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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories IBM i Access Family
Created by Guest
Created on Jan 7, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

Add Macro functionality to iaccess 11.0.8

On iAccess 6.0 for windows (e.g.IBM System iAccess for Windows R610 SI29455), it was possible to use easy Macros/Scripts. These were textfiles starting with "Description=" in the first line, than line by line telling the machine what to do.

For example:
Description=
"123456
[enter]
[pf1]
"04
"Pencils
"2,22
[enter]
[tab field]
"Y
[enter]
[pf3]
...

for 123456 is an imaginized order number and this adds the first position. As we receive many orders as csv or excel file, it was kind of easy to create these scripts even for orders with many hundred lines.

But using the iaccess client Emulator on macOS, it won't accept this scripts anymore, and trying to create a new one the recommended way using HAScript causes much more effort (and to tell the truth, my first attempts were not really successful).

Some of our scripts run over 20 rows each position and in some this scipts could extend the max. macro lenght so we had to set checkMacroSize to no.
it would be very much work to translate them, even if this is possible. Any suggestions why the simple scripts are not running anymore and wether to cope with them?

Idea priority Low
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jan 7, 2025
    Thank you for submitting your Idea to enhance IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS). The macro engines between the two products are very different and therefore not compatible. The macro engine in IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) is based on the IBM Host On-Demand (HOD) emulator. The macro engine in IBM i Access for Windows is based on the IBM Personal Communications Emulator which only runs on Windows. We do provide a macro converter that is capable of converting keystrokes from the legacy Windows product. However, it is currently only available from the 5250 Session Manager at Tools-->Convert Macro? when running ACS on Windows. If you would like that option available when running ACS on Mac OS/X, please indicate that. However, it sounds like you would prefer to manually create your own macros based on data you get from a csv file. If you have not already, you could try creating a new macro on ACS with a sample set of recorded keystrokes that navigates through the various 5250 screens. Use that macro as the framework for other macros you want to manually create. However, the ACS macro engine does screen verification so if manually changing the macro causes a mismatch in the screen attributes when the macro is played, it likely will not work. This may be the issue you are experiencing. As an alternative, you may want to investigate writing a program that reads the csv file and makes the appropriate updates independent of using a screen driven macro. Since the existing macro engine will not be modified to interpret the legacy Windows macros, this Idea is being declined. As another option to consider, you could also purchase a license for IBM Personal Communications. Then your existing process and format for manually creating macros will continue to work.

    IBM Power Systems Development

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