Default rendering

Default rendering is responsible for transforming host screens that have not been individually transformed. The selected default rendering set attempts to preserve the original host screen structure while extending the functionality of the application by applying GUI design principles. That is, it does more than render host screen non-protected fields as GUI input fields; it can transform function keys into buttons or links, selection lists into drop-downs, and tabular regions into tables.

Note:
  1. When you create an individual transformation for a host screen, you can prepopulate it with default rendering. For more information, see Create a Transformation wizard.
  2. You can also later insert default rendering into a transformation. For more information, see Insert Default Rendering.

A rendering set is configured by creating a prioritized list of rendering items. Each rendering item defines a specific region in which a specified host component is recognized and then rendered using a specified widget. For example, you can look for function keys in the bottom region of the host screen and then render them as links.

You can create more than one rendering set for your default transformation. If you create additional rendering sets, only one will be used in the default transformation. To create a new set, click the Add button to open the Add Rendering Sets window. Specify a unique Name and Description (optional) for your new rendering set.

If you want the new rendering set as the default, select the Use this rendering set for default rendering check box.

A rendering set can either be blank (no rendering items defined) by selecting the Create empty rendering set button or you can select a set from the Copy new rendering set from existing set pull-down menu. Rendering sets can also be modified or deleted by selecting the Edit or Remove buttons beside your list.

The following list of rendering items are defined as part of the default rendering set:

  • Dialogs
  • ENPTUI windows
  • Subfiles
  • ENPTUI menu bars
  • ENPTUI actions
  • ENPTUI single selections
  • ENPTUI multiple selections
  • ENPTUI scrollbars
  • Light pen - attention
  • Light pen - selection
  • Selection lists
  • Function keys
  • Field tables
  • Visual tables
  • URLs
  • Remaining text and input fields
Note:
  1. ENPTUI rendering items appear only if you are using a 5250 or 5250W host and only if ENPTUI support was enabled by selecting the Add graphical interface DDS keywords (ENPTUI) rendering support check box during the initial creation of the ZIETrans project.
  2. Light pen rendering items appear only if you are using a 3270 or 3270E host and only if light pen support was enabled by selecting the Add light pen rendering support check box during the initial creation of the ZIETrans project.

You can add a new rendering item to the selected rendering set for all screens in this project as well as edit or remove existing rendering items by selecting the item to be edited or removed and select the appropriate button to the right of the table.

If you select the Add or Edit buttons, enter a name and description for your rendering item. Next, define the screen region in which your rendering item is applied and then designate the host component to use for recognition and the widget to use for rendering. You can also change the order in which the rendering items are applied, select an item in the list and click the Up or Down buttons to move it towards the top or bottom of the list. Refer to the Insert Host Component or Edit Host Component (Web-only) for more details on the last two panels of the wizard.
Note:
  1. The dialog component is a special component used in rendering to recognize modal frames (pop-up frames) on the host screen and render them. However, you can not use the dialog component to insert modal frame host components into individual transformations.

The list of rendering items that make up the rendering set is an ordered list. The ordering of the list matters because each rendering item may consume a part of the host screen that another item further down the list may have recognized as well. The higher the rendering item on the list, the higher the priority. The check box next to each rendering item is used to enable or disable the selection.

Components do not always consume the entire region you specify. Suppose you have configured the selection list component to look for selection lists on the entire screen, but only one list was found in the middle of the screen. Only the region in the middle of the host screen will be marked as "consumed". Any remaining "unconsumed" regions of the host screen can still be transformed by lower priority rendering items.

Care should be taken when using the Table component in a default rendering set because the Table component will recognize almost every screen in the selected region, and no rendering items lower in the list will be recognized.

The final rendering item in the default list, Remaining text and input fields, will transform all remaining "unconsumed" screen regions using the Field component and Field widget. This item should be the last item in a rendering set.

In general, the default rendering set attempts to preserve the original host screen structure while extending the functionality of the application by applying GUI design principles. However, to allow default rendering of host screens to be displayed on mobile devices, a certain amount of compacting may be necessary. With compacting, the amount of HTML and blank space is reduced which may possibly display a different structure of the original host screen. To specify that the currently selected rendering set use compacting, select Use compact rendering (Web-only).
Note: For Web projects optimized for mobile devices, a rendering set, named compact, is created as the default with this setting selected.
Parent topic: Rendering