regexp", "Xerces", "Xalan" and "Apache Software Foundation" must not be used to endorse or
promote products derived from this software without prior writte n permission. For written permission, please contact
apache@apache.org. 5. Products derived from this software may not be called "Apache" nor may "Apache" appear
in their name, without prior writt en p ermissio n of The Apache Software Foundation. THIS SOFTWARE IS
PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNE SS FOR A P AR TICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE APACHE SOFTWA RE FOUNDATION OR ITS
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
GOODS OR SER VICES ; LOS S OF USE, DAT A, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTER RUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILIT Y, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY , OR
TOR T (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY W AY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Copyright ©1996-2000 Autonomy, Inc.
Copyright ©2000 B rett McLaughlin & Jason Hunter . A ll rights reserve d. Redistribu tion and use in sou rce and binary
forms, with or without modifica tion, are permit ted provided tha t the following conditions are m et: 1. Redistribution s
of source code must re tain the above copyright no tic e, th is list of conditions, and th e following disclaimer. 2.
Redistributions in binary form mu st repro duce the above cop yright n otice, th is list of con ditions, a nd t he discla imer
that follows these conditions in the do cumentation and/o r other materials provided with the distribution. 3. Th e name
"JDOM" must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without prior written
permission. For written permission, plea se con tact lice nse@jdo m.o r g . 4 . P rod ucts d e rived fro m this software m ay
not be called "JDOM", nor may "JDOM" a ppe ar in their name, without prior writte n perm issio n from th e JDOM
Project Management (pm@jdom.org). THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANT ABILIT Y AND F ITNESS F OR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DIS CLAIMED. IN NO EVENT
SHALL THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DIRECT, INDIRECT , INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS
OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
This Software is der ived in part from the SSLav a™ Toolkit, which is Copyright ©19 96-19 98 by Phao s Technology
Corporation. All Rights Reserve d. Custo m er is pr ohibited from accessing the functio nality o f th e Ph aos software.
The code of this project is released under a BSD-like license [license.txt]: Copyright 2000-2002 (C) Intalio In c. Al l
Rights Reserve d. Redistribu tion and use of this soft ware and ass ociated docum entation ("Sof tware"), with or without
modification, are pe rm itted p r ovide d th at th e follo win g c ond itio ns are met: 1. Redistribution s of sou rce c o de m ust
retain copyright statements and notices. Redistributions must also contain a copy of this document. 2. Redistributions
in binary form must reprod uce the abov e copyright n otice, this li st of conditio ns, and the foll owing disclai mer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. The name "ExoLab" must not be used to
endorse or promote products derived from this Software without pr ior writt en permission of Int alio Inc. F or written
permission, please contact info@exolab.org. 4. Products derived from this Software may not be called "Castor" nor
may "Castor" appe ar in their names without prior wri tten p e rm ission o f Intalio Inc. Exolab, Castor, and Intalio are
trademarks of Intalio Inc. 5. Due credit should be given to the ExoLab Project (http://www.exolab.org/). THIS
SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY INTALIO AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRE SSED OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANT ABILIT Y AND F ITNES S FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE DIS CLAIME D. IN NO EVE NT
SHALL INTALIO OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIREC T, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLAR Y, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUP TION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
CONTRACT , STRICT LIABIL ITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
Contents
About This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
1111 Welcome to exteNd Composer and 5250 User Interface 11
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1
About exteNd Composer Connects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
What is the 5250 (TDS) Connect? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
About exteNd Composer’s 5250 Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
What Applications Can You Build Using the 5250 User Interface Component Editor?. . . . . . . .16
2222 Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor 17
The Sample Transactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Creating a 5250 Connection Resource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Creating a Style Sheet Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
XML Templates for Your Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
3333 Creating a 5250 Component 27
Before Creating a 5250 Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 7
About the 5250 Component Editor Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
About 5250-Specific Menu Bar Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
4444 Performing 5250 Actions 41
About Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
About 5250-Specific Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Recording a 5250 Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Executing your 5250 Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Using the Animation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
Component with Connection Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Using Style Sheets in the Native Environment Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Using Other Actions in the 5250 Component Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Handling Errors and Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
5555 Logon Components,Connections and Conne ction Pools 71
About 5250 Terminal Session Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Connection Pool Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
How Do I Implement Pooling?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
About the 5250 Logon Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
About the 5250 Logon Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
Creating a Connection Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Creating a Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Creating a Logon Component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
Creating a Logon Connection Using a Pool Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Creating a Logon Connection using a Session Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Creating a 5250 Terminal Component That Uses Pooled Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
Errors Involving Logon Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Managing Pools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
5555
Connection Pool Management and Deployed Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6666 Advanced Features 107
The 5250 Multi Row Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Handling System Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
AAAA Java Code Pages 133
About Encodings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
BBBB 5250 Glossary 135
CCCC Testing 137
Environmental Differences between Animation Testing and Deployment Testing . . . . . . . . . 137
DDDD Reserved Words 139
6666
5250 Connect User’s Guide
About This Guide
Purpose
The guide describes how to us e exteNd Composer 5250 Connect , referred to as the
5250 Component Editor. The 5250 Component Editor is a separately-installed
component editor in exteNd Composer.
Audience
The audience for the guide is developers and system integrato rs us ing ex teNd
Composer to create services and componen ts wh ich integr ate 52 50 ap plications .
Prerequisites
The guide assumes the reader is familiar with and has used exteNd Composer’s
development environment an d d e ploy ment o pti ons . You must also have an
understanding of th e 525 0 en vi ro nmen t.
Additional documentation
For the complete set of Novell exteNd Composer documentation, see the Novell
Documentation Web Site (http://www.novell.com/documentation-
index/index.jsp).
Organization
The guide is organized as follo ws:
Chapter 1, Welcome t o exteNd C ompo ser a nd 5250, gives a definition and
overview of the 5250 Comp onen t Edi t or.
Chapter 2, Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor, describes the
necessary preparations for creating a 5 250 com pon ent.
7777
Chapter 3, Creating a 5250 Compon ent , describes the parts of the component
editor.
Chapter 4, Performing 5250 Actions, describes how to us e the ba sic 5250 actions,
as well as the 5250 Multi Row Wizard.
Chapter 5, Logon Components, Connections and Connection Pools, describes
how to create logon components, connectio ns and conn ection p ools .
Chapter 6, Advanced Features, describes dealing with multi-row and multi-screen
data, and gives some tips on handling systems messages.
Appendix A,Java Code Pages, p rov ides refer ence inf ormatio n on char acter
encoding conversions.
Appendix B, is a gloss a ry.
Appendix C, Testing, describes environmental differences between animation
testing and depl oy ment t es t i ng.
Appendix D, Reserved Words, is a section of tho se words us ed only for the 5 250
Connect.
Conventions Used in the Guide
The guide uses the following typographical con ventions.
Bold typeface within instructions indicate action items, including:
Menu selections
Form selections
Dialog box items
Sans-serif bold typeface is used for:
Uniform Resource Identifiers
File names
Directories and partial pathnames
Italic typeface indicates:
Variable information that you supply
Technical terms used for the first time
Title of other Novell publications
Monospaced typeface indicates:
Method names
Code examples
8888 5250 Connect User’s Guide
System input
Operating system objects
9999
10
10 5250 Connect User’s Guide
1010
1
Welcome to exteNd Composer and
5250 User Interface Chapter 1
Before You Begin
Welcome to the 5250 Connect Guide. This Guide is a companion to the exteNd
Composer User’s Guide, which details how to use all the features of Compos er,
except the Connect Component Editors. If yo u h aven’t looked at the Composer
User's Guide yet, please familiarize yourself with it before using this Guide.
exteNd Composer provides separate Componen t Editor s for each C onn ect, like
5250. The special features of each comp onen t editor are d escrib ed in sep arate
Guides like this one.
If you have been using exteNd Compos er, and are familiar with the core
component editor, the XML Map Component Editor , then this Guide should get
you started with the 5250 Component Editor.
Before you can begin work i ng wi th the 5250 Connect you mus t have installed it
into your existing exte Nd C omp os er. Likewise, before you can run any Servi ces
built with this Connect in the exteNd Composer Enterprise Server environment,
you must have already installed the server-side software for this Connect into
Composer Enterprise Se rver.
NOTE: T o be succes sful with this Component Editor , you mu st be familiar with the
IBM 5250 environmen t an d the applications th at y ou wan t to XML-enable.
Welcome to exteNd Composer and 5250 User Interface
11
About exteNd Composer Connects
exteNd Composer is built upon a simple hub and spoke architecture (Fig.1-1). The
hub is a robust XML transformation engine that accepts req uests v ia XML
documents, performs transformation pro cesses on those documents and interfaces
with XML-enabled applications, and returns an XML r espons e do cumen t. Th e
spokes, or Connects, are plug-in modules that "XML- enable" sources of data that
are not XML-aware, bringing their data into the hub for pro cessi ng as XML.
These data sources can be anything fr om legacy COBOL/applications to Mess age
Queues to HTML pages.
12
Figure 1-1
5250 Connect User’s Guide
exteNd Composer Connects can be categorized by the integration str ategy each
one employs to XML-enable an information source. The integration strategies are
a reflection of the major divisions used in mod e rn systems des ign s f or I nternet-
based computing archit ectures . D ep endi ng on yo ur B2B needs and the
architecture of your legacy applications, exteNd Compo ser can integ rate yo ur
business systems at the User Interface, Program Logic, or Data levels.
Figure 1-2
Welcome to exteNd Composer and 5250 User Interface
13
What is the 5250 (TDS) Conn ect?
The 5250 Connect XML-enables IBM AS/400-legacy system d ata using the User
Interface integration strategy by hooking into the Terminal Data Stream (TDS).
The term 5250 is commonl y us ed t o refer t o the generic "dumb terminal" types
used to connect to IBM AS/400 mid-range systems. When connecting to an IBM
AS/400, the 5250 TDS uses IB M’s EBCDIC character-encoding scheme. The
5250 TDS, which was d evel op ed i n t he 1 960 s, emerged as that generat ion’s
standard, and persists today. The 5250 TDS allows users to interact with legacy
applications through th e use of attention k eys (e.g., Enter and Fu nction Keys) th at
are interpreted by the application running on the host to perform the appropriate
actions. This interaction, through a dumb terminal, means that all the data is
processed information from the AS/400 computer. The 5250 terminal emulation
software can be used to make a m icrocomputer or PC act as if it were a 52 50-type
terminal while it is communicating with an AS/400.
Using the 5250 Connect , you can make legacy applications running on an IBM
AS/400 and their business logic available to the internet, extranet, or intranet
processes. The 5250 Co nnect Component Editor al lows you to build W eb S ervices
by simply navigating through an application as if y ou were at a terminal session.
You will use XML request documents to drive the inquiries and updates into the
screens rather than keying, use the mes sages returned from applications screens to
make the same decisions as if you were at a termin al, and mov e the d ata and
responses into XML documents that can be r eturned to th e req uestor o r con t inue
to be processed. The 5250 screens app ear in th e Native En viron ment p ane o f the
5250 Component Editor.
14
5250 Screens appear in the Native Environment pane
5250 Connect User’s Guide
About exteNd Composer’s 5250 Component
Much like the XML Map component, the 5250 comp onen t is desig ned to map,
transform, and transfer data between two different XML templates (i.e., request
and response XML documents). However, it is specialized to make a TN5250
connection to an AS/400 application, process the data us ing elements fro m a
DOM to a terminal session, and then map the results of the terminal session to an
output DOM. Y o u can then act upon the output DOM in any way that makes sen se
for your integration application. In es sen ce, yo u’re able to capture data from, or
push data to, a legacy system without ever having to alter the legacy system itself.
A 5250 component can perform simp le data mani pulati ons, such as mapping a nd
transferring data from an XML document into an AS/400 transaction, or perform
“screen scraping” of a 5250 transaction, putting the harvested data into an XML
document. It can also per form so phi s ti cate d operat i ons , such as mapp i ng and
manipulating screens that contain repeating rows and screens where more than
one screen of data is required to satisfy the requ est. These are termed multi-row
and multi-screen transactions within exteNd Composer . The 525 0 component has
all the functionality of the XML Map component and can process XSL, send mail,
and post and receive XML documents usin g the HTTP pro to col.
The following illustration shows how a 5250 component uses a TN5250
connection to interact with data on AS/400.
Figure 1-3
Welcome to exteNd Composer and 5250 User Interface
15
What Applications Can You Build Using the 5250 User Interface Component Editor?
exteNd Composer, and consequently the 5250 Connect, can be applied to the the
following types of applications:
1 Business to Business Web Service interactions such as supply chain
applications.
2 Consumer to Business interactions such as self-service applications from
Web Browsers.
3 Enterprise Application Integrations where information from heterogeneous
systems is combined or chained together.
Fundamentally, the 5250 Component Editor allows you to extend any XML
integration you are building to include any of your business applications that
support 5250-based terminal interactions (See the exteNd Composer User's
Guide for more information.)
For example, you may have an application that retrieves a product's description,
picture, price, and inventory from regular ly updated databases and disp lays it in a
Web browser. By using the 5250 Component Editor , y ou can now get the current
product information from the operational systems and the static information (e.g.,
a picture) from a database and merge the information from these separate
information sources before di splayi ng it to a us er. This provides the same current
information to both your internal and external users.
16
5250 Connect User’s Guide
2
Getting Started with the 5250
Component Editor Chapter 2
The Sample Transactions
For demonstration purposes, three tr ansactions are used throughout this d ocument
in the samples presented: P AR T , GORD, an d MENU. These transactions represent
typical transactions used by operators. The P AR T transaction represents a s cenario
in which an operator uses a SKU number to d rive an inq uiry to a d atabas e. The
GORD transaction represents a scenario in which an order for an item or several
items is placed. The MENU transaction represents a scenario in which an oper ator
navigates through a menu-driven application to get to a particular screen. The
PART, GORD, and MENU transactions are used to show you how t o bui ld
Composer services that do the same things as the real life scenarios.
Steps Commonly Used to Create a 5250 Component
While there are many ways to go about creating 525 0 co mpo nents, the most
commonly used steps in creating a sim ple compon ent are as follows:
1 Create XML Templates for transaction.
2 Create a Connection Resource.
3 Create a component.
4 Enter Record mode and navigate through the transaction using terminal
emulation available via the component editor’s Native Environment Pan e.
5 Drag and drop input document data into screen.
6 Process the transaction from the keyboard action.
7 Drag and drop screen results into output document.
8 Stop recording.
Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor
17
Creating a 5250 Connection Resource
Once you have the XML templates in place, your next step will be to create a
Connection Resource to access the AS/400 transaction. I f you try to create a 5250
Component in the absence of any available Connection Resources, a dialog will
appear, asking if yo u wish to create a Connection Res ource. By answering Yes to
this dialog, you will be taken to the appropriate wizard.
About Connection Resources
When you create a Connection Resource for the 5250 Component, you will have
two choices: a basic “TN5250 Connection” and a “5 250 Logo n Connecti on”. The
Logon Connection is us ed for connection pooling , whi ch wi ll b e explained in
greater detail in Chapter 5 of this Guide. For normal connections, you will use the
TN5250 Connection when you want to connect to any IBM AS/400 environment.
¾¾¾¾ T o cr ea te a 525 0 C o nnec tion Resource:
1 From the Composer File menu, select New > xObject, then open the
Resource tab and select Connection.
NOTE: Alternatively , und er Resource in the Composer window category
pane you can h igh lig ht Connection, click the right mous e bu tton , then select
New.
The Create a New Connection Resource Wizard appears.
18
2 Type a Name for the connection object.
3 Optionally, type Description text.
5250 Connect User’s Guide
4 Click Next. The second page of the wizard appears.
5 Select the TN5250 Connection type from the pull-down menu. The dialog
changes appearance to show just the fields necessary for creating the 5250
connection.
6 In the Host or IP Address field, enter the physical address or alias for the
machine to which you are connecting. Your system administrator will
provide you with this information, which is defined in a separate host file.
7 In the Telnet Port field, enter the number of the port. The default port
number is 23.
8 In the Code Page field, specify a code page from the drop down list box
(See “About Code Page Support” on page -22).
9 The Screen wait ( seconds) field, di splays the am ount of time in seconds that
a 5250 T er minal component will wait for the arrival of the next screen in the
Map Screen Action pane.
10 Enter a UserID and Password. Th ese are no t actuall y sub mitted to the host
during the establishment of a connection. They are simply defined here (the
password is encrypted). Right-mouse-click and choose Expression if you
want to make these fields expression-driven.
NOTE: After you’ve entered UserID and Password info in this dialog, the
ECMAScript global variables USERID and PASSWORD will point to these
values. You can then use these variables in expressions (or as described in
“5250 Specific Expression Builder Extensions” in Chapter 4.
Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor
19
11 The Terminal Type field lists the various types of terminals supported by
5250 components, including different screen sizes (i.e. 24x80 and 27x32).
Select from the drop down list box the type of terminal you are using.
12 In the DBSC Support field, select from the drop down list box your choice
of your Default, Double Encoding or SO/SI Using Ox1F.
13 In the DBCS Code Page field, select from the drop down list box the
appropriate code page.
14 Click the checkbox to enable Version 2.7 Compatability
15 Click in the Default checkbox if you’d like this particular 5250 connection
to become the default connection for subsequent 5250 components.
16 Click on the Advanced button for creating a Screen Handler, see Chapter 6,
“Handling System Messages ” for more detailed information.
17 Click Finish. The newly created resource connection object appears in the
Composer Connection Resource detail pane.
20
Newly created
resource
5250 Connect User’s Guide
About Constant and Expression Driven Connections
Y ou can s pecify Connection parameter values in on e of two ways: as Constants or
as Expressions. A consta nt-based parameter uses the static value you supply in the
Connection dialog every time the Connection is used. An expression-based
parameter allows you to set the value using a programmatic expression (that is, an
ECMAScript expression) , whi ch can result in a different va lue each time the
connection is used at runtime. This allows the Co nnection’s behavi or to be flexible
and vary based on runtime conditions.
For instance, one very simple use of an expression driven parameter in a TN5250
Connection would be to define the User ID and Password as PROJECT Variables
(e.g. PROJECT.XPATH(“USERCONFIG/MyDeployUser”). This way when you
deploy the project, you can up dat e t he PR OJEC T Variables in the Deplo ymen t
Wizard to val ues ap pro pri ate fo r t he fi nal d epl oy ment en viron ment . At th e ot her
extreme, you could have a custom script that queries a Java business object in the
Application Server to determine what User ID and Password to u se.
¾¾¾¾ T o s witch a parameter from Constant driven to Expression driv en:
1 Click the right mouse button in the parameter field you are interested in
changing.
2 Select Expression from the context menu and the editor button will appear
or become enabled.
3 Click on the Expression Editor button. The Expression Editor appears.
Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor
21
4 Create an expression (optionally using the pick lists in the upper portion of
the window) that evaluates to a valid parameter value at runtime.
5 Click OK.
About Code Page Support
Code Page support i n ext eN d Com pos er Connection Resources all ow s y ou to
specify which Character Encoding scheme to use when translating characters sent
between exteNd Compos er and other host systems. exte Nd C omp os er dat a uses
Unicode character encoding (the Java and XML stand a rd). Exis ting legacy an d
other host systems use a variety of character encoding sche mes (i.e., Code Pages)
specific for their language or usage. A mechanism is needed to translate the
character encoding between these systems if they are to commu nicate with on e
another . This is handled in exteNd Comp oser by specifying the Code Page used by
a host system in the Connection Resource used to acces s that s ystem. For m ore
information on encoding, refer to “Java Co de P ages ” in Appendix A.
22
5250 Connect User’s Guide
Creating a Style Sheet Resource
An additional resource associated with the 5250 Connect is the st yle sheet
resource. This allows you to create a style sheet with which to display the
emulation screen in the native environment pane.
¾¾¾¾ To create a Style Sheet Resource:
1 Select File>New> xObject from the Composer menu, then open the
Resource tab and select Terminal Style Sheet.
NOTE: Alternatively, you may highlight Terminal Style Sheet in the
Resource section of Composer’s category pane, cli ck your right mous e
button, and select New.
The Create a New Terminal Style Sheet wizard appears.
2 Type a Name for the new style sheet. Optionally, you may type in
Description text.
Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor
23
3 Click the Next button. The Style Sheet Editor window appears.
4 Use the Style Sheet Editor as described below to configure your style sheet:
Style Sheet - Select a st yle sheet fr om this d rop down list to chang e the
appearance of the emulation screen in the native environment pane. This
field initially contains the name you specified on the first page of the
T er minal S t yle Sheet wizar d. To create a new style sheet, type a name
over one of the names in the list.
24
Set Default - Select this button to make the currently selected style sheet
the default for a component.
Form Map:
Cell Widt h/H eig ht - Modify these settings for drawing characters
that may be truncated by changing font types.
Background - Select this button to see back gro und colo r op tions
for the style sheet.
Field Style Map:
3270 S tyl e - This con t rol lists the styles av ailable fro m the TDS.
You cannot edit these values. Select the style you wish to map to a
new style you create.
GUI Style - This control lists available styles you create. T ype over
an existing style to create a new one, then specify its Font,
Foreground, and Background using t he co rres pon ding buttons.
5250 Connect User’s Guide
Border S tyle - Select one of three pre-defin ed bo rder s from this
drop down list. You cannot edit this control.
T r an sparent Background - Select this check box if you want the
GUI to have a transparent background.
5 Click OK. The newly created style sheet resource appears in Composer’s
detail pane.
New style sheet resource
XML Templates for Your Component
Although it is not strictly necessary to do so, your 5250 Component may require
you to create XML templates so that you have sample documents for designing
your component. (For more information, see Chapter 5, “Creating XML
Templates,” in the exteNd Composer User's Guide.)
In many cases, your input documents will be designed to contain data that a
terminal operator might type into the program interactively. Likewise, the output
documents are designed to receive data returned to the screen as a result of the
operator's input. For example, in a typical business scenario, a terminal operator
may receive a phone request from a customer interested in the price or
availability of an item. The operator would typically query the host system via
his or her 5250 terminal session by entering information (such as a part number)
Getting Started with the 5250 Component Editor
25
into a terminal when prompted. A short time later, the host responds by returning
data to the terminal screen, and the operator relays this information to the
customer . This s ession cou ld be carried out by an exteNd C omposer Web Service
that uses a 5250 Component . Th e requ est ed p a rt nu mber might be represented as
a data element in an XML input document. The looked-up data returned from the
host would appear in the component’s output document. That data might in turn
be output to a web page, or sent to another business process as XML, etc.
NOTE: Y ou r c om pon ent des ig n m ay c all for oth er x Object resources, such a s
custom scripts or C ode Table maps. If s o, i t i s a ls o b est to create these object s
before creating the 5 250 C om pon en t. Fo r m ore info rm atio n, see th e exteNd
Composer User's Guide.
26
5250 Connect User’s Guide
3
Creating a 5250 Component Chapter 3
Before Creating a 5250 Component
As with all exteNd Composer components, the first step in cre ating a 5 250
component is to specify the XML templates needed. For more information, see
Creating a New XML Template in the Composer User’s Guide.
Once you’ve specified the XML templates, you can create a component, using th e
template’s sample d ocum e nts to rep res ent t he in put s and ou tp uts processed by
your component.
Also, as part of the process of creating a 5250 compon ent, you must select a 5250
connection or you can create a new one. See “Creating a 5 25 0 Conn ection
Resource” on page -18.
¾¾¾¾ T o c r eate a new 52 50 C omp onen t :
1 Select File>New > xObject then open the Component tab and select 5250
Terminal.
NOTE: Alternatively, under Component in the Composer window category
pane you can highlight 5250 Terminal, click the right mouse button, then
select New.
2 The “Create a New 5250 Component Wizard” appears.
Creating a 5250 Component
27
3 Enter a Name for the new 5250 Component.
4 Optionally, type Description text.
5 Click Next. The XML Input/Output Property Info panel of the New 5250
Component Wizard appears.
6 Specify the Input and Output templates as follows.
T y pe in a name for the template under Part if you wish the name to
appear in the DOM as something other than “Input”.
28
5250 Connect User’s Guide
Select a T em pla te Cat e gory if it is dif ferent than the default category.
Select a Template Name from the list of XML templates in the selected
Template Category.
T o add additional input XML templa tes, click Add and choose a
Template Category and Template Name for each.
T o remov e an in put XML template, s elect an en try an d click Delete.
7 Select an XML template for use as an Output DOM using the same steps
outlined above.
NOTE: You can specify an input or output XML template that contains no
structure by selecting {System}{ANY} as the Input or Output template. For
more information, see “Creating an Output DOM without Using a Template” in
the User’s Guide.
8 Click Next. The Temp/Fault XML Template Info panel appears.
9 If desired, specify a template to be used as a scratchpad under the “Temp
Message” pane of the dialog window. This can be useful if you need a place
to hold values that will only be used temporarily during the execution of
your component or are for reference only. Specify the templates as indicated
in Step 6 above.
10 Under the “Fault Message” pane, select an XML template to be used to pass
back to clients when an error condition occurs.
Creating a 5250 Component
29
As above, to add additional temp or fault XML templates, click Add and
choose a Template Category and Template Name for each. Repeat as many
times as desired. To remove an XML template, select an entry and click
Delete.
11 Click Next. The Connection Info panel of the Create a New 5250
Component Wizard appears.
12 Select a Connection name from the pull down list. For more information on
the 5250 Connection, see “Creating a 5250 Connection Resource” on page
-18.
13 Click Finish. The component is created and the 5250 Component Editor
appears.
30
5250 Connect User’s Guide
Loading...