How can I get more data onto a screen

[johnmauro]

My shop has expanded the screen display size to DS*4 (132 x 27). We need to add more fields to the screen due to expansion of the records. Is there anyway to get the screen to scroll and not have to add a second screen.
Thanks for any info you can share,
John

[DeadManWalks]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You could code an indicator to pageup and pagedown keys. Then when one is pressed you would show a second screen (or third.....).

[johnmauro]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You could code an indicator to pageup and pagedown keys. Then when one is pressed you would show a second screen (or third.....).

Thanks for the info.

[tomliotta]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You could also use UIM to display the panels, and scrolling through a large set of fields becomes more similar to scrolling through a longer web page. You display a long page, and UIM handles any scrolling. The panel can have about as many fields as you'll ever imagine you'll need.

[dhanuxp]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You could also use UIM to display the panels, and scrolling through a large set of fields becomes more similar to scrolling through a longer web page. You display a long page, and UIM handles any scrolling. The panel can have about as many fields as you'll ever imagine you'll need.

Tom, where we can see a sample

[johnmauro]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You could also use UIM to display the panels, and scrolling through a large set of fields becomes more similar to scrolling through a longer web page. You display a long page, and UIM handles any scrolling. The panel can have about as many fields as you'll ever imagine you'll need.

Tom,

I have no experience with UIM. Can you direct me to a link with which I could educate myself.
And a simple example would be awesome too.
Thanks for the direction.
John

[johnmauro]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You could also use UIM to display the panels, and scrolling through a large set of fields becomes more similar to scrolling through a longer web page. You display a long page, and UIM handles any scrolling. The panel can have about as many fields as you'll ever imagine you'll need.

I looked this link : http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarge...nu-Options.png
and am not sure if the UIM will ghelp me as I really need to create a User Data entry screen with scrolling capabilities and not a menu.

Thoughts ?


Thanks,
John

[chris_hird]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

UIM is very powerful and yet restrictive at the same time. The problem is UIM is built around an 80 column screen and therefore when you build any list entry it can only be a maximum of 74 characters wide (this includes any spacing between columns!). So when you are building the screen the page you see will always be a maximum of 74 characters wide. This can be overcome by using sideways scrolling against the list, in effect its like having any number of screens in a roll that you page through sideways. I have only ever built them to scroll one way through the pages but maybe you can have a two way scroll using different function keys (F11 is the normal key for sideways paging).

The list is also scrollable top to bottom using page up and page down keys. UIM handles the up and down paging as long as the keys are configured.

UIM also enforces a number of restrictions to ensure if follows a set of rules which DDS allows you to ignore. We only ever use UIM for our screens on 5250, when we used one of the modernization tools to build web based interfaces every screen worked straight out of the box without changes because UIM enforces the rules which ensure all screen content is within accepted guidelines. You can mix UIM and DDS screens in an application if needed.

Chris...

[tomliotta]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

The problem is UIM is built around an 80 column screen and therefore when you build any list entry it can only be a maximum of 74 characters wide (this includes any spacing between columns!)

As I think back, I've never actually needed widths greater than 80, but the UIM specs allow WIDTH=132 on PANEL definitions. Have you seen info that contradicts the specs?

[chris_hird]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

Tom

I have never set the display to use 132 chars, main reason is it gets a bit sickly watching the screen jump from 132 characters to 80 characters as you move through various screens. Also as you point out, with the ability to side scroll the lists why put users through the pain :-). I am more and more moving the interface to other options, 5250 is OK for data entry purposes and in many cases best option, however when you look at data integration and the ability to quickly display status then the graphical route is definitely the best option.

I would probably be looking at why you need more data on the screen rather then trying to squash it all into a single view. Drill down by importance so you get important data up front then allow you to drill down to other less important data.

Chris...

[tomliotta]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

@Chris: No disagreement here. I went ahead and modified a trivial data entry example I have to WIDTH=132, and it worked fine... just to be sure. (It was originally a pop-up window to enter a profile/password combination, but it converted to full-screen, wide-display, easily.) Regardless, it just seems counter-productive to start going the route of converting screens to 27x132. A drill-down with screens being less busy seems far better.

[RBOrrell]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

27 x 132 used to have a big performance hit.

Also, if you try to display a 27 x 132 on a screen that only support 24 x 80 (original 5250 screens or an emulation session that states 24 x 80), it does not work.

[Terry Wincheste]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

You may already know this...but you can check an interactive sessions ability to display 27x132 using these CL commands:


DCL VAR(&DSPSIZ) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(1)

CALLPRC PRC('QsnQryModSup') PARM(('4') (&DSPSIZ) +
(*OMIT) (*OMIT))

IF COND(&DSPSIZ *EQ '0') THEN(DO)
Perform error processing here...
ENDDO

Most of our 27x132 applications automatically send a break message and they trigger an e-mail to our Help Desk system when someone's Client Access session has not been setup properly.

[tomliotta]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

27 x 132 used to have a big performance hit.

Also, if you try to display a 27 x 132 on a screen that only support 24 x 80 (original 5250 screens or an emulation session that states 24 x 80), it does not work.

I suspect that the related performance issues are trivial at most in releases since CISC faded and especially without major twin-ax usage. I haven't seen an impact in enough years to get me to ignore the issue entirely. Perhaps a vast majority of production sites use 27x132-capable emulators (or at least physical devices capable of it) nowadays.

But it's reasonable that various user sessions would be configured as 24x80. A quick change of settings is usually all that's needed.

In this thread, it seems already believed not to be a problem. It seems they've been using 27x132 but now simply want to add a scrolling capability to add even more fields to their current large screens. Maybe it could be clarified.

[kitvb1]

Re: How can I get more data onto a screen

27 x 132 used to have a big performance hit.

Also, if you try to display a 27 x 132 on a screen that only support 24 x 80 (original 5250 screens or an emulation session that states 24 x 80), it does not work.

What you could do to make it work is:

// open dummy size        
 open dum27x132;          
 write dummy1;            
 close dum27x132;         
// open proper size       
 open in017gft;

and reverse the procedure for the close.