John, Yes, that's an alternative, but still a lot more complex (to me anyway) than I need. I don't anticipate capturing user input; since I'm the user, I'll make up the inputs myself. And composing TN370E packets into 3270 screen images is definitely more work than I want to take on. It's certainly doable, but why re-invent the wheel? That's what the HACL beans library will do for me (I am presuming, at this point -- still reading the javadoc for it, slowly absorbing the philosophy and design). Reading out the contents of the Presentation Space is an integral function provided by the library.
And yes, regression testing of code changes is the application, along with "proof of enhancements completed". Being a lazy programmer, I'd rather write a tool once to do the job than to manually take screen prints of 3270 interactions to show that the work was completed as specified for each project. Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 11:56 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: HOD/HACL running on z/OS? <Snipped> If I understand correctly, what you basically want is the ability to capture 3270 screens for later comparison. You would like to do this capture on the z/OS system if at all possible. And the solution needs to be zero, or at least very low, cost. (Do I ever understand that last one!). From other posts, I would guess that you'd also like to capture all the 3270 inputs. The eventual goal is to be able to capture 3270 inputs and outputs so that the inputs could be replayed later and the new outputs compared against the old outputs. (regression testing of code changes?). The following is just "off the top of my head" (like my hair <grin>). You mentioned that you don't want to write a VTAM "capture" type routine due to its complexity. How about a TCP/IP "capture" type routine? I think you'd write something like a "transparent proxy". What your routine would do is LISTEN on a particular IP port. The end-user would connect to this port. Upon connection, your routine would attempt to connect to the normal TN3270E port. Your routine would simple "route" (or "copy") the IP packets between the TN3270E server on the mainframe and the TN3270E client on the other end. You shouldn't need to actually inspect or change them. As it was routing the packets, it could record them to a file on the mainframe (with an indicator as to which direction the packet was flowing). When you wanted to "replay" a session, you would write another program to connect to the TN3270E port on the mainframe, read the previously recorded file, and send that information to the TN3270E server. You could then compare the response from the application to the response recorded in the file. The main problem that I can see is that there are many possible TN3270E sequences which would result in the same 3270 screen display. So I guess the "comparison" would require actually creating a 3270 "buffer" from the file contents and the response, then compare the buffers. This instead of directly comparing the TN3270E data streams, byte for byte. There is still a matter of error recovery or propagation if either socket is abnormally terminated. But I think this is easier to program than the LU error recovery / propagation. I suggest this simply because, to me, this TCPIP program would be easier to code than the equivalent VTAM program. _ This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
