Web Settings considerations

Web settings may affect the behavior of your Web application (not the 5250 application). A field's position, size, and visibility in the Web browser may be changed through Web settings. These changes can affect how a field overlaps other fields, and the visibility of fields. Changing a field's position and size can also increase the size of the record, which may affect visibility of records in a Web browser. Be sure you are aware of these potential risks when using Web settings.

To determine the visibility of fields and records in a browser, WebFacing will first make any changes to position, size, and visibility of fields by using Web settings. The visibility of fields and records will then be determined using the same rules that are outlined in the DDS Manual and the Application Display Programming Guide. For more information on the visibility of overlapping fields, see Keywords for Display Files > Positional Entries > Location in the DDS Manual. For more information the visibility of overlapping records, see Keywords for Display Files > OVERLAY in the DDS manual and Writing Output to the Display in the Application Display Programming Guide.

Visibility > Hide field

When a field is hidden using Web settings, it may no longer overlap other fields, and the visibility of fields in the browser may be affected.

Example A: FIELDA overlaps FIELDB, as specified in the DDS source. On the 5250 screen, FIELDB is not visible. If FIELDA is hidden using Web settings, it will not overlap FIELDB in the browser and now will be visible.

Location > Change span, Change position

These Web settings will change the screen area occupied by a field when displayed in a browser. This may cause a field to overlap other fields. It may also cause a field to no longer overlap fields that it previously overlapped. In either case, the visibility of fields in a browser may be affected.

Example B: As specified in the DDS source, FIELDA and FIELDB are two fields that do not overlap. Both fields are visible on the 5250 screen. The Web settings position of FIELDA is set so that FIELDA does overlap FIELDB. In the Web browser, FIELDB is no longer visible.

Modifying the span and position of a field using Web settings may also increase the number of screen rows occupied by the record. This may change how records overlap in a browser and affect the visibility of records.

Example C: In the DDS source, FIELDA is a field occupying row 13 in RECORD1. RECORD1 occupies the screen rows 2 to 15. Another record, RECORD2 occupies rows 16 to 23 on the DDS screen. Both RECORD1 and RECORD2 have the OVERLAY keyword specified. The row of FIELDA is changed to 18 using the position Web Setting. Now, in the Web browser, RECORD1 will occupy rows 2 to 18. The application writes RECORD1, and then writes RECORD2 to the screen. On the 5250, both records would be visible. In the Web browser, RECORD1 will be cleared from the screen, because it is overlapped by RECORD2.

Appearance and Text > Override constant text, Hide characters

Overriding constant text using Web settings may change the length of the text constant. Also, specifying the Hide characters Web Setting may make a text constant shorter. In either case, the overlapping of other fields in a browser may be affected. This may change the visibility of fields in a browser.

Example D: A text constant of length 10 is specified in the DDS. The last 5 characters of the text constant overlap FIELDA. On the 5250, FIELDA is not visible because it is overlapped. The constant text is overridden using Web settings so that the length is 5. In a browser, FIELDA is no longer overlapped by the text constant, so FIELDA becomes visible.

Overriding constant text using Web settings may also increase the number of screen rows occupied by the record. This may change how records overlap in a browser, and affect the visibility of records. The consequences of this can be seen in Example C.

Ignored Web settings
Web settings (particularly overriding text constant and changing span and position) will be ignored if they would cause any of the following to occur in the a browser :
  • A field would be located beyond the screen boundaries.
  • A field that spans more than one row or is located on the last screen row would extend beyond the screen boundaries.
  • A subfile control field would overlap the screen area of the associated subfile.
  • The number of rows occupied by a subfile record would be greater than on the 5250 screen.
  • The width of a horizontal subfile would be greater than on the 5250 screen.
Multiple Web settings of the same type
If more than one Web setting of the same type is specified on a single field, record, or file, the behavior is undefined. In other words, there is no guarantee as to which of those duplicate Web settings will take effect.

Feedback