Scripting

This chapter describes the scripting processing that has been developed for Web Option.

The purpose of scripting support is:

• To allow users of Web Option to simplify much of the repetitive input that can be a feature of IBM i interactive programs

  For example, many popular emulators (including IBM's Client Access) allow the creation of small 'macros', which are essentially a series of commands, run automatically when the macro is executed. A macro might perform auto-sign-on or might simply run a standard series of commands on an IBM i command line.

• To allow users of Web Option to mimic web-type functionality

  For example, in an internet shopping application, a customer can often move back and forth between sections of the online 'shop', the different departments, their shopping cart, and so on. By contrast, an IBM i interactive application does not normally have this type of functionality. Green-screen applications tend to be linear in style, that is, users move from screen A to screen B to screen C and can only come back to screen A by passing through screen B again.

Scripting support for Web Option allows the same level of functionality as provided by these macro languages. A Web Option script can:

• Perform screen-specific functionality - entering data into input fields
• Save data from one screen to use on another screen
• Loop through screens

A benefit of Web Option scripting is that it is invisible to the user; script processing is handled within the Web Option server itself, without the screen processing functionality being involved. For example, a script that provides a 'fast path' to back out through several levels of a menu does not display the intervening menu screens in the browser window.

Scripts are held as database source file members in file YSCRIPT in the Web Option product library and can be edited using the IBM Source Entry Utility (“SEU”) or any equivalent source editor.

A Web Option scripting language has been developed, which consists of a number of commands, each of which performs specific processing. An individual script can contain one or more commands. A Web Option script is executed when a script-execution button on a generated skeleton is pressed.

This section contains the following topics:

Web Option Script-Execution Button Format

Web Option Scripting Control Values

Support for User Defined Macros (UDM)