IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Server (HATS)

Tutorial Module 4

Customizing HATS applications - Creating a Macro

Abstract

This tutorial is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to customize HATS applications. The tutorial is in the form of a lab exercise to a live publicly available host application. This module will cover some of the possible customization steps and how to apply different actions based upon recognized screen events. This will demonstrate the rules based engine that is part of HATS and how macros can be executed by user initiation and automatically upon screen recognition.

Assumptions / Requirements

It is assumed that the user has already installed WebSphere Studio 4.03 and the HATS Studio software on a supported platform. The platform requirements were covered in the HATS Tutorial - Module 1.

It is also assumed that a network connection can be made to the publicly accessible IBM Demonstration iSeries host at:

Host name: iseriesd.dfw.ibm.com, port: 23, type: 5250

Connectivity to this host can be tested by using any TN5250 emulator configured for the settings above. A WebSphere application server that meets the requirements for HATS needs to be available if you want to deploy the HATS application to a production WebSphere server. It is assumed that you are already familiar with the WebSphere application server console.

This tutorial assumes that you have completed Module 3 and it works properly, since this tutorial reuses that application.

Topics covered on this tutorial

HATS Macro Recorder

This section will introduce you to the HATS macro recorder. You will customize the OS_400_Main_ Menu screen of the OS/400 application so that the a button will appear to access the BOATS application. This exercise reuses the application in HATS Module 3.

1. With the project highlighted in the HATS Project View, right click and select Open Terminal from the list. This will open the terminal window. You will now need to enter a userid and password . In the terminal window type in user: user4boats password: password and press the enter key.

2. The next screen should be the OS/400 Main Menu screen or could possibly be a display messages screen. If the display messages screen appears, press the enter key and the OS/400 Main Menu screen should appear.

3. The OS/400 Main Menu screen is where we will begin the Record Macro feature of HATS.

4. From the HATS terminal click on the Record Macro icon from the toolbar .
5. In the "Record a macro dialog, give it the name boats, description View Boats, and press the Finish button.

6. Type boats at the ==> prompt in the terminal and press the ENTER key.

7. At the AS/400 WSG Boat Demo menu on the terminal, press Enter. Now you will be at the first screen of a list of boats.

8. Press the Stop Macro button on the toolbar 
9. Go to the HATS perspective (using the  icon on the left), expand the Transformations folder, and open the previously customized transformation, OS_400_Main_ Menu.jsp by double clicking on it.

10. From the HATS toolbar, press the dropdown button next to the Insert Host Component toolbar and select the menu item "Insert Macro Key...".
11. In the "Insert Macro Key" popup menu, check the box next to the boats macro, and press the O.K. button.

12. Press Ctrl+S to save OS_400_Main_ Menu.jsp.

13. Select the Server Perspective by clicking on the icon on the left "Open Perspective" bar.
14. Select the "Servers" tab at the bottom of the screen.

15. Select the WebSphere v4.0 Test Environment server (the only one) and press the Restart icon on the titlebar of the Servers window.
16. Wait for the text "Server Default Server open for e-business" to appear in the Console window.

17. If there is a Web Browser window open, close it.

18. Right click on the HATS project you created in the navigator window and click on the choice "Run on Server"

19. When the main menu screen appears, enter USER4BOATS for the User, password for the password, and press Enter.

20. If the main menu screen doesn't appear, press Enter.

21. See the modified screen with the new "View Boats" button. This demonstrates the ability to have a macro run when a macro button is on the page.

Let the macro execute automatically.

1. Go to the HATS perspective (using the  icon on the left), expand the Screen Customizations folder, and open the OS_400_Main_ Menu screen customization by double clicking on it.

2. Click on the Actions tab in the editor window of the OS_400_Main_ Menu screen customization.

3. Click on the "Apply a transformation" item in the actions list, and press the Remove button.

4. Select the checkbox next to the Play a macro

5. Select the dropdown next to Play a macro, and ensure boats is selected.

6. Save the OS_400_Main_ Menu screen customization by pressing Ctrl+S or seleting File->Save OS_400_Main_ Menu.evnt.

7. Restart the server and test

Conclusion