VB Application sending commands to AS400 client

[mot98]

Hi All,

I have a VB application that connects to the IBM I-Series client and
sends some keystrokes.


I am connecting using PCOMM with the following code:

Dim autECLSession As AutConnList 
Dim autECLPS As AutPS 
varSerial = frmMain.txtSerial1 
Set autECLConnList = CreateObject("pcomm.autECLConnlist") 
Set autECLPS = CreateObject("pcomm.autECLPS") 


autECLConnList.Refresh 


'Connecting to Session A 


autECLPS.SetConnectionByName ("A") 


autECLPS.SendKeys "[FLDEXT]" 
autECLPS.SendKeys "1" & "[ENTER]" 
autECLPS.SendKeys "1" & "[ENTER]" 
autECLPS.SendKeys "STK" & "[ENTER]" 
autECLPS.SendKeys varSerial & "[ENTER]"

This works fine....however, I need to put some error checking in place
to ensure that the Emulator window is not in an error state, and is
ready to accept data.


Is there a way to check to see if there is an error on the screen??




mot98

"Is it friday yet?"

 

[Scoty]

Mot
error trap for Err().Number -2147352567 if there is an error in the OIA then this error will throw.

autECLPS.SendKeys "[reset]" will remove the error.

For more information check my post at

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=540241

this has my fully developed HACL mod

HTH

Scoty

Learn from others' mistakes. You could not live long enough to make them all yourself
-- Hyman George Rickover (1900-86)

 

[silentblue]

Back in to 2002 i devloped a system that used 'WinHllApi32.dll' (Google it) the standard at the time for screen scraping an terminal screen application at the company i was working for, also ment my application would work on other terminal applications not just IBM's Pcomm. Not sure if HACL is new or just IBM's? But just thought i would give another way that it can be done.

Regards,
Darren

 

[Keetacom]

An unreliable way is to use: (it many times doesn't wait properly)

  If autECLPS.Ready Then autECLPS.SendKeys "[FLDEXT]"

If the server will be updating the cursor position as well, you may want to use:

  autECLPS.WaitForCursor (row,column,max wait time in ms)

A more reliable way to verify it is available is to connect to the OIA (as well as WaitForCursor). Add:

  Dim autECLOIA as autOIA

  Set autECLOIA = CreateObject("pcomm.autECLOIA")

After each "SendKey" that involves waiting for the server to respond, add:

  autECLOIA.WaitForAppAvailable

After each other "SendKey" that involves waiting for the local session to complete writing to the screen, add:

  autECLOIA.WaitForInputReady

 

[GhostWolf]

An odd question/suggestion: does your application actually enter OS/400 commands, or is it screen-scraping for data entry/retrieval? If the latter is the case, I'd like to suggest ODBC.

Once upon a time, I was involved in creating a VB EHLLAPI app that scraped screens on a local '400 and a remote mainframe. Each update process the user ran took almost five minutes to complete because of the Waits we had to put in place, (the older '400 model - an old B1-something - probably had something to do with the delay, too). The user had time to hit the <Enter> key, then "prepare" the next transaction.

I recently converted the application to ODBC, (iSeries Access), for the AS/400 portion of the updates - and cut the processing time to 30 seconds per transaction, (including the operator's data entry time)! Now the users complain that they have to prepare a stack of cards before they begin processing.

Just an idea, that I hope can help.