 |
 |
||||||||
|
 |
||||||||
|
|
 |
Across the Boards - Dialog Terminal Scripting
Dialog - More than Just Navigation
While navigation is a major focus of Dialog, the Dialog script is capable of much more. It can be used to extract data from host applications, interact with the PC user, make decisions, perform computations, read and write data to files, and a variety of other things.A script can be written to move through a sequence of host application screens, search for line items matching some criteria, extract data from the "interesting" screens and write it to a file. Many shops require a user to periodically change his password. An application's logon process needs to handle this event. A Dialog script could prompt the user for the new password, or, alternatively, could inform the user of the condition, wait for the user to manually change his password, and then resume the logon process.
Scripting for unattended operation
Many applications need more than simple automation; they require unattended operation. With Dialog, all required user responses can be scripted. Error conditions and retry logic can be built into the script. By making terminal management easy, Dialog makes it easier to write robust applications.
Often, applications access host data without the end user's knowledge. The end user neither knows, nor cares, that the data is stored on a mainframe. By completely automating the mainframe access process, the application reduces training and deployments costs, and increases ease of use.
XAPI and APPX
While Dialog can do much with a terminal, it's not the right tool for every job. Many Across the Boards applications use Dialog in conjunction with XAPI or APPX.
Complex application logic or very intensive updating of terminal screens may call for some portions of the application to use XAPI directly. Even when it is better to use XAPI to perform multiple updates of a complex mainframe screen, Dialog should still be used for navigation between screens and for the signon/signoff process.
When developing client/server applications with APPX, applications that use a terminal session to connect to the host still need to signon to the host to run the server application. Again, Dialog is the right tool for the job.
Ease of use during application development
Applications that use XAPI and/or APPX typically use Dialog to handle terminal scripting and management chores. Even if the end user never sees a terminal display, Dialog can greatly simplify host access for your application. Applications can switch between Dialog scripts and XAPI or APPX programming with ease, whenever a script makes life easier.
| << Previous Page | Next Page >> |
Home | About Us |
Products | Tech Support
| Contact Us