Purpose

z/OS User Exits › z/OS Blockmode User Exits—CICS › TIRHELPX—Help Interface Exit › Purpose

Purpose

The Dialog Manager invokes the Help exit whenever a command equals HELP or PROMPT (or a synonym translates to HELP or PROMPT).

TIRHELPX handles these commands as shown in the following table:

Condition	Screen Message
HELP command issued while the cursor is not on a field	No help available for this screen
HELP command issued while the cursor is on a field	No help available for this field
PROMPT command issued while the cursor is not on an enterable field	Prompt is valid only for enterable fields
PROMPT command issued while the cursor is on an enterable field	No Prompt data available for this field

CA Gen provided code, to invoke the application help system, is included in this module as comments. The comments may be uncommented and used as an example of how to invoke a user-supplied help system.

By customizing TIRHELPX, you can access a help system that is:

A user-written system
An application developed using CA Gen, with the features of unformatted input and PAD NEXT TRAN providing flows
A third-party help system

Direct use of the Central Encyclopedia as tables for a help system is not supported. However, data needed for the tables of a help system could be extracted using the Public Interface.

CA Gen supports invocation of a help system for both screen and field levels. In addition, you can restart the original application with field data from the help system.