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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Work Management and Messaging
Created by Guest
Created on Oct 2, 2018

RELATED IDEAS

Provide public API in JTOpen to clear a user's "Message Waiting" status

In 5250, there is a concept of a “message light/waiting” that is on/off to show whether a user has received a new message when the *NOTIFY message option is set on their user profile. If the user is logged in to a 5250 session, and they get a new message, the 1st 5250 session gets sent an update to say the message light/waiting status has changed, which we can then respond to and show a notification.

The issue is that there is no way, that I can find, to programmatically clear the message light/waiting status, either via a 5250 response or via a JT400/JTOpen API. The only way I have found is to run the WRKMSG command in the 1st session (running WRKMSG in a 2nd or 3rd session for same user does not clear the message light, and this is the same on IBMs 5250 emulator) but as we are providing an alternative UI to WRKMSG, this makes this UI function redundant if they have to go to that command anyway.

Support confirmed there was no public API to do this, so our enhancement request is for a way to programmatically clear the message light/waiting status using either a 5250 response or a JTOpen API call?

Our product supports IBM i OS v7r1, v7r2 and v7r3 so ideally the enhancement would work on all these releases.


Use Case:

We use JTOpen to display a list of the user's messages in a browser-based GUI. They can then view, and delete, these messages, but viewing the message does not clear the message light/waiting status as it would if they used the WRKMSG command from a 5250 telnet session.

We also allow users to open multiple 5250 sessions within our GUI, and when one of them causes the message light/waiting state to switch to ON, we want to display a notification, and when the user has checked their new message, we want to clear the message light/waiting status to OFF, but there is no way to do this in JTOpen.


Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Sep 29, 2020

    While I agree this would be nice to have, building on top of the existing message waiting light support is not the way to accomplish this, and it would require a total rewrite of the function. The message waiting light doesn't work well even with multiple 5250 displays. Only the first job that gets the lock on the message queue gets a message waiting light. If you sign onto a second display, it does not show the message waiting light. The second job can do something to cause the light to turn on for the job that has the msgq locked. But a DSPMSG from the second job won't clear the message waiting light. It must have been designed for a dumb head with only one display, because it changes the message queue to hold (to drop the lock) when it does a system request to a second signon with the same device.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jun 25, 2020

    Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
    Brand - Servers and Systems Software
    Product family - Power Systems
    Product - IBM i
    Component - Work Management and Messaging
    Operating system - IBM i
    Source - Client

    For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
    Brand - Servers and Systems Software
    Product family - Power Systems
    Product - IBM i
    Component - Application Development
    Operating system - IBM i
    Source - Client

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Feb 25, 2020

    The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a “nice to have” low priority feature. This is definitely nice-to-have function for the subset of clients who use JTOpen.

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community, and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    For more details about CAAC's role with RFEs, see http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/i-Can/May-2017/COMMON-Americas-Advisory-Council-%28CAAC%29-and-RFEs/

    Nancy Uthke-Schmucki - CAAC Program Manager

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