Allow SND-MSG to send a message to a subfile message file.

Thank you for confirming that SND-MSG can already be used to send a message to a message subfile.

IBM does not intend to provide any change related to this Idea, so it is being closed.

As discussed in the comments for this Idea, the existing function of SND-MSG can already be used to send a message to a messsage subfile by specifying (or defaulting) the type as *INFO and using %TARGET to specify the procedure that opened the display file.

- IBM Power Systems Development

Barbara,

I tested with this a little more, and I think I got it to work as I wanted it to. I had to change it to a *INFO type, and also use %TARGET(program-name) where program-name is the *PROC keyword of the System Data Structure. Once I made that change, it seemed to work how I was envisioning it would.

I guess this can be closed now.

Thank you for your help.

Doug

Hi Doug. What happens if you change the *ESCAPE for the SND-MSG to *INFO? (Or you could also just remove the *ESCAPE, since it defaults to *INFO.)

If you didn't already have %TARGET coded for the *ESCAPE version, you'd also have to code %TARGET(*CALLER) to get the info message sent to your caller. (*INFO defaults to sending the message to the current procedure, while *ESCAPE defaults to sending the message to the caller of the current procedure.)

- Barbara Morris

I did some more research on this and here is what I would need with this Idea.

I made a Proof of Concept using the SND-MSG. It worked as described in the article URL you sent.

Then, I tried it in a program I am working on that was working fine in terms of error message handling when checking the validity of a user entered date. I added the SND-MSG with the parameters I had been using, thinking it would work, but it didn't work as I expected. It did send the message to the subfile. However, the program then crashed, which did not happen before I used SND-MSG.

It looks like that the SND-MSG is sending the message as an *ESCAPE message, but the process that I am using is sending the message as a *DIAG. Once I replaced the message handling with the original *DIAG, it worked as expected and did not crash.

So, for this Idea, I would like to request that the SND-MSG Op-Code also be allowed to work with *DIAG message types.

Thank you,

Doug

Thanks for replying, Doug. I'm glad you were able to get it to work.

The 7.3 manual already has information about the SND-MSG opcode. https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzasd/zzsndmsg.htm. I am also able to find "SND-MSG" in the 7.3 PDF https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/pdf/sc092508.pdf.

Is there a particular place that you were looking in the manual where you didn't find SND-MSG?

- IBM Power Systems Development

I am sorry about that. I read the article and made a test program, and it worked. I am running V7R3 and the support I was describing is there, I was not aware of it. I just looked at the ILE RPG Manual and scanned for SND-MSG and did not find it. Can you use this idea to update the manual instead?

Thank you,

Doug

IBM needs more information to further assess your Idea.

The following IT Jungle article discusses how SND-MSG can be used with message subfiles.
"Guru: The SND-MSG Op Code And Message Subfiles" (https://www.itjungle.com/2022/09/12/guru-the-snd-msg-op-code-and-message-subfiles/)

Could you provide more explanation about what additional support you are requesting for SND-MSG?

- IBM Power Systems Development

Happy enough to see this as a different opcode if it simplifies things rather than extending the functionality of SEND-MSG itself.

You can do this already, see https://www.itjungle.com/2022/09/12/guru-the-snd-msg-op-code-and-message-subfiles/.