Recording a navigation
To record a navigation, follow the steps below.
1. On the HFLIClass1.hfxml toolbar click (see the diagram below) on the Start/Stop button to start recording a navigation session. The navigation root is added to the navigation tree. Select this root to view its properties in the Property Grid. Set the Begin Action and the End Action to Connect and Disconnect respectively.
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2. On the toolbar click on the Connect button. The Connection Settings dialog box appears. In the Settings dialog box set the values (or make sure they already are) as follows:
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Provide relevant information for the following parameters in the Connection Settings window:
a. In the Connection type section, select either HTTP and TCP/IP as your connection type.
b. In the HTTP Port field, select the port of the Web site where the virtual folders of HostFront Server cluster are running if the Connection Types is HTTP. If you are using a secure site with HTTPs, then select the SSL check box and modify the port number to reflect the one configured on the Web server.
c. In the TCP/IP port field, enter the persistent port you are using on your HostFront Server cluster here if you are using persistent connections during the definition of the navigation.
d. In the Cluster Service field, select this check box to make the Pool Manager service work with the HostFront Server 5.0. If this parameter is not selected, the Pool Manager service will use the connection methods of Versio 3.5.x specifically.
e. In the Cluster port field, if you are using the Cluster Service, enter the port of the cluster service as defined on the Cluster Properties of the HostFront Server.
f. In the Pool Name field, enter a name for this pool.
g. In the Pool Address field, enter an address for this pool.
h. In the Pool Channel Port field, enter the port on which the pool service will listen.
i. In the Emulation field, select the emulation you want to use with this pool.
j. In the Server address field, enter the address of the HostFront cluster entry point.
k. In the HostFront Identification section:
•  In the Account field, enter the user name of the HostFront account that will be used to authenticate the pool sessions to the HostFront server. Ensure that this user has the correct sessions assigned to it.
•  In the Password field, enter the password for the above account.
l. Click the Proxy button if you need to get the settings required to connect to HostFront server through a proxy server.
m. Enter the values needed to allow your connection through the proxy server, and click OK to close both dialogs.
3. Click on the Recording button and the Navigation node appears.
4. Click on the Connect button and the screen on the host server appears. In the example below the Pool Manager is connecting to the system sign-on screen on the AS400 server.
Navigate as a normal operator would do using the terminal emulator. Notice that a PutField node is added to the navigation tree for each field that you type in the green screen. If you pushed a key to go the next screen then a PushKey node is added for this key and a new screen node is added to the navigation as well. Navigate through the screens until you reach the last screen where you want your pool to "park".
5. Click Recording Start/Stop to end recording.
6. Click File → Save to save the navigation. Your navigation is now recorded and saved and ready to be used by the Pool Manager service.
The HFLI connects to the Server and receives the first screen. This screen is displayed in the emulation window and, if we are still in recording mode (the Start/Stop a navigation recording toolbar button shows as pressed), a node is added to the navigation tree. Each screen in the navigation will be represented by a node in the tree. This Screen Node defines the screen uniquely and holds all the persistent data related to that screen (Its name, definition, inputs, outputs...).
Note that by default, the name of the screen is determined according to the following mechanism:
•  If field is found at positions 1,2.
•  If no field is found at position 1,2, the 1st read-only field starting from the right (in the first row) is taken.
•  If none of the above was found, the name remains empty and must be set by the developer to certain unique information in the screen.
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7. Select the screen node from the navigation tree to view its properties in the property grid. Locate the Definition property and click on the ellipsis next to it. This will display the condition editor to help you define this screen. Defining a screen means choosing as many features on this screen as necessary to make it uniquely identifiable among all the screens of this navigation. Defining a screen is crucial both at design time and run time of the resulting code (HFClass) to make them able to decide if they are on the expected track or not. The default definition of a screen is its Title which is, in most cases, enough and you need not add any other features unless there are other screens that have the same title in this navigation. After defining the screen, close the condition editor.
8. Expand the screen node to view its sub items.
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9. Select each one of the newly added nodes to view their properties in the property grid.
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10. While still in recording mode, proceed through the screens in the emulator until you reach the screen from which you need to collect output.
11. When on the Output screen, press Ctrl and drag the field you want to have as an output to the Output Params node of the corresponding screen.
The above process will generate a public string "Output" member on the HFNavigationResult class. If the dragged field has a title next to it, the string will be named after that title. If it does not have a title, the string will then be named Output_i where 'i' increases with every output.
As shown below, you can also get an output as a complete row or part of it (a sub string). To do so, right click on the screen node and select Insert Item then select Get Row.
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This above action will insert a new node under the Output Params node with a yellow left arrow to differentiate it from the Get Field output parameter. After inserting the Get Row output parameter, select it and modify the properties to set the row, start column, end column and name of the output.
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12. You can now navigate back out of the application and logoff from the host system. All of the above-mentioned actions are recorded as navigation nodes.
13. You now have a complete Navigation that contains all the screens from the first screen to the one that has your output results and back to proper logoff. You can now define the output code required, be it a Web service or Class. To do that, click on the Class/Web Service button on the tool bar and select the option you need. This sample uses the C# Class option.
14. Click File → Save to save the navigation. Notice that another file HFClass.cs (or HFClass.vb or HFClass.asmx depending on the application language and the selected code type) is created and added to your project.
Tip
If you need to get all the fields in a screen as input (or output) parameters, when you are connected to that screen and recording is active, right click on the Input Params (or Output Params) node and select Get All Fields. This will get all the fields in the screen to the selected node.
Related Links
Create a new HFLI project (Parent Topic)