Considerations for EGL form definition and runtime behavior for iSeriesC

There are specific considerations in the iSeriesC environment when you use Text UI forms.

On 5250 workstation devices, the limitations of a form are based on the minimum control unit capability. EGL issues a warning if you generate a form that exceeds the capability of a minimum control unit.

Forms displayed on 5250 devices

The following compatibility considerations apply for forms displayed on devices, including double-byte character set (DBCS) devices, in the 5250 workstation family.
  • Row 1 column 1 on the screen cannot contain data. It must be blank or contain a field attribute byte. Forms generated for the 5250 workstation cannot use row 1 column 1 as part of an input field.
  • The number of variable fields allowed on the screen varies with the control unit to which the display device is attached. The limitation is a maximum of 256 input fields for 5250 control units.
  • The device sizes in the following list are recommended for the iSeriesC environment. Other device sizes that are 27 x 132 characters or smaller are compatible. The device size that best fits the physical device is used. When you define a form group for the iSeriesC environment, include the appropriate choices from the following list:
    • 24 x 80
    • 27 x 132
    • 255 x 132 (for single-byte printer forms)
    • 255 x 158 (for double-byte printer forms)

Forms containing DBCS fields

The following considerations apply to forms that contain DBCHAR fields:
  • IBM® i DBCS workstations do not display double-byte characters that start in column 80. Instead, they display a single-byte X in column 80 and in column 1 of the next line. To avoid this effect, do not define double-byte fields that span lines.
  • When field outlining is specified for a field on a form, no data other than blanks can be displayed in the first 3 bytes of the form (row 1 columns 1 through 3). In addition, row 1 column 4 can only be a blank or an attribute byte.

5250 family keyboard considerations

The following table shows the mapping used for 5250 workstation keys when an EGL Text UI program runs. All other keys (cursor movement, Enter, and Reset) have the same effect as in System/370 environments.

Table 1. EGL functions on iSeries® 5250 workstation
iSeries® 5250 workstation key EGL function
Help (operator error mode) Displays Help for form
Help (not operator error mode) Displays Help Not Available'
Print Prints screen to local printer
Attn Trace function or active attention handler
Clear Clears screen
Rec Backspace Clears screen
Field Exit (Newline with Erase EOF) Sets modified data tag (MDT)
Roll Up or Page Down1 EGL PA1 definition
Roll Down or Page Up1 EGL PA2 definition
F1 through F12 EGL PF1 through PF12
F13 through F24 EGL PF13 through PF24
1. You can reverse the meaning of the roll keys in your online user profile. If you do reverse the meaning of the roll keys, then Roll Down becomes Page Down, and Roll Up becomes Page Up, which is the opposite of the entries in the table.

Print forms and spooled output

When you generate, you can specify a resource association part with a resource association entry for printer to control whether print forms are to be written to a sequential (seq) file or to a spool file. If you associate the printer with the spool file type, the EGL printer file QVGNPRNF formats the output for EGL print forms. The default QVGNPRNF file that is shipped with IBM® Rational® EGL Server for IBM® i specifies the following characteristics:

Length
Lines per page is 66
Width
Positions per line is 132
Control character
*FCFC

For more information on the resource associations part and its contents, see Resource associations part.