There are specific considerations in the iSeriesC environment
when you use Text UI forms.
On 5250 workstation devices, the limitations of a form are based
on the minimum control unit capability. EGL issues a warning if you
generate a form that exceeds the capability of a minimum control unit.
Forms displayed on 5250 devices
The following
compatibility considerations apply for forms displayed on devices,
including double-byte character set (DBCS) devices, in the 5250 workstation
family.
- Row 1 column 1 on the screen cannot contain data. It must be blank
or contain a field attribute byte. Forms generated for the 5250 workstation
cannot use row 1 column 1 as part of an input field.
- The number of variable fields allowed on the screen varies with
the control unit to which the display device is attached. The limitation
is a maximum of 256 input fields for 5250 control units.
- The device sizes in the following list are recommended for the
iSeriesC environment. Other device sizes that are 27 x 132 characters
or smaller are compatible. The device size that best fits the physical
device is used. When you define a form group for the iSeriesC environment,
include the appropriate choices from the following list:
- 24 x 80
- 27 x 132
- 255 x 132 (for single-byte printer forms)
- 255 x 158 (for double-byte printer forms)
Forms containing DBCS fields
The following
considerations apply to forms that contain DBCHAR fields:
- IBM® i DBCS
workstations do not display double-byte characters that start in column
80. Instead, they display a single-byte X in column 80 and in column
1 of the next line. To avoid this effect, do not define double-byte
fields that span lines.
- When field outlining is specified for a field on a form, no data
other than blanks can be displayed in the first 3 bytes of the form
(row 1 columns 1 through 3). In addition, row 1 column 4 can only
be a blank or an attribute byte.
5250 family keyboard considerations
The
following table shows the mapping used for 5250 workstation keys when
an EGL Text UI program runs. All other keys (cursor movement, Enter,
and Reset) have the same effect as in System/370 environments.
Table 1. EGL functions on iSeries 5250
workstation| iSeries® 5250
workstation key |
EGL function |
| Help (operator error mode) |
Displays Help for form |
| Help (not operator error mode) |
Displays ‘Help Not Available' |
| Print |
Prints screen to local printer |
| Attn |
Trace function or active attention
handler |
| Clear |
Clears screen |
| Rec Backspace |
Clears screen |
| Field Exit (Newline with Erase EOF) |
Sets modified data tag (MDT) |
| Roll Up or Page Down1 |
EGL PA1 definition |
| Roll Down or Page Up1 |
EGL PA2 definition |
| F1 through F12 |
EGL PF1 through PF12 |
| F13 through F24 |
EGL PF13 through PF24 |
| 1. You can reverse
the meaning of the roll keys in your online user profile. If you do
reverse the meaning of the roll keys, then Roll Down becomes Page
Down, and Roll Up becomes Page Up, which is the opposite of the entries
in the table. |
Print forms and spooled output
When you
generate, you can specify a resource association part with a resource
association entry for printer to control
whether print forms are to be written to a sequential (seq)
file or to a spool file. If you associate
the printer with the spool file type, the
EGL printer file QVGNPRNF formats the output for EGL print forms.
The default QVGNPRNF file that is shipped with IBM Rational® EGL Server for IBM i specifies
the following characteristics:
- Length
- Lines per page is 66
- Width
- Positions per line is 132
- Control character
- *FCFC
For more information on the resource associations
part and its contents, see Resource associations part.