The Macro Utility Libraries (HML libraries)

The Host On-Demand Macro Utility Libraries (HML libraries) are utility libraries that are packaged with the HCL ZIETrans code. You can invoke a method from one of these libraries without:
  • Importing the underlying class; or
  • Creating a variable to contain an instance of the class; or
  • Creating an instance of the class.
In fact, you are not allowed to import a class contained in an HML Java™ library, or to create a variable belonging to an HML class, or to create an instance of an HML object.
The reason is that the macro runtime, during the initializing that goes on when macro playback is started:
  • Imports all the HML classes.
  • Creates one variable for each HML class to contain an instance of the class.
  • Creates one instance of each HML class and stores it in the appropriate variable.
The following table shows for each HML variable the variable name and the types of methods in the underlying class.
Table 1. HML variables
HML variable: Description of methods:
$HMLFormatUtil$ Methods for formatting strings.
$HMLPSUtil$ Methods that access the presentation space of the session window.
$HMLSessionUtil$ Methods that return session values.
$HMLSQLUtil$ Methods that return information about the results of the most recent SQLQuery action.