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Primary Option Menus

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Scott T. Harder

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Jan 5, 2010, 2:15:51 AM1/5/10
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Hi All,

What is the "proper" way to handle, in DTL, the selection of an item off a Primary Option Menu? I created one and put <PS> properties to it, so that when a user "points and shoots", the selection # is displayed in the cmdarea, so all they need to do is hit enter. In this manner, what is returned to the program is the selection number of the option. However, the programmer on this project wants the name of selection instead. For example, given the following:

0. Settings
1. Browse
2. Edit
....

If the user enters "2" or points and shoots to "Edit", the programmer wants a variable (currently zcmd, as with all primary option menus) set to "edit". What is the proper way to do this via DTL? I'm not seeing it with the tags involved in a Primary Option Menu.

Also... and I'll post the actual code on this in the AM... don't have it at my disposal right now... my DTL seems to be generating panel code that is a waste (or, at least doesn't make sense to me) that does variable assignments associated with the <CHOICE> and <PS> tags I have coded here. It has to do with the setting of the NAME on <CHOICE>; as well as MATCH on <PS>; but the problem is that the assignments don't make sense. Again... will post DTL and panel language generated tomorrow AM.

Thanks!
Scott T. Harder

Baldon, David

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Jan 5, 2010, 7:41:01 AM1/5/10
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The proper behavior would be to go directly to the selection when the user P&S's. Displaying the selection number in the command area and requiring the user to then press enter isn't standard and defeats the purpose of P&S. Think of how the primary ISPF menu (ISR@PRIM) works.

What you're looking for is the <action> element that goes after the <ps> element. The <action> element defines the action that is to occur when the user P&S's. If you haven't already check out the DTL source that ships with ISPF. It is in libraries named ISP.SISPGENU and ISP.SISPGMLI (names may be different at your site). There many good examples there though they can be a little difficult to follow at first. The SISPGMLI is the "include" library for common DTL shared among panels.

...David

Scott T. Harder

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Jan 5, 2010, 6:17:06 PM1/5/10
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Hi David and All,

Yup... I saw that and analyzed the ISPF Primary Options Menu to mimic it's
behavior. The difference here is that the programmer/designer wants
immediate return to the driving exec (no action from the panel itself, other
than to collect and display information) and wants a textual indication of
what was selected. I thought, from the doc, that I could do that without
<action setvar=xxxxx> but I did, indeed, end up using it.

Thanks to everyone for your help. The option to HIDE a selection was
particularly interesting; since I was going to create commands to allow the
user to type in the first word of the P&S prompt text for that sort of
thing. Now, I don't think I have to do that.
===========================================================
If I can, I have a new question:

I will have a need, very soon, to carve up the space on a screen pretty
well; meaning I will be using all the space available to me. The intent
will be to add a dashboard, of sorts, to every panel in the application. If
I could add a user-defined window to the Status Area and just have the user
display the Status Area to see this information, that is what I would do,
but I'm assuming I'll need to carve up the existing panel space using
<region> and/or <area> tags. Are there any rules to hang your hat on when
space is in short demand (when is it not?) or when you are creating numerous
sections to a panel? I'm essentially looking for "been there - done that"
sort of experiences that might keep me out of trouble and save me some time.
I very much appreciate any input that anyone might have.

Take care,

Scott T. Harder

Scott T. Harder

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Jan 5, 2010, 11:18:02 PM1/5/10
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Hi All,

It was suggested to me, quite rightly, that I should re-post this under it's
own Subject line. I had previously buried it in another post. My
apologies.

Here you go. ;-)

Scott T. Harder
==================================================================================================

Dave Salt

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Jan 5, 2010, 11:50:24 PM1/5/10
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Does the dashboard contain information the user needs to constantly see, or is it something they might only need to see once in a while? What I'm thinking is that rather than 'waste' space on every panel, it might be better to have a command (e.g. 'DASH') that can be entered on any command line whenever the user needs to see the dashboard. This could display a pop-up panel containing the information the user needs to see.

Another alternative would be to put the word DASH on every panel, e.g. somewhere near the command line or off in a corner somewhere. This could be a point-and-shoot field that the user would click whenever they need to see the pop-up dashboard.

A third suggestion is to have a small area (e.g. a single line) that displays the most important dashboard information. This line could be scrolled left or right to display other dashboard information, if and when a user needs to see it.

You said that screen space is short, and in my experience it usually only gets worse as new, unforeseen demands require additional fields to be added to panels at some point in the future. This is why I've made these suggestions, because even if you can somehow fit the entire dashboard on every panel, you might want to reconsider doing this in order to leave yourself some wiggle room for future growth.

HTH,

Dave Salt

SimpList(tm) - try it; you'll get it!

http://www.mackinney.com/products/program-development/simplist.html


> Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 23:17:15 -0500
> From: scottyt...@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Dashboard?
> To: ISP...@LISTSERV.ND.EDU

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Scott T. Harder

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Jan 6, 2010, 1:15:37 AM1/6/10
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Dave,

I like the command idea; because every panel is different, so otherwise the
location of the dashboard will be different on every panel (ugh!). So....
idea well taken.

Thanks!
Scott T. Harder

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Salt" <ds...@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <ISP...@LISTSERV.ND.EDU>

HTH,

Dave Salt

http://www.mackinney.com/products/program-development/simplist.html

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9691818=

Don Leahy

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Jan 6, 2010, 8:02:05 AM1/6/10
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If space is at a premium, another thing to consider, if you haven't already,
is to make all of the panels scrollable. It's easy to do and opens up a lot
of design possibilities.

Baldon, David

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Jan 6, 2010, 10:15:12 AM1/6/10
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Using an action bar is a good way to make something available on each panel. Since you're doing this in DTL you can place the code for the action bar in a separate file and simply include it for each panel definition. I know not everyone likes action bars but they are a very useful aspect of a user interface.

...David

-----Original Message-----
From: ISPF discussion list [mailto:ISP...@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Scott T. Harder

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