Using Extended Field Attributes

Fields on 5250 host screens can be marked with specific "check" keywords. Check keywords allow the host application to tell the emulator how certain fields need to react to specific key presses (this key is normally "field exit"). For example, when a field is marked as "auto enter", once a user supplies X number of characters into the field (X being the size of the field), the emulator automatically submits the page back to the host application for processing.

The following 5250 check keywords are supported:

Validity checking:
- AB (allow blanks)
- ME (mandatory entry), generated text boxes marked with "entryRequired" attribute
- MF (mandatory fill), generated text boxes marked with "fillRequired" attribute
- MOD10 (IBM modulus 10 check), generated text boxes marked with "mod10" attribute
- MOD11 (IBM modulus 11 check), generated text boxes marked with "mod11" attribute.
Keyboard control:
- RB (right fill with blanks), text in field is right-filled with blanks when user leaves the field
- RZ (right fill with zeros), text in field is right-filled with zeros when user leaves the field
- ER (auto enter on field completion), form is automatically submitted (back to the ZIETrans server) when the field is filled
- LC (allow lowercase characters), lowercase characters are not converted to upper case (if enabled)
- FE (field exit required), user is required to press a field exit key to leave the field.
A field on a host screen can also be marked to allow only a certain type of input. For example, the user name and password field on a typical IBM® i Sign On screen allows only uppercase letters and digits. With this information available, ZIETrans can generate text boxes which, on the client, restrict key presses based on the field type. For example, if a host screen field is marked as "numeric only", only numerals (and other numeric support characters) will be allowed to be entered into the generated text box. This will reduce the chance of the screen becoming locked or being returned to the user with a message they may have never seen before (since most emulators restrict input).
Input restrictions:
- X (alphabetic only, lowercase are converted into uppercase)
- A (alphanumeric shift, everything permitted)
- S (signed numeric, requires field exit)
- N (numeric shift; 0-9, user must press field+,-,exit)
- Y (numeric only, 0-9, plus, minus, period, comma, space)
- D (digits only, 0-9, field minus not allowed).

By default, support for all of these field attributes is enabled. To disable client-side numeric value formatting, follow these steps to edit your project settings file:

In the ZIETrans Projects view, open the project you want to update.
Double-click Project Settings.
Click the Project Settings Source tab.

For Web applications, in the following class names, add or change the enableCheckAttributes setting to:

<setting name="enableCheckAttributes" value="false"/>

com.ibm.hats.transform.widgets.FieldWidget
com.ibm.hats.transform.widgets.CalendarWidget
com.ibm.hats.transform.widgets.InputWidget
com.ibm.hats.transform.widgets.PopupWidget
com.ibm.hats.transform.widgets.TableWidget

By disabling this setting, the user loses support for the following attribute checking:

AB (allow blanks)
RB (right fill with blanks)
RZ (right fill with zeros)
ER (auto enter on field completion)
LC (allow lowercase characters)

You can also add these settings manually to any component in your transformations.

For Web applications add the following settings to the component:

<ZIETrans:Component ... widgetSettings="enableCheckAttributes:false|
enableInputRestrictions:false"/>

Note: To use the "auto enter" feature, the auto advance feature must be enabled; see below for more information.

For more information about extended field attributes, refer to Component and widget descriptions and settings and Creating custom components and widgets.